I'm always amused when Nabby or someone else here invokes the spectre of
"going to Hell" as the inevitable or proper punishment for something one
of the people they disagree with is doing, saying, or thinking. The
amusing part for me is not that they're repeating this Hell meme like
mindless dogmabots, but that like mindless dogmabots they've never
really *thought through* the philosophical ramifications of Hell itself.
If it exists, doesn't that mean that God is *into* eternal punishment
and the inevitability of evil, eternally? Doesn't it mean that the
notion of the compassionate God is total bullshit? If He is ready to
consign someone to Hell for eternity, that's just not my idea of
compassion. Here's an article by a woman who has not been afraid to
think about the Hell meme critically, and write about what a belief in
Hell implies about those who believe in it.
The Problem with Hell
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon-l-baker-phd/why-i-want-to-raze-hel\
l_b_692924.html> by Sharon L. Baker
When I was 26, I found out I was going to hell. Young, impressionable,
and without a strong faith, I listened intently as the pastor of a
church I was visiting described in graphic detail the tortuous,
unquenchable flames that would burn human bodies forever and ever. He
spoke of worms eating away at decaying flesh, total darkness without
the presence of God, and worst of all, no release from those horrors
for all eternity. I certainly didn't want to be one of those
unfortunate many to feel the flames licking at my feet soon after
leaving life in this world. So I took out the proper fire insurance and
asked Jesus to save me from my sins and, therefore, from eternal torment
in hell. Whew! That was 25 years ago, and hell is still a hot topic.
Hell haunts me deep down inside, where I fear to tread and fail to
admit uncertainty lest ripples of doubt disturb my secure little world
of faith, lest someone find out and think me less Christian and more
heretic. I have no intention of doing away with hell. I can't -- certain
verses in the Bible won't allow me to do that. So I am very concerned
about remaining faithful to the Christian scriptures; but I'm even more
concerned about remaining faithful to the God of love, who loves the
worst of the worst, the world's enemies, including, even, the Hitlers,
the Idi Amins, and the Osama bin Ladens of the world. Our traditional
views of hell as a place of eternal punishment where unbelievers dwell
in undying flames contradict the image of God as merciful, forgiving,
and compassionate. Our traditional focus on hell as an evangelistic tool
does not genuinely communicate the very heart of the gospel. If we
receive Jesus as Savior merely because we want to avoid hell, we miss
the entire point.
I am also very disturbed by the behavior of those who claim kinship
with God through Jesus, who for centuries have instigated and
participated in horrendous violence in the name of God. To stem the tide
of religious violence in the world, we must offer an alternative image
of God that more closely resembles the teachings and life of Jesus of
Nazareth. If we do not hear the call of the kingdom, if we forget the
meaning of Jesus' life and death, then we will continue to live as if
Jesus never died. We will continue to solve the problem of violence
violently, including our buying into the violence of hell.
So I've written a book that rethinks the issues surrounding traditional
notions of hell as a place of eternal punishment in favor of a view
more consistent with that of a loving God. What follows are my reasons
for wanting to raze hell:
1. Hell doesn't avenge evil or reveal God's power. It does the exact
opposite! By holding on to the doctrine of eternal hell, we in essence
hold to the belief that in the end God's will to save all people goes
unfulfilled, which puts God's power and goodness in doubt.
2. Hell heralds eternal hopelessness. Suffering in hell for all
eternity means that souls burning there forever will exist without any
hope of redemption. This leads us to the belief that God withdraws
unconditional love once a person's body dies. In other words, God's love
for us is tied to the physical body and the temporal realm, and grace
disappears for unbelievers after the physical life is gone.
3. Hell keeps evil in eternal existence. The Bible tells us that, in
the end, God will abolish evil. Yet, somewhere in the universal expanse
of God's perfect peaceful kingdom, evil still survives in those who
inhabit hell -- evil "lives" on eternally.
4. Hell creates a clash between justice and love. We unintentionally
conjure up a cruel father who demands that unrepentant sinners spend
eternity in the flames of hell, finding endless torture an agreeable
way to achieve justice -- which is a far cry from the God who loves
with an everlasting love. We develop a picture of a God who promotes
eternal punishment as positive, as part and parcel of divine love and
justice. We try to relieve these tensions by appealing to God's love
and mercy on the one hand, and to God's justice and wrath on the other.
Such a view of God's love, mercy, justice, and wrath leads to the
conclusion that to love is to punish eternally and, therefore, to
punish eternally is just.
5. Hell assigns eternal violence to God: Traditional theories of
hell not only keep evil in eternal existence; they also keep the cycle
of violence in motion for all eternity as unfortunate souls suffer the
ferocity of eternal torture because God requires it.
6. Hell executes eternal punishment for temporal sin: Does sin
committed during one short, temporary life span deserve an eternity of
punishment? Even in our own society, we strive to make the punishment
fit the crime.
I wonder how many other pastors pounding pulpits across the world have
their parishioners running scared out of their wits and into the
kingdom of God, taking out fire insurance as a precaution against the
threat of hell. "Who cares?" you might say. "As long as they purchase
their policy in time, who cares why they buy?" God might. God may desire
to save us from the flames in order to spend eternity in loving
communion, not by scaring us to death but by luring us with divine
compassion, urging us gently with a caring hand, forgiving, reconciling,
and calling us to do the same.
