A friend of mine, who was raised in west Texas, says what he remembers from the Sunday morning sermons was this simple message, "Jesus loves you and you are going to hell." He has spent quite a few decades since then trying to find a firm footing in the Kingdom. There are probably more than a few of us that have struggled with our "confidence" in the great uncounting.
Recently I read an article by Oliver Thomas called Should Believers Fear Hell - and God? It was essentially a book review of the Rob Bell book titled Love Wins. The premise is that the religious world has used the concept of hell to herd us all in the right direction. Fear is the motivating factor. Religious groups use the concept as a very heavy stick to either quell the pagan uprising within their midst, or they use it to deeply etch a line in the dirt between believers and pagans.
My problem with this MO is that ultimately folks will rebel against the heavy-handed, proprietary nature of this stance. Secondly, I think it is simply wrong, not error wrong, morally wrong. If you have raised kids you will know that long term motivation through fear simply breeds resentment, not righteousness.
I haven't read the book, but I plan to. Over the past 10 years or so I have re-evaluated almost all my preconceptions about all things religious, so there is no reason to believe this one will be any different. So here is the analogy the article and apparently the book used. If your child broke all moral codes, murdered someone, fell into an alternate lifestyle, bad decisions, whatever; would the punishment fit the crime by flinging them into a fire FOREVER? Would we as parents feel this was an appropriate response? Would we feel that justice was done?
Or would we try every way within our power to extend mercy?
Love to hear from you.
Godspeed, tough questions always fire me up.
Don
1 comment:
I recently read "Falling Upward" by Richard Rohr, in which he presents a similar argument. In his section entitled "Heaven or Hell" he states "If you except a punitive notion of God, who punishes or even eternally tortures those who do not love him, then you have an absurd universe where most people on this earth end up being more loving than God." WOW He goes on to say that we are the ones who exclude ourselves from God. And that is Rohr's definition of Hell. And no one is in hell unless he or she chooses to be. I believe it is Dallas Willard who suggests that it is more difficult to end up in hell than many of us believers believe. You have to work at it, whereas salvation is the default state for those who believe. Something to chew on, isn't it?
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