Burn, Baby, Burn

The Christian doctrine of hell has always been difficult to accept. The idea of people burning in a lake of fire forever is beyond understanding, imagination, and … frankly … mercy and love. If God created man, empowered or endued him with all that he has, then why punish him unendingly with torment and anguish for not believing in the gospel?

If justice has any meaning to us at all, then there comes a point where “enough is enough.” Yes, I have heard many times the rejoinder, “But God’s ways are not our ways. We cannot understand His justice.” If it is true we cannot understand His justice, then why do we ever discuss it or pretend to discuss it. Many times I hear (and think myself), “I thank the Lord for His justice.” Well, if I don’t know what that is, that I’m talking nonsense. I might as well say, “I thank the Lord for His quitish … or His tinbough … or His holtzing.” What are those words in italics? I don’t have the slightest idea because I just created them myself.

Certainly we do not understand fully what any attribute of God is, but we have to understand enough to be able to discuss it, respond to it, and praise God for it. When God’s characteristics are read in the Bible, we relate to them to some degree. We have to, or the Bible is meaningless! Our understanding of anything is limited by our background, experiences, presuppositions, etc. When I read of God’s love, of course I may have a different understanding than a child, an unbeliever, a young believer, a more mature believer. But we do not have opposite understandings.

Justice (the legal term) and fairness (the common term) are words that we understand from a very young age. Equity is the underlying property of justice. “Each gets his turn … all treated alike … what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” All of us have heard young children arguing with others, “You cheater … It’s my turn … I shared with you; now you share with me.” If you believe in innate ideas, then you’d say that equity was built into humans.

Most of us do not need to be taught to recoil from the horrors of injustice. A woman is brutally raped, and the thug cuts out her eyes so she can’t identify him. Children are horribly mistreated by cruel parents. Millions of people are purposely starved to death or savagely murdered because they are different. Do we need to be “taught” to recoil in anger or shock? If anything, people need to be taught to be indifferent so they will perpetrate such monstrosity.

I maintain that as the human race we do understand justice precisely because we understand equity. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is nothing more than an expression of equity. It is true that when we think of a Hitler or a Stalin or a Mao or a Pol Pot we might think hell is where they need to be. But those are the exceptions. The overwhelming majority of those in hell, according to Christian doctrine, will be anyone from the age of accountability (as young as 7-12 years old) and upward who have not believed that Jesus is God’s son and died for their sins. When you go to work the vast majority of those who you see driving on the road, walking on the sidewalks, working and playing in life … most of them will be damned to everlasting punishment. Even if the person has not heard the gospel nor had the opportunity to hear the gospel, then they will be doomed to this endless torment and torture. Think of all the people in your extended family and circle of acquaintance, how many do you believe truly deserve to be tortured forever?

The scenarios can easily be imagined, one after another. A young girl, 12 years old, is killed in a car wreck. (Perhaps she lives in Iraq and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a suicide bomber killed her and dozens of others.) Typically speaking, what’s the worst she could have done? Lie to her parents? Steal some bills from their wallets? Cheat on a test? Make fun of someone? She had been to church but it did not teach the gospel. Well, the just thing to do then is to have her tortured forever, right? Perhaps you say yes to that. If so, the rest of this essay will be of no interest to you. I suspect most readers will be bothered by that. Ok, she can suffer a little until she realizes what she has done. But to suffer forever and forever and forever???

Is the answer to this last scenario no more than, “We do not understand God’s justice”? If there is one thing we do understand about justice is fair punishment for the act. The Bible is filled with commands and illustrations of this. Tedious details are listed in the Old Testament to define equity. Sharia law may allow a person’s hand to be cut off for a minor offence or an adulterous woman to be beheaded at halftime during a soccer game, but we know that is excess. I don’t need a Muslim telling me that the Koran teaches that “We do not understand Allah’s justice.” It is not just, period. In fact, it is monstrous.

If we don’t have some idea of what is just and what is not in God’s eyes, then why let illustrations bother us? What’s it matter? We don’t know what justice is anyway. C’mon on. Though we may not know all, we know enough. And as our understanding grows, our idea of justice does not reverse itself into something that is the opposite of equity.

Assuming what I have written is true, then how do we reconcile our understanding of the Biblical doctrine of hell with the idea of justice and mercy?

The two most common replies are 1) hell does not exist or 2) hell is annihilation (eternal sleep). Though hell is not mentioned that much in Scripture, it is mentioned; and the only proponent of it is Jesus Himself. Due to the teaching of Jesus, it is difficult to believe that the Scriptures do not teach that there is a real place called hell and a conscious experience in a place called hell. When I have read explanations of #1 or #2, it seems the driving force is the repugnance of the idea of hell; the idea of eternal torment and torture are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile with a loving God or with the idea of justice, i.e., equity and fair punishment.

The literature and art of the Middle Ages are replete with scenes and images of frightening proportion. Dante’s Inferno has forever colored the images of hell with red and black horror for the Western mind. Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment has also encouraged images of great fear and repulsion. Even those who have never read the poem or seen the painting may have witnessed similar scenes in movies such as What Dreams May Come or Constantine, the last based on the Hellblazer comic book, or others like them. Torture and eternal torment are common motifs.

Years ago I was talking to a fellow worker in the Navy. As I was sharing Christ, he stopped me and said, “Here’s my problem. Let’s pretend someone has really wronged me. So I tie him to a rack and peel off a small piece of skin. Enough to make him scream in terrible pain. The next day I return and peel off just a little more, not much, just a one-inch or two-inch strip. If I do this right, I can keep him in this torture and torment for years. You would think me a monster for doing this; yet, with God, this torture would last forever. And you praise Him for such justice and fairness. I could never believe in such a cruel God.” The only thought that crossed my mind at that time was, “We don’t understand God’s justice,” but I kept it to myself. It didn’t seem the right answer then, and it doesn’t 40 years later.

As I have struggled over this issue, the thought finally came to me, “Perhaps the images are wrong.” When Jesus referred to the word translated “hell,” the Greek term that is used is geenna (γεέννα), he was referring to the trash pile outside of Jerusalem. The punishment was not the trash dump itself, but something like the trash dump.

Analogies can provoke different responses from different people. Also, analogies are not to be understood in every aspect. For instance, if I say, “He’s angry as a bear,” what do you see? Eyes? Teeth? Claws? Or do you simply see a general raging? On the other hand, if I say, “His hair is a mess like an angry bear,” what now? More than likely it will be hair standing on end with anger, but the emphasis is on the hair. When I told my son years ago that he and I would go buy rabbit ears, he giggled for two days. He saw literal fuzzy ears (probably Bugs Bunny’s); I saw only the V-shape.

What about the analogy of geenna? I doubt that the general image of a trash dump or the image of being tossed into a trash dump is much different today than back then. The initial reaction is repulsion, powerful and strong distaste, terrible to all the senses. We recoil at terrible smells and filth. The one image I do not carry over (nor do I believe the general reader does when he thinks of a trash dump) is a large, constant fire. It is true there will be smolderings here and there (spontaneous combustion), but there is no unending conflagration.

However (and this has been overlooked in the geenna metaphor), the creatures that live in the dump do not seem to be repulsed. In contrast, they seem quite at home: maggots, carrion birds, dogs, cats, other wild animals. I have travelled to very poor countries, and there are people who live in dumps. They don’t know any different. I’m repulsed, but they don’t seem to be. If taken out and given a chance to live elsewhere, perhaps they’ll never go back. Yet we are aware of stories of people being taken out of their miserable world, and they return to it. The person living inside the dump may or may not be repulsed; for sure the people on the outside looking in are repulsed. The creatures on the inside looking out may be fine. They may avoid undue displeasure (such as a fire here and there), but they are not repulsed.

Consider now the punishment issue. I’m aware of verses that discuss punishment, but I cannot reconcile those as literal when I consider the death of Jesus on the cross. For years I have been told that Jesus died for my sins and the punishment of my sins. I believe that. It does seem the Bible teaches that. If he died for my sins, then why would I be punished? Punished for what?

Of course I’m familiar with the Reformed doctrine that Jesus only died for the saved. If I believed that doctrine, then the unbeliever would be punished for his sins since they haven’t been paid for. The only problem the Reformed view has is the reconciling hell with justice. Naturally there are the replies of God’s sovereignty, His holiness, and man’s wickedness is unable to obey God’s justice. My difficulty with this is fallen creatures are still in God’s image and are not void of it altogether. There may be things that a fallen creature cannot do or will not do, but that is not the same thing as fallen man recognizing what is right and then choosing not to do it (or being inherently unable to do it). Indeed Romans makes it clear that man is without excuse because he does understand right and wrong.

Since I do not subscribe to the Reformed view of the extent of the death of Jesus, my problem is why are people sent to hell IF the sins have been paid for? Those who hold the non-Reformed view of the extent of Christ’s death typically will still say people will be sent to hell for their sins. That is so puzzling to me and unacceptable because if Jesus indeed died for the sins of the world, then why would any sin be punished by God twice? Double jeopardy is understood as being unjust. The death of Christ is actually double jeopardy on steroids … eternal steroids. Once a person has paid the penalty for his crime, then being sent to prison again for the same crime is unthinkable. Jesus paid the penalty, or, if you please, did the time.

I return to the problem: if Jesus died for sins, for the penalty of sins, then why are unbelievers sent to hell? The problem returns again, not to the reality of hell or a final judgment, but to the imagery of the final judgment and hell.

The only imagery that is being allowed is that of a guilty victim before a judge awaiting punishment, in other words, a courtroom judge; however, there is also the imagery of a judge in a sporting event. A judge (or umpire or referee, but still a “decider”) determines who is allowed to play in an event or who officially wins an event. Such judge imagery exists in Scripture.

Scripture does use racing as an event that is judged. The judges determined who has won the gold, silver, or bronze. The losers are not punished for losing, but ever loser does have a decision after a race. Does he want to continue to race or not?

There is only issue separating people from the Lord; it is not whether they have won prizes in their races. The only obstacle is whether they want to be with the Lord or not. As the Bible says, “It is by grace, not by works.” After death the entrance to heaven is not paved by our racing trophies. The only questions are (using the racing motif), “Will you run for the Lord … Can Jesus be the coach … Will you run just to please Him?”

When those questions are answered, the Lord will decide whether the person means it or not. The earnestness of their voice, the sincerity of the looks … these are meaningless. The purpose and intent of the heart are the key, and the Lord knows precisely what that is. He will know if people are saying what others want to hear, if they are trying to manipulate circumstances, if they will commit themselves.

The choice after life is not “Do you want heaven or hell?” That is nonsense. The choice is, “Do you want the Lord or not?” The ultimate issue of this life as well as the next one is not whether we want nice things, but whether we want the Lord. Every atheist I personal know wants nicer things, but … none wants the Lord. To offer heaven or hell as the ultimate choice is to offer a false choice and will bring confusion. In current conservative Christianity, receiving Christ seems to be little more than a “get-out-of-jail” card or a means of becoming happier.

If people have spent their lives rejecting the Lord as their coach in the race of life, there is no reason to believe they will mysteriously and magically make a 180° turn after they die. Attitudes and committed beliefs are not whimsically or effortlessly overturned. They are sterner stuff than diamonds. Their souls will no more want the Lord after being released from the body than when housed within. Death affects the location of the soul, not the beliefs of the soul.

Their “seeing the Lord as He truly is” is meaningless. They will see the Lord as they think He is, as they believe He is. Unless we believe the Lord alters a soul’s beliefs after death (if so, why not change unbelieving attitudes into believing ones), then an unbeliever cannot see the Lord as He really is. They will interpret it differently: “I’m having hallucinations … I’m dreaming … Someone’s doing something to me.” (If the soul does see God as He is, then why should we assume unbelieving human souls will respond any differently than unbelieving spirits, i.e., fallen angels or demons, “We know who you are; leave us alone!”)

Wait, doesn’t the Bible say “every knee will bow and confess Jesus as Lord”? Yes, those who have resurrected bodies will have knees to bow with. There is no Biblical evidence that unbelievers receive a resurrected body, and that is the only body that can continue to live. All other bodies are destined to die.

If “every knee” is figurative, then it will come down to interpretation again. All of us have heard the phrase, “The boss tried to fire me, but I quit instead.” When those after death do not want to be with the Lord, then the only place He won’t be is … hell. If conversations occur in hell, then one soul might transmit to another, “God says He’s the judge and He sent me here, but I really chose. Who’d want to be with Him and all those goofy believers, with their silly songs, praises, and goody-two-shoes nonsense? I’d rather be in this pit any day.” Those who hate the Lord in this life will hate Him in the next.

Do I believe hell exists? Of course. Do I believe it will be miserable? Of course. Do I believe it is a place of eternal torture and punishment for sin? Absolutely not. Why? I do not believe people are sent there as punishment? No, when they reject the Lord, they have chosen to go there for it is the only place left. In any situation in life, if two choices are offered, then the rejection of one is automatically the acceptance of the other.

Christ died for the sins of the world. They are no longer an issue … for heaven … or for hell.