Hell

There are several factors about hell that should give anyone pause before launching into a discussion about hades, or hell, or whatever the place may be that is characterized by punishment and the absence of God.  The Bible is our guide, and these Pages are designed in a context of belief that the message of Scripture is not to be amended.  Scripture is to be treated as inspired in a natural context although incorporating earthly standards related to life, language and devotion.  Scripture is miraculous adopting both mortal and immortal contexts with authority.  In simple words, for our theme, if Scripture offers teaching about hell, there is a hell that relates to the Scriptural meaning.  Hell is spoken of as related to fire, to consciousness, to miracle, to punishment in the extreme, to horror – a place to be avoided, and that avoidance is possible.  The length of hell in eternity is related to the same length as heaven.  Permanence is related to both.  The person of Christian faith ought to leave this issue with God.  The acceptance or rejection of hell is not made a necessary factor of saving faith for the individual.  That faith rests in the personal offering of Christ for the sins of the world.  I need not believe in a literal hell or even in the divinity of Christ to be a Christian, although I believe both insofar as I understand Scripture.  I do need to believe in repentance, and faith in the finished work of Christ, and live by the instruction of God in my life.  All other theology will serve some needs in my life, but redemption is the first order.  All else relates to that irreducible experience.

In that light I prognosticate about hell, partly to settle the great paradoxes related to it in God’s control of all that is.  That prognostication relates to various mysteries.  What did Jesus say when he descended into death?  We are told that he addressed the souls of the deceased.  He would not do anything without meaning.  In the sympathy and empathy of God, he would not add to the suffering of persons in descent, and we remember that the figure for God’s position is ascent.  So much of Scripture is cast in figurative language for various reasons, one of which is that persons in any culture can catch the meaning.  Not all cultures espouse the same logics, values and meaning.  Figurative language works around the problem.  What does it mean that in hell the worm dieth not?  If the flames of hell are like the flames of earth, the worm would die.  There are no worms in eternity.  Hell is not like earth, nor is heaven.  There is a mystery in the affirmative and the negative contexts that we do not understand.  If there is an ongoing punishment that omitted, and continues to omit God, it is likely that God offers tolerance to bear whatever pain is related to the rejection of God.  All this is beyond us.  There are many paradoxes for earth.    

We do well to remember that all judgment (evaluation) belongs to God.  He is competent to bear anything that he permits to the creation.  We are partly removed from the matter once we have resolved our spiritual destiny with Christ.  From that point hell becomes a motivating factor in the gospel message so to give greater force to the positive message.  The fear of hell has no private meaning for the Christian whose faith is built on the love and sacrifice of God, not on any private concern about an eternal hell.  The positive has won and the negative has faded away in eternal hope (immortality). We follow God, if we do, for our attraction to him, not for a safety net from tragedy.  Whatever hell’s place in the persuasion of the gospel, it is not the deciding factor.  The natures of some persons require negative motivation for proper action.

All this brings me to wonder if somewhere in the portals of eternity God may redeem hell in some way.  It would not be a rescue we can contemplate here, but a creative one in a context we could never on earth surmise, understand or present.  We know the nature of God is love.  We know that God is omnipotent, and all attributes are with a divine holiness that will utterly astound us in a glory of God’s perfection.  All of this suggests to me that God may find a way to mute or destroy anything in his universe that violates his nature.  There is no evidence for this observation except the nature of God, and an inclination about the meaning of Jesus addressing the souls of the dead, as noted by the Apostle Peter.  Jesus would offer some solace in any context.  The child of God leaves the matter to God’s perfect love, justice and mercy.