Mark Twain once refused to get involved in a debate about Heaven and Hell saying he could not afford to for he had friends in both places.

The traditional view of Hell in Christian theology for most of Catholic and Protestant history has been that it is a state of infinite and eternal damnation for the unsaved soul after death.  To this view I say, “Hell no!”

This view has done some good for the moral instruction of society but in the long run I see it as one hell of a tragedy for the church and the world.  In consigning people to such a hell the church has always mutilated its best potential self.

This horrible Hell has always been disputed to some extent from earliest times by thoughtful people for two reasons.  (1) It is doubtful that the Bible teaches the doctrine of an immortal soul.  The early church fathers took this idea from their beloved Greek philosophy and tried to read it back into the Bible.  They inculcated into the great creeds of the church and we have been copying it ever since.  (2) There are many New Testament passages that seem to contradict the idea of an eternal, torturous Hell.  At the very least they call in question the validity of the traditional interpretation.  I will deal with six of these passages in this column, some this week and the others later.  These passages are also dealt with in Van Harvey’s Theological Dictionary which is wonderful, brief historical reading. 

I Cor. 15:22-29 may be taken as teaching that God’s salvation in Christ is ultimately universal.  All people shall be made alive in Christ (v22).  Just as all humanity in Adam die.  This all seems clearly to mean all here.  There is no qualifying select  group implied.

All things will be put under Christ’s feet (rule) and death shall be abolished.  For these reasons some in the Corinthian church were being baptized for the dead.  There are different interpretations here that have merit.  But one valid one is that they were being baptized for dead loved ones who did not know Jesus because of the hope that they shall be raised up into eternal life.

I Pet 4: 6 says that the gospel has been preached to the dead that they may “live in the spirit according to the will of God.”  This too implies the universal salvation of all people ultimately. 

The Bible overall clearly teaches that it is God’s will that all men be saved.  I believe that the Bible teaches that universal salvation for all shall be brought to pass. 

There are consequencs for wrong behavior.  But according to the love of God, God’s purpose in just punishment is to awaken the lost person to his sin and to God’s saving love and grace that he/she may choose the latter.

Whatever Hell there is, it is in God.  For God is the ground of all being and nothing can exist apart from Him.

I like Scott Peck’s illustration of Hell as a state of the art stainless steel mental hospital and one has to stay there until he gets things right and then he is released  to glorious freedom.  At the very least I affirm that it is right and good for Christians to hope and pray that every lost person shall through rehabilitative punishment in a “far place” “come to his senses” and return home to their Father.

Punishment can and should be very positive in meaning instead of negative as we usually imply.  In Mitch Album’s novel, The First Five People You Meet in Heaven, Ed’s rehabilitative punishment is meeting and talking to five people that he knew on earth.  Ed was rather bitter about the meaning of his life and these five peoples’ converstaions with him awaken him to the true meaning of his life and what his heart’s yearnings were.  Then when he has become self aware he is free to enjoy life in Heaven.  I recommend this as a valid illustration of what much of God’s judgment is like.

C. S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce pictures Hell as a city whose gates are always open.  The residents of Hell can leave anytime they choose to believe in the Light that is outside their city and decide to go there.

Throughout history men such as the great theologian Nicholas Berdyaev and the philosopher Nietzsche strongly attacked the traditional view of Hell as being both horrible and showing the resentment of the church towards those who reject their message.  I agree with their attacks on both accounts. I am a recovering fundamentalist and in my experience those who holler hell the loudest are always people with some deep resentments.  Look at Martin Luther in his resentment of the Jews in His day.  His views were used by the Nazis to promote the Holocaust.

There were theologians in early times like Origen (c. 185-254 C.E.) who argued that Hell was not final or irrevocable but they were squelched and their view rejected.  Both Protestant and Catholic theologians sometimes seem to me to almost enjoy having a sense of power and importance over the lives of men that they can invoke through the fear of Hell.  This is far more worthy of the Devil than of the God of Jesus Christ.

Watch for more on this subject next week.

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