Is There A Hell?
Bible Study
Hope For Tomorrow
What Jesus Would Say Today
Object:
One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
* * *
It has been the fashion for years to regard the Devil as a symbolic name for the ignorance, folly and sin of man, and to regard belief in "evil spirits" as old-fashioned, outmoded and disproved science. I am not so easily persuaded to dismiss these ancient beliefs.
-- Leslie Weatherhead
* * *
Hell is being outside in the dark, looking in the window of the Father's house. It may be more than that; I don't know. But it's that much at least.
-- Ernest A. Fitzgerald
Is There A Hell?
"He will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."
-- Matthew 3:12b
I once hosted a young graduate student from Africa for a meeting at Indiana University. As we drove to the building where the meeting was to take place, I remarked on his excellent command of English. He explained that he received his degree from Oxford University in England. Later, as I drove my young friend back to his apartment, I asked him how he liked America. His reply surprised me. He said he was happy here, but he had a lot of difficulty understanding Americans. I heard myself respond with, "I don't get you," and instantly realized what he meant. We speak extensively in colloquial figures of speech which make no sense if understood literally. My friend further pointed out that as we left the meeting together I had asked him: "Can I drop you someplace?" Visual imagery. Figures of speech. Kids think attractive people are "cool" (or whatever word will have replaced that by now), parents come home after a long day "beat," a thief is "a dirty rat," and a hardworking colleague is a "workhorse." During a storm "it's raining cats and dogs." That's how we talk, and because it's part of our common culture, we all know what is meant.
* * *
The universe makes no sense unless there is moral accountability. There must finally be a consequence of immoral and hurtful actions.
* * *
The same has been true of every culture in history -- including the ancient Jews. So we find them using figures of speech related to their cultural experience, analogies not to be interpreted literally either. Look at Matthew 7:13: "The gate to Hell is wide and the road is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard...." Obviously Jesus wasn't talking about literal gates, nor was he referring to a geographical location called "Hell." He was warning that "the gate to life," a morally righteous life, places many restraints on us that do not hinder the selfish, thoughtless person, and he was further warning that those who chose not to live a morally righteous life would suffer some painful consequences. His vivid figure of speech would have been clear to Jesus' listeners.
Another example is to be found in 2 Peter 3:10f: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth with everything in it will vanish ... and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat." It's not likely that this "Big Fisherman" Peter, for all his devotion to the Christian faith, was informed about the literal details of the end of the earth, so it follows that he was using some very effective poetic language to make his point.
The "Day of the Lord" has several possible interpretations. My own assumption is that it refers to a vivid personal encounter with God, probably at the time of one's death, or thereafter. Peter was making the point that it could be a very traumatic experience for those who have not formed some kind of relationship with God prior to the moment. While it may be true that at some distant time, measured it is hoped by terms beyond the grasp of our minds, the earth will disintegrate, it clearly did not take place during the lifetimes of Peter's hearers, nor does it seem likely to take place during my lifetime or yours. A statement was issued by some astronomers in attendance at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Toronto, informing us that the best estimate of the termination of the Earth's existence is one "googol." For those of us who don't know, that's a one followed by one hundred zeros. They told one worried gentleman not to worry about getting his mortgage paid in time. So, Peter has been using figurative language to make a spiritual point.
Hold the above thoughts and consider something else: trash collection. That's right: trash collection. People didn't have bulldozers or trash compactors in Jesus' day. They burned their trash. Outside many villages were large pits into which community trash could be thrown. They often burned constantly, downwind, one assumes. Men with wagons could gather trash from nearby households and dump it in the burning pit. Everyone had seen such a pit. Children must have received many a warning not to get too close to the edge. Unhappily, it probably happened on rare occasion that some poor guy actually did slip and fall in, quite possibly never to be seen again. Jesus could hardly have chosen a more vivid figure of speech to make his point: If you're bad there will be consequences, hurtful ones, not only to other people but to you. The concept of "Hell" as a place of fire must have made his point quite effectively. The picture of a burning pit as a fitting destination for incorrigibly bad people would have been very effective.
* * *
"And I know of the future Judgment,
How dreadful so 'er it be,
That to sit alone with my conscience
Would be judgment enough for me."
-- Charles Stubbs
* * *
Jesus, in other words, was using a figure of speech which his listeners would undoubtedly have recognized as such, to do something which every parent does in less dramatic fashion: drive home the fact that wrongful conduct produces all kinds of painful consequences. It was not to be taken literally.
I remember several years ago when my wife and I, along with our two young daughters, were preparing for a long vacation trip by car. The girls insisted that they wanted to take their "boom-box" along so they could play their favorite tapes. I recall telling them that there was "good news and bad news." The good news was that they could play their music, the bad news was that they were both riding in the trunk. Now I hope the reader understands that I was kidding them, but was also saying "no" to the "boom-box" (we compromised -- they used earphones). It was a figure of speech.
There are preachers who prefer to read Jesus literally, to believe there is, indeed, a place called "Hell," a literal ultimate destination for people who are persistently bad in this life, but there is no evidence of such a place. Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy: The Inferno, beautiful poetry to be sure, are hardly evidence, yet those two authors' fanciful depictions of "Hell" have markedly influenced much theology on the subject. One must assume, though, that those authors along with many medieval painters were only reflecting some very harsh preaching prevalent at that time.
I claim there is no evidence or logic to support a belief in a literal Hell. One may ask whether, on the other hand, there is any evidence or logic against the idea. My answer is "yes!" and it's persuasive. I refer to the very nature of God as depicted in the New Testament. Look at the fourth chapter of 1 John where we read "God is love ..." and much more. Or read 1 Corinthians, chapter thirteen, where Paul so beautifully defines love which "does not insist on its own way." Love forgives and only punishes the minimum amount needed to produce remorse and change. It could never be endless.
Reuel Howe, author of several books on love and family life, told of a little girl whose mother was getting ready for a party. The child, perhaps four or five, was trying to keep her mother's attention, while Mom was busily doing all the things like hair, makeup, and choice of clothing which she wanted done just right for the party. Anyone with small children will understand both sides of this as Mother, highly excited and also irritated by constant interruptions, scolded her daughter and told her to go to her room. The little girl, feeling terribly rejected and mistreated, began to cry as she trudged upstairs. But as she passed Mother's room, she saw Mom's party dress carefully spread across the bed. Seeing a pair of scissors on the bedside table, the little girl in a sudden fit of misery grabbed up the scissors and slashed at mother's dress. Immediately, she realized the awful nature of what she had just done. Overwhelmed with emotions too much for her -- guilt, fear, anxiety -- she began to sob her heart out.
When Mother heard the sudden outburst of emotion, she realized something was wrong and dashed to her room to be confronted by her damaged dress and her stricken daughter. For a long moment, Mother stood there as her child's sobs tore at her little body. And then, Mother dropped down on her knees, gathered her beloved child in her arms and whispered: "It's all right, dear. I understand." What a powerful moment. Punishment? There's a place for that. But the ends of punishment had already been achieved. The little girl was already sorry, already aware of the gravity of what she had done. Mother had taught the greatest lesson anyone can learn: forgiving love.
Could God be less loving than that mother? On the contrary, just as a kind parent would never reject a loved child by choice, neither will God reject one of us by his choice. Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me" (John 12:32).
Does this mean God ultimately will say to the evil person, "Oh, well, I love you so we'll overlook your wrongdoing"? Of course not. Or to the rest of us, "Don't worry about all those selfish things you did. They don't matter"? The universe makes no sense unless there is moral accountability. There must finally be a consequence of immoral and hurtful actions. But it isn't God who does the punishing, we do it to ourselves, just like that little girl whose own realization of her misdeed caused such misery.
We do this in many ways throughout life. I recently became irritated with my wife and said something unkind to her. I was wrong, and it hurt her. I should have apologized immediately because I was wrong, but I was feeling self-righteous at the time and I did not. The result will perhaps be familiar to every married reader: I was miserable. It was my own fault. I temporarily broke a treasured relationship and, I must confess, it felt like Hell. Wrong as I was, I at least have a conscience which informed me that I was wrong. An eventual "I'm sorry" made things a little better.
Another example of what "Hell" feels like occurred when I was in high school. A friend gave a party and one of our mutual friends was inadvertently excluded from the guest list. When the party-giver realized his oversight, he issued a belated invitation to our friend, but by that time the word was out and it came too late. The friend, miffed, refused to attend. His feelings were hurt. That night, all of us gathered for a wonderful time, but this fellow was on the outside, miserable, feeling rejected and foolish, knowing that with a little bit of generosity on his part, he could have been there with his friends. He too must have felt like Hell.
See the point? Our friend's ostracism was of his own doing. His prideful refusal to understand caused his own unhappiness. In other words, even in this life we discover that our self-righteous, stubborn, loveless conduct results in our most miserable life experiences. We cut ourselves off from love and acceptance.
Blow that up large. Isn't our prideful self-centeredness the cause of our exclusion from happiness? C. S. Lewis, in his delightful The Great Divorce, an imaginary visit to Heaven and Hell, tells of the Bishop, a resident of Hell on a visit to Heaven, who was invited to remain in Heaven. But the Bishop replied that he must return to Hell, as he was scheduled to give a lecture that evening and many important people would be present. The man was already a lost soul because of his total self-centeredness.
All of this is to argue that a loving God has no desire to inflict punishment on any of us. We're the ones who cut ourselves off from him by our unlovingness. One theologian said there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God must finally say, "all right, thy will be done."
Those who worry about a Hell probably need not worry, if that worry indicates a sense of one's own culpability. That very worry is the edge God needs to bring about redemption. Jesus would surely tell us that God's objective is not to punish us; it's to win our love and loyalty. Life after death won't be the end, he assured us. It will be the beginning of a new opportunity to learn the way of love. As to those who die without remorse, I don't know. I only know that it wasn't God's will, that God will continue to surround even such people with divine love until they are saved at last, or by their own refusal to love choose eternal misery.
Some time ago I saw a television interview of a man soon to be executed for murder. He was self-righteous, unrepentant. His mother was also interviewed and, tearfully, she professed her continuing faith in her son and her love for him. The man didn't deserve his mom's love. He had betrayed that love, but it had not broken. Real love is like that. If God is love, he can only grieve over the refusal of any of his children to fail to respond to him. That mother would have done anything she could to have saved her son. So it must surely be with God. But the one thing that God will not do and probably cannot do is force us to be what we do not choose to be. Love cannot be forced. It can only be won.
So what, finally, is "Hell"? Based on what I know, I'm going to guess. It is to enter into a new life where love reigns, where we have inner peace and harmony with the people around us -- this is Heaven -- only to discover that one is not able to love, has never learned to love. It is to discover too late that the purpose of life upon this earth is to learn to love ourselves, to love others, and to accept and honor the love that is given to us. Hell is to be outside the circle of our loved ones by choices we ourselves have made, to realize too late that it didn't have to be that way. Surely Hell is not a place of burning fires -- it is to exist without love by one's own choice, because in this life we lived a self-centered life. To paraphrase what Jesus might say in a poet's words:
The way to Hell will always be
A life that one lives selfishly.
True love will always ask this price:
For one's beloved, sacrifice.
When life is over, judgment starts,
A measure of our secret hearts.
To live in Hell requires one price:
A heart that wears a coat of ice.
Questions For Discussion
1. What has the word "Hell" always meant to you?
2. Can you imagine a universe in which wrongdoing is never punished?
3. What should happen to murderers, terrorists, rapists who die unrepentant?
4. What should happen to ordinary people who die without a sense of God's presence in their lives?
5. Can you imagine a universe without consequences in this life?
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
* * *
It has been the fashion for years to regard the Devil as a symbolic name for the ignorance, folly and sin of man, and to regard belief in "evil spirits" as old-fashioned, outmoded and disproved science. I am not so easily persuaded to dismiss these ancient beliefs.
-- Leslie Weatherhead
* * *
Hell is being outside in the dark, looking in the window of the Father's house. It may be more than that; I don't know. But it's that much at least.
-- Ernest A. Fitzgerald
Is There A Hell?
"He will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out."
-- Matthew 3:12b
I once hosted a young graduate student from Africa for a meeting at Indiana University. As we drove to the building where the meeting was to take place, I remarked on his excellent command of English. He explained that he received his degree from Oxford University in England. Later, as I drove my young friend back to his apartment, I asked him how he liked America. His reply surprised me. He said he was happy here, but he had a lot of difficulty understanding Americans. I heard myself respond with, "I don't get you," and instantly realized what he meant. We speak extensively in colloquial figures of speech which make no sense if understood literally. My friend further pointed out that as we left the meeting together I had asked him: "Can I drop you someplace?" Visual imagery. Figures of speech. Kids think attractive people are "cool" (or whatever word will have replaced that by now), parents come home after a long day "beat," a thief is "a dirty rat," and a hardworking colleague is a "workhorse." During a storm "it's raining cats and dogs." That's how we talk, and because it's part of our common culture, we all know what is meant.
* * *
The universe makes no sense unless there is moral accountability. There must finally be a consequence of immoral and hurtful actions.
* * *
The same has been true of every culture in history -- including the ancient Jews. So we find them using figures of speech related to their cultural experience, analogies not to be interpreted literally either. Look at Matthew 7:13: "The gate to Hell is wide and the road is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard...." Obviously Jesus wasn't talking about literal gates, nor was he referring to a geographical location called "Hell." He was warning that "the gate to life," a morally righteous life, places many restraints on us that do not hinder the selfish, thoughtless person, and he was further warning that those who chose not to live a morally righteous life would suffer some painful consequences. His vivid figure of speech would have been clear to Jesus' listeners.
Another example is to be found in 2 Peter 3:10f: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth with everything in it will vanish ... and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat." It's not likely that this "Big Fisherman" Peter, for all his devotion to the Christian faith, was informed about the literal details of the end of the earth, so it follows that he was using some very effective poetic language to make his point.
The "Day of the Lord" has several possible interpretations. My own assumption is that it refers to a vivid personal encounter with God, probably at the time of one's death, or thereafter. Peter was making the point that it could be a very traumatic experience for those who have not formed some kind of relationship with God prior to the moment. While it may be true that at some distant time, measured it is hoped by terms beyond the grasp of our minds, the earth will disintegrate, it clearly did not take place during the lifetimes of Peter's hearers, nor does it seem likely to take place during my lifetime or yours. A statement was issued by some astronomers in attendance at the American Astronomical Society's annual meeting in Toronto, informing us that the best estimate of the termination of the Earth's existence is one "googol." For those of us who don't know, that's a one followed by one hundred zeros. They told one worried gentleman not to worry about getting his mortgage paid in time. So, Peter has been using figurative language to make a spiritual point.
Hold the above thoughts and consider something else: trash collection. That's right: trash collection. People didn't have bulldozers or trash compactors in Jesus' day. They burned their trash. Outside many villages were large pits into which community trash could be thrown. They often burned constantly, downwind, one assumes. Men with wagons could gather trash from nearby households and dump it in the burning pit. Everyone had seen such a pit. Children must have received many a warning not to get too close to the edge. Unhappily, it probably happened on rare occasion that some poor guy actually did slip and fall in, quite possibly never to be seen again. Jesus could hardly have chosen a more vivid figure of speech to make his point: If you're bad there will be consequences, hurtful ones, not only to other people but to you. The concept of "Hell" as a place of fire must have made his point quite effectively. The picture of a burning pit as a fitting destination for incorrigibly bad people would have been very effective.
* * *
"And I know of the future Judgment,
How dreadful so 'er it be,
That to sit alone with my conscience
Would be judgment enough for me."
-- Charles Stubbs
* * *
Jesus, in other words, was using a figure of speech which his listeners would undoubtedly have recognized as such, to do something which every parent does in less dramatic fashion: drive home the fact that wrongful conduct produces all kinds of painful consequences. It was not to be taken literally.
I remember several years ago when my wife and I, along with our two young daughters, were preparing for a long vacation trip by car. The girls insisted that they wanted to take their "boom-box" along so they could play their favorite tapes. I recall telling them that there was "good news and bad news." The good news was that they could play their music, the bad news was that they were both riding in the trunk. Now I hope the reader understands that I was kidding them, but was also saying "no" to the "boom-box" (we compromised -- they used earphones). It was a figure of speech.
There are preachers who prefer to read Jesus literally, to believe there is, indeed, a place called "Hell," a literal ultimate destination for people who are persistently bad in this life, but there is no evidence of such a place. Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy: The Inferno, beautiful poetry to be sure, are hardly evidence, yet those two authors' fanciful depictions of "Hell" have markedly influenced much theology on the subject. One must assume, though, that those authors along with many medieval painters were only reflecting some very harsh preaching prevalent at that time.
I claim there is no evidence or logic to support a belief in a literal Hell. One may ask whether, on the other hand, there is any evidence or logic against the idea. My answer is "yes!" and it's persuasive. I refer to the very nature of God as depicted in the New Testament. Look at the fourth chapter of 1 John where we read "God is love ..." and much more. Or read 1 Corinthians, chapter thirteen, where Paul so beautifully defines love which "does not insist on its own way." Love forgives and only punishes the minimum amount needed to produce remorse and change. It could never be endless.
Reuel Howe, author of several books on love and family life, told of a little girl whose mother was getting ready for a party. The child, perhaps four or five, was trying to keep her mother's attention, while Mom was busily doing all the things like hair, makeup, and choice of clothing which she wanted done just right for the party. Anyone with small children will understand both sides of this as Mother, highly excited and also irritated by constant interruptions, scolded her daughter and told her to go to her room. The little girl, feeling terribly rejected and mistreated, began to cry as she trudged upstairs. But as she passed Mother's room, she saw Mom's party dress carefully spread across the bed. Seeing a pair of scissors on the bedside table, the little girl in a sudden fit of misery grabbed up the scissors and slashed at mother's dress. Immediately, she realized the awful nature of what she had just done. Overwhelmed with emotions too much for her -- guilt, fear, anxiety -- she began to sob her heart out.
When Mother heard the sudden outburst of emotion, she realized something was wrong and dashed to her room to be confronted by her damaged dress and her stricken daughter. For a long moment, Mother stood there as her child's sobs tore at her little body. And then, Mother dropped down on her knees, gathered her beloved child in her arms and whispered: "It's all right, dear. I understand." What a powerful moment. Punishment? There's a place for that. But the ends of punishment had already been achieved. The little girl was already sorry, already aware of the gravity of what she had done. Mother had taught the greatest lesson anyone can learn: forgiving love.
Could God be less loving than that mother? On the contrary, just as a kind parent would never reject a loved child by choice, neither will God reject one of us by his choice. Jesus said: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me" (John 12:32).
Does this mean God ultimately will say to the evil person, "Oh, well, I love you so we'll overlook your wrongdoing"? Of course not. Or to the rest of us, "Don't worry about all those selfish things you did. They don't matter"? The universe makes no sense unless there is moral accountability. There must finally be a consequence of immoral and hurtful actions. But it isn't God who does the punishing, we do it to ourselves, just like that little girl whose own realization of her misdeed caused such misery.
We do this in many ways throughout life. I recently became irritated with my wife and said something unkind to her. I was wrong, and it hurt her. I should have apologized immediately because I was wrong, but I was feeling self-righteous at the time and I did not. The result will perhaps be familiar to every married reader: I was miserable. It was my own fault. I temporarily broke a treasured relationship and, I must confess, it felt like Hell. Wrong as I was, I at least have a conscience which informed me that I was wrong. An eventual "I'm sorry" made things a little better.
Another example of what "Hell" feels like occurred when I was in high school. A friend gave a party and one of our mutual friends was inadvertently excluded from the guest list. When the party-giver realized his oversight, he issued a belated invitation to our friend, but by that time the word was out and it came too late. The friend, miffed, refused to attend. His feelings were hurt. That night, all of us gathered for a wonderful time, but this fellow was on the outside, miserable, feeling rejected and foolish, knowing that with a little bit of generosity on his part, he could have been there with his friends. He too must have felt like Hell.
See the point? Our friend's ostracism was of his own doing. His prideful refusal to understand caused his own unhappiness. In other words, even in this life we discover that our self-righteous, stubborn, loveless conduct results in our most miserable life experiences. We cut ourselves off from love and acceptance.
Blow that up large. Isn't our prideful self-centeredness the cause of our exclusion from happiness? C. S. Lewis, in his delightful The Great Divorce, an imaginary visit to Heaven and Hell, tells of the Bishop, a resident of Hell on a visit to Heaven, who was invited to remain in Heaven. But the Bishop replied that he must return to Hell, as he was scheduled to give a lecture that evening and many important people would be present. The man was already a lost soul because of his total self-centeredness.
All of this is to argue that a loving God has no desire to inflict punishment on any of us. We're the ones who cut ourselves off from him by our unlovingness. One theologian said there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God must finally say, "all right, thy will be done."
Those who worry about a Hell probably need not worry, if that worry indicates a sense of one's own culpability. That very worry is the edge God needs to bring about redemption. Jesus would surely tell us that God's objective is not to punish us; it's to win our love and loyalty. Life after death won't be the end, he assured us. It will be the beginning of a new opportunity to learn the way of love. As to those who die without remorse, I don't know. I only know that it wasn't God's will, that God will continue to surround even such people with divine love until they are saved at last, or by their own refusal to love choose eternal misery.
Some time ago I saw a television interview of a man soon to be executed for murder. He was self-righteous, unrepentant. His mother was also interviewed and, tearfully, she professed her continuing faith in her son and her love for him. The man didn't deserve his mom's love. He had betrayed that love, but it had not broken. Real love is like that. If God is love, he can only grieve over the refusal of any of his children to fail to respond to him. That mother would have done anything she could to have saved her son. So it must surely be with God. But the one thing that God will not do and probably cannot do is force us to be what we do not choose to be. Love cannot be forced. It can only be won.
So what, finally, is "Hell"? Based on what I know, I'm going to guess. It is to enter into a new life where love reigns, where we have inner peace and harmony with the people around us -- this is Heaven -- only to discover that one is not able to love, has never learned to love. It is to discover too late that the purpose of life upon this earth is to learn to love ourselves, to love others, and to accept and honor the love that is given to us. Hell is to be outside the circle of our loved ones by choices we ourselves have made, to realize too late that it didn't have to be that way. Surely Hell is not a place of burning fires -- it is to exist without love by one's own choice, because in this life we lived a self-centered life. To paraphrase what Jesus might say in a poet's words:
The way to Hell will always be
A life that one lives selfishly.
True love will always ask this price:
For one's beloved, sacrifice.
When life is over, judgment starts,
A measure of our secret hearts.
To live in Hell requires one price:
A heart that wears a coat of ice.
Questions For Discussion
1. What has the word "Hell" always meant to you?
2. Can you imagine a universe in which wrongdoing is never punished?
3. What should happen to murderers, terrorists, rapists who die unrepentant?
4. What should happen to ordinary people who die without a sense of God's presence in their lives?
5. Can you imagine a universe without consequences in this life?
