On Believing in Hell
Published on 15 Aug 2008 at 2:30 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Anglican Thoughts, Theology.
Some of you know that RealLivePreacher is one of my favorite blogs. I started reading it back when I first moved to Texas and his relentlessly honest blog entries about Christianity, himself, and life as an ordained Baptist minister were at once provocative and wildly entertaining. For those who are preaching this Sunday, his retelling of this Sunday’s Gospel lesson (the story of the Canaanite woman who begs Jesus to heal her demon possessed child only to have Jesus tell her that God’s food is for his children [i.e., Jews] not the dogs [i.e., Gentiles]) remains I think the most powerful interpretation of the story I’ve ever read (you can read it here: The Smallest Person in the World).
Well, currently, RLP is engaging in a study on the doctrine of Hell (see his opening post here). The gist seems to be that he doesn’t find most people’s idea of hell to be one that is terribly biblical and so he is trying to do an indepth biblical study to come to some conclusions about what Christians can and should believe about hell. I was going to sit this one out, but his questions have really been itching at my mind, and so this morning I wrote him an e-mail with my thoughts. The e-mail, however, is rather long, full of quotes, and may not answer his questions very fairly or very well. So, I figured I’d try to formulate some of my own thoughts on it here.
Caveat Emptor
I think that some of the initial hopes for this study are dubious. I think a “solely Scriptural” study of hell will run into the same sorts of problems that a “solely Scriptural” stud of the Trinity would. Now, I grew up in the Churches of Christ, so I understand the desire, the drive, to find the “biblical” answer to a doctrinal question. However, the idea that a solely “biblical” answer to a religious question will be the best answer is a concept I left behind me when I left the Churches of Christ. I believe that theology evolves, that Jesus meant it when he said he would send the Spirit to guide us into all truth. Now of course, that doesn’t mean that all development in doctrine is a good thing, but it does mean that doctrine can and will develop. And, perhaps most importantly, it means no matter what ridiculous things members of the Church may say from time to time, the Spirit will continue to work to guide us into all truth.
What Scripture Teaches
Most of the Scriptural references to hell (especially those found in the New Testament) are talking about Gehenna. The Book of Joshua tells us that Gehenna was a place on the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, Gehenna being an abbreviation for the Valley of Hinnom. There are several references in the Hebrew Bible to the site being the location of human sacrifices to Baal and Molech, thus leading to its reputation as an unholy place. The term is frequently used in extrabiblical Jewish writings and applies there to a fiery abyss, place of darkness, chains, etc.
The word is used twelve times in the New Testament. In McBrien’s masterful theological encyclopedia, Catholicism, his overview of the Scriptural use of Gehenna is helpful:
Gehenna is mentioned seven times in Matthew, three times in Mark, once in Luke, and once in James. It is a place of unquenchable fire (Mk 9:43; Mt 5:22; 18:9; James 3:6), a pit into which people are cast (Mt 5:29-30; 18:9; Mk 9:45, 47; Lk 12:5). The wicked are destroyed there (Mt. 10:28). The place is described, although not named, elsewhere (e.g., Mt 3:10, 12; 7:19; Lk 3:9, 17). It is the final destination of the wicked (Rev. 19:20; 20:9-15; 21:28). It is a final place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30), where the worm does not die (Mk 9:48); it is shrouded in darkness (Mt. 8:12, 22:13; 25:30).
Jesus and the early church clearly do not come from the tradition of the Sadducees. Rather, they believe that death is not the end, that this world is more than what we can see with our eyes. Furthermore, they are people who have been raised on the Hebrew Bible and were probably familiar with Jewish apocalptic literature. Thus, when describing those who would reject God, Jesus chose the language of Gehenna.
What the Church Teaches
In the ancient Apostles’ creed, we also affirm that Christ descended into hell (descendit ad inferna), an act that is usually associated with Holy Saturday. (The third of the 39 Articles also affirms this belief.) The doctrine of Jesus descent into hell, usually called his Anastasis or the “Harrowing of Hell,” is provocative. It suggests that no place is beyond God’s reach, that Christ even travels ad inferna so that no one loses the opportunity for redemption. God’s mercy reaches across metaphysical space and offers redemption for those who will turn from themselves towards God. The farther you are from God, the more difficult that turning becomes, but God’s mercy is always there, always present.
“Only the Greatest of all can make Himself small enough to enter Hell. For the higher a thing is, the lower it can descend–a man can sympathise with a horse but a horse cannot sympathise with a rat. Only One has descended into Hell.”
“And will He ever do so again?”
“It was not once long ago that He did it. Time does not work that way when once ye have left Earth. All moments that have been or shall be were, or are, present in the moment of His descending. There is no spirit in prison to Whom he did not preach.”
CS Lewis, The Great Divorce, 123.
Here my theological training fails me but I hope my love for CS Lewis will prop me up. In The Great Divorce, Lewis suggest that those who are in hell have the opportunity to leave hell and enter heaven. However, the journey is difficult because they must stop clinging to the sins which they chose instead of God, primarily, the sin of self-regard. For those who journey out of hell and into heaven, for them hell was in reality purgatory.
Given all of eternity, it may yet be that all things will come within the reach of God’s saving embrace. It might be that all things will be redeemed, that each of us just choose to take a different amount of time to choose to enter into the Divine Life. I don’t know. I do know, though, that there must be room in our theology for people to reject God. Otherwise he becomes a power-hungry entity, insistent that all persons love him. And that is not the God I worship. I also know this, God’s love does indeed reach powerfully across barriers and through fences, all the things we erect in our lives. And if we will but turn towards him, if we will step out of the bus from hell onto the hard grass of sanctification, his love will support and strengthen throughout all our journey.
Eternal Lord God, you hold all souls in life: Give to your whole Church in paradise and on earth your light and your peace; and grant that we, following the good examples of those who have served you here and are now at rest, may at the last enter with them into your unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
JN1034 on 14 Sep 2008 at 10:17 pm: 1
Jared: This is a very well thought and presented post. A thought arises: Is there a possibility, even the slightest, that everything post-Resurrection of Jesus transformed the very ontology of creation in such a way that Hell, Hades, Gehenna, et al., are no more? If we ascribe any reality to Christ’s descent and his glorious overthrowing/destruction of Hell, Hades, Gehenna, et al., is it possible, even just a hint, that, even if they were, they are no more? The Harrowing of Hell is just that, yes? And if Christ did, in fact, obliterate Hell, Hades, Gehenna, et al., what does that leave us with? If Christ took ownership of Hell, Hades, Gehenna, et al. and proclaimed the Gospel to those there, what great mystery of the Holy Spirit is this? Perhaps we (pan-Christian communions) still lack a solid post-Resurrectional theology that examines human ontology and cosmology in light of Christ’s Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Your brilliant thoughts are anticipated, please.
Jared Cramer on 15 Sep 2008 at 7:20 am: 2
JN1034, I think your own insightful thoughts on this matter have continued the thoughtline of my post in a very profound and provocative way.
In short, I think that you are right.