Is there a heaven and a hell? The topic is a bit sticky for Christian.
It just doesn't feel right to condemn people to hell, and say that because they didn't pray a prayer and have the belief that I did, that they will have to spend eternity in the most agonizing pain imaginable (and unimaginable).
I do have serious problems and doubts with saying there is a literal hell. It doesn't seem logical to punish people for eternity for a non-eternal sin. What about the people who never heard the name of Jesus? Isn't Jesus' victory over sin powerful enough for everyone, living and dead?
However, the more I play out these questions, the more I make judgments on God. I simply cannot do that. To try to look into His eternal plan is like an ant trying to imagine the vastness of the universe. All I know is the minute world I am living in. At times, God's perspectives and reasons are outside the realm of human comprehension.
That being said, my philosophy for this whole business of hell goes back to the mountaineer's (sorry to keep up the mountain-climbing analogies) saying, “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”
I sincerely hope there is a way everyone will be saved. Maybe hell won't will be a more of a “separation from God” sort of thing. Maybe it'll be just a darkness or something like that.
However, I must believe and act based on the assumption that hell will be just that- more terrible than our worst fears.
The avowed atheist Penn (of the magician show Penn & Teller) relates a story of after one of his shows, a man came up to him, talked to him a bit, handed him a Bible, and told him he was praying for him. Penn's reaction was remarkable. A few days later, he put up a video post on youtube talking about how if what Christians believe is true, if we are going to hell if we don't accept Jesus' message, and if we truly love others, we should be doing anything we can to tell people about Jesus.
This resonates with me. Our message should be urgent. We need to live our life in continual fear of hell.
I'm not advocating going on a street corner and yelling at people to repent, but I am advocating that we take every opportunity, every chance to sincerely share the Gospel.
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I'm still not sure if you believe in a literal hell or not. Preparing for the worst may be a good idea, but that logic may not work with many non-Christians. The threat of hell used to be used as a way to get people "saved." Often, though, that "salvation" really didn't impact people's lives in such a way that it changed how they lived. Hence, our original question of sanctification and how "Christians" live in today's world.
ReplyDeleteStephen, thanks for the honesty. I'd like to comment on one thing you said, though. You said, "We need to live our life in continual fear of hell." I don't think that is what God desires for us. The only thing we should fear on earth is God himself. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as the Psalms and Proverbs teach us. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we should fear hell. Instead we should fear the Lord and as a result be drawn to his unconditional love he offers with the hope of heaven. I do think there is a tremendous urgency we have in spreading the gospel, but I'm terribly cautious about potentially mis-representing Christianity as fire-insurance instead of the greatest hope of the world.
ReplyDeleteI do think you're on to something with the eternal-separation factor of hell instead of literal fire. Eternal-separation in darkness is still a literal hell, just not the literal hell most Christians picture.