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Heaven & Hell

Rescued from God? On Atonement, Hell, and the Stories we Tell.

16/03/2012
Heaven & Hell, Love, Story, Theology
2 Comments

“Jesus rescued you from falling into the hands of Someone larger than your mind can conceive, stronger than the combined strength of a trillion nuclear explosions, a holy God destined to unload the complete, unrestrained force of His wrath on you for offending His holy nature. That’s what you were really saved from…

Apocalyptic urgency is not about saving your friend from hell. It’s about saving your friend from God. Hell isn’t your friend’s biggest problem; God is. Hell is simply the end result of God’s justified wrath. It’s the final permanent expression of his anger towards those who have purposely chosen to reject His lordship over their lives.

That’s why until you understand how violent and inhumane God really is, how utterly wrathful the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can become, you’ll never feel the urgency to help your non-Christian friends escape his detestable clutches.”

- from Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) pages 119 and 132.

I came across this passage yesterday while browsing through some books, and admittedly my first thought was this is why people make (and resonate with) videos like this.

After getting some distance from those words – words that speak of a god I do not recognize, a god who seems to embody all the very worst traits of humanity – I am reminded how important the stories we tell can be.

While I believe hell exists, I also believe it’s not the point of the story. But this picture of God makes hell, and wrath, and anger, what the Bible is all about at its very core.

The story stops being about a loving God creating a good world that tragically falls, and then beginning the long process of setting things to rights through Abraham, Israel, and ultimately Jesus.

Instead the story is about a God defined almost exclusively by wrath and hatred.

A God who can inspire fear but not praise or love.

A God who we must be saved from by Jesus.

It changes the entire plot, the nature of the characters, and the story goes from a beautiful tale of love and redemption to an ominous tale of a wrathful deity, and a savior who delivers us from God.

None of this is to deny the Bible speaks of hell, and wrath, and judgment – but we ought to be very careful what place we give them as we tell the Gospel story. Otherwise we might end up telling a story that looks little like the Gospel narrative, and worshiping a God who looks more like a member of the Greek pantheon than the God of the Exodus, of Golgotha, and of the Resurrection.

Is Hell the Point of the Story?

19/12/2011
Heaven & Hell
10 Comments

March was an interesting month in the blogosphere, mostly due to the release of the-book-that-shall-not-be-named. Accusations of heresy or heartless traditionalism were heard quite often from both sides, as the already-often divisive tone of many blogs took a turn for the worst that reminded me of watching a Colbert-like parody. Though I agree that we need to rethink the place Hell has in our story (see the post below), see the ways we often talk about that doctrine as unhelpful and unbiblical, and even gave up Heaven and Hell for Lent, ultimately I do believe Hell exists.

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Is hell what defines our story? 

Is the Biblical narrative essentially “you’re all going to hell, but there is a way to be saved”? 

Last weekend, when Twitter exploded with accusations about Rob Bell and universalism, why was the reaction so overwhelming?

Sure part of it was probably petty tribalism, with people on both sides rushing to the defense of their favorite pastor-theologian. But the cult of personality doesn’t fully explain why this question hit home for so many.

Maybe Rachel is right, maybe it’s not really about Rob Bell at all but about a conversation that is already happening around kitchen tables and in late night conversations with close friends. Rob Bell is giving it a voice, but he’s not creating something out of nothing.

I want to suggest that the reason this debate about hell is getting such attention is because it is a question about our Story. 

Here Rob gets it exactly right in the video for Love Wins “millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message, the center of the gospel of Jesus, is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus”

When hell defines our story, when we see Jesus primarily as the solution to the problem of hell, when avoiding hell is the very reason why the Gospel is good news – then of course any questioning of that doctrine is going to be deeply threatening.

If that’s the Story, then without hell the narrative loses its shape.

Sarah Bessey wrote an essay on this recently, and asked her readers to wrestle with this question: “without hell what is the point?”

It’s a great question, regardless of where you come down on the debate about hell itself. Because hell isn’t the point, not in the Torah, not to Jesus, not to Peter or Paul. That’s not to say it isn’t discussed or real – but it’s not the point of the narrative.

As best I can tell no one in the Scriptures is ever instructed to follow Jesus simply so they can avoid hell.

Hell does not define the Story in the Bible, no matter how much we’ve let it define the story for us. If nothing else, the current controversy should alert us to the fact that the story we are telling might be giving hell a role disproportionate to the role it actually gets in Scripture.

Grace and peace

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So what do you think?

Is hell a central part of the Biblical narrative?

If there was no heaven or hell – would there still be a reason to follow Jesus?

Forever Trapped in Heaven

21/11/2011
Guest Post, Heaven & Hell
2 Comments

Today’s post is brought to you by my friend Ray Hollenbach. Ray blogs at Students of Jesus, which is always worth a careful read. Today he reflects on heaven and eternal life.
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When I was a teenager I chose Heaven over Hell–but just barely.  As a new believer I had conflicting ideas about eternal life. The people who led me to the Lord told me I could go to Heaven by trusting Jesus’ sacrifice for my sins. I honestly hadn’t given the issue much thought; since there were only two choices Heaven seemed like the better alternative. Heaven didn’t sound very exciting, but Hell sounded worse.

Someone told me in Heaven we would spend all eternity worshiping God. This presented a problem because most of my time in church was boring. Could it be true? Would heaven consist of an unending songfest directed toward the Almighty? One of the verses Amazing Grace gave me cause for concern:

“When we’ve be there 10,000 years
bright shining as the sun
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we’ve first begun.”

With some measure of guilt I tried to imagine myself enjoying this 10,000 years, only to find that we had just begun. It was not appealing.

Here’s a question: What if you got to live forever but you didn’t like the life you got to live?

Popular images of heaven include the idea that we will inhabit celestial mansions, waft upon fluffy light clouds and worship eternally.

These images are certainly better than eternal torment and suffering, but do they really represent the stuff we would choose to do forever, especially given the activities and tastes we choose right now? Even as a Christian, if I spend my entire life indulging my personal tastes, why would I want to focus on Someone Else for eternity? I would be trapped in heaven eternally.

Unless “heaven” and “eternal life” are not the same things.

Jesus himself provided a reliable definition of eternal life: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) Nothing about clouds, harps, or heaven. Eternal life is knowing the Father and knowing Jesus. The Father has given Jesus the authority to grant eternal life, and Jesus’ definition is simply that we would come to know the Father and the Son.

So when does eternal life begin? If we can adjust our view to what Jesus revealed, the answer, of course, is now. When we first turn toward God, we are entering into eternal life. When we turn away from our selfish choices and orientation toward Jesus, we are entering into eternal life. When we grow in our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are growing into eternal life.

When does a child know its mother? At birth? From within the womb? As a teenager? The answer is “all of the above.” Earlier in the same gospel Jesus tells us that we cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God unless we are “born from above.” (John 3: 3-8) His choice of birth imagery is instructive: a child begins to perceive light and dark before birth. A child intuitively knows its mother’s voice and heartbeat before birth. Yet after the trauma of labor and delivery a child is characterized by what it does not know: the entire process of growth and maturity could be considered “getting to know” its parents.

This process of growth and knowledge continues even beyond childhood. Most adults realize that with each passing decade they come to “know” their parents more and more. I knew my father more fully after I became a father. Our life in God is made possible by Jesus Christ. That life has its beginning when we are born from above. John’s gospel reminds us from the very beginning we are “born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1: 13) As we are born of Him, his intention is that we would spend every moment of eternal life growing in the grace and knowledge of Him.

So what about heaven? As we begin to experience eternal life through our walk with Jesus, he begins to work heaven into us even now. I may not know the details of what heaven looks like, but I have come to understand that heaven feels exactly like the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the fruit of coming to know the Father and the Son, through living in the Spirit each day (see Galatians 5: 16 – 25)

I’m no longer troubled by the thought of heaven. Whatever it looks like and whatever he has for us to do, I can rest my relationship with him. As I cooperate with the Holy Spirit he is making fit for heaven.  I suspect I’ll enjoy it when I get there because I’m learning to enjoy it now.

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Ray Hollenbach, a Chicagoan, writes about faith and culture. He currently lives in central Kentucky, which is filled with faith and culture. You can check out his work at Students of Jesus. 

on Heaven, Eternity, and Doctor Who

17/10/2011
Doctor Who, Heaven & Hell, New Heavens & New Earth
3 Comments

A couple months ago I finally decided to give Doctor Who a go, after hearing people rave about it for years. I started with the first episode of the 2005 reboot “Rose”, and since I’m almost done with my third season I think it would be fair to say I’m hooked.

Last my wife and I watched an episode where the Doctor travels one hundred trillion years into the future, and it struck me that I’ve never imagined such a date before.

I’ve imagined billions of years, though only in abstract discussions about the age of the earth or universe. But trillions? Never.

This of course led to an interesting thought experiment.

If the Christian hope is not some sort of static Platonic existence in heaven – but is instead the Second Advent and the restoration of heaven and earth, what about time?

If death is no more and the curse is lifted, would we live to one hundred trillion years and beyond?

What does that even mean, really?

Even if we posit that we won’t age, time would still pass. So, once all things are set right what comes next?

Now I’m not suggesting the Bible gives us much indication of what a post-redemption existence might hold. And maybe that’s part of the point, we live in a world stained by sin, and the fall is so ingrained in us that we cannot imagine a world without it. Or, more precisely, we can imagine the absence of war, famine, injustice, etc. but not all that could take their place.

I know this might sound like pointless speculation, and maybe it is, but I think there is value to such questions. If the Church is going to – rightly I think – reject the Platonic vision of the afterlife in exchange for the Biblical vision of new heaven and new earth, we should think long and hard about what we mean when we say that.

Because the restoration of all things won’t be the end of the story, but only the beginning, and who knows what that story will hold even one hundred trillion years in the future.

Harper One Announces – The Love Wins Companion

26/09/2011
Books and Reading, Heaven & Hell, Love Wins, Rob Bell
4 Comments

Yesterday Harper One announced their latest project with Rob Bell, The Love Wins Companion.

In his book about heaven & hell, Rob insisted that he intended to start a conversation, not end one, and on that count he certainly succeeded.

Love it, hate it, or somewhere in-between, Love Wins sparked a discussion across churches, schools, books, and blogs.

This companion work appears to be a way for Rob to reflect on where the conversation has gone in the last six months, and provide additional resources for those wrestling with his ideas.

From Harper One’s description,

For anyone who wants to delve deeper into Rob Bell’s bestselling Love Wins, the expansive and accessible Love Wins Companion offers…

- Insights and commentary by theologians, Bible scholars, scientists, and pastors

- Deep analysis of all relevant Bible passages on heaven, hell, and salvation

- Detailed chapter summaries, discussion questions, and Bible studies for individuals, groups, and classes

- Excerpts from works throughout Christian history illustrating the variety of teachers also debating the issues Bell wrestles with

- New material by Bell on his mission for the book and how people can take the next step

As I’ve stated before, I did not find all of Rob’s conclusions in Love Wins to be convincing, but I do think he is asking some important questions, and trying to think through how our ideas of heaven and hell coincide with the radical love of Christ.

A resource which furthers that discussion, even if/when we disagree with his answers, could be quite helpful.

The Love Wins Companion will be released November 15th, and you can preorder it here.

Love Wins | Six Months Later

05/09/2011
Heaven & Hell, Love Wins, New Heavens & New Earth, Rob Bell
6 Comments

It’s been over six months since a video trailer for Love Wins sparked countless blog posts, late night debates, and one (in)famous Tweet.

Now, with a little distance between us and the initial fireworks, I thought it might be an appropriate time to offer a few reflections on Love Wins and the reaction to it.

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1. The Reaction On Both “Sides” Was Too Often Driven By Emotion And Sensationalism

Because this discussion evolved mostly online, and because everyone involved saw so much at stake in this discussion, tensions were high, grace was a rarity, and rushing to judgment was the norm.

Case in point, thousands of people speaking out against a book they hadn’t read. This of course resulted in people who appreciate Rob feeling like he’d been treated unjustly, and instinctually coming to his defense – often before they had read the book either.

Also, the way the media discussed the book was entirely unhelpful, leading to false impressions of what Rob was saying and stoking passions in a debate that was difficult enough to begin with.

Soon the book became a boundary marker: those who were sympathetic to Love Wins were often deemed liberal at best and universalist heretics at worst (and at times driven from their church), while those who took issue with the book were accused of being unloving or even wanting people to go to hell.

None of this did justice to those involved.

2. There Was Much Worth Saying In Love Wins, Though Little Of That Was New

Ironically, very few of the ideas in Love Wins were new, despite the controversy they caused. Rob says as much early in the book.

In fact most of the book was solidly Evangelical and restated points about the doctrines of heaven and hell that were already being made by authors like Scot McKnight, Mike Wittmer, C.S. Lewis, and N.T. Wright.

Books such as Surprised by Hope or Heaven Is a Place on Earthhad already started to refocus Christians on a biblical hope which looks very little like Christian pop-theology or Dante’s fiction. A focus on new creation, resurrection, heaven coming to earth, and how our eschatology influences our ethics – none of that was new to Love Wins, but all of it needed to be said.

3. Some Of The Questions Rob Raised Were Needed, Because The Traditional Answer Is Lacking

After the book was released Rob was often criticized for his questions. At times just because he raises so many of them, but often because he questions the way we hold doctrines that are considered central to the faith.

But it’s naïve to think these questions originated with Love Wins. People have been asking many of the same questions around kitchen tables and over cups of coffee for a while now.

Rob was simply articulating what many of us were already saying.

And there is a reason these questions are being asked with increasing volume – the traditional answers are often intellectually and theologically unsatisfying. The ways we talk about the nature of God, about heaven and hell, about the fate of the unsaved, these are words which matter. And much of the time how we speak of these things seems radically out of place with the rest of the biblical story.

Whether we agree with Rob’s answers, there are many areas in which I think he was right to raise questions and push for us to do better.

4. On A Few Issues Rob Went In An Unhelpful And Unbiblical Direction, Which Made The Rest Easy For People To Dismiss

Many of the books written against Love Wins focus on a handful of problematic sections, and then on the basis of faults found there quickly dismiss the rest of the book.

The thing is, some of the critiques are spot on. There are ideas in Love Wins which are impossible to support from the text, and others that rely on reading the text in ways which are questionable at best.

Ideas like infinite chances to repent after death, for example.

I have no interest in pretending there were not problematic areas to Love Wins, there most definitely were and we should own up to that. But the way some bits of shoddy exegesis and speculation became an excuse to dismiss the rest of the book, and even to ignore the questions Rob raises, seemed to be missing the larger point.

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So, what do I think of Love Wins after six months? It was a provocative – albeit flawed – book, which raised questions we need to be able to openly discuss, and was often restating solid evangelical thinking with a bit of Rob Bell flare.

In the pages of Love Wins Rob states that he doesn’t intend the book as a final word, but as the start of a conversation. Personally I think it’s a conversation worth having, and I hope Rob continues to be a part of it.

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