Of all the issues one might write about the least attractive relate to hell and human depravity. In managing that burden the Christian is confronted with a series of problems relating to the matter. Addressing an effective solution is difficult in: the horror, the ugliness, the challenge to human perception, the meaning of divine plan, and the context of skeptics in every generation. A person may attend a church and never hear a word about hell, although Scripture provides extensive teaching about it. Understandably the topic, if true, is so encompassing that it arises in serious contexts about human life and death. Jesus spoke many words about the abhorred subject, so we must address the issues if we are contextual Christians.
Depravity is not merely implied in Scripture, it is affirmed. Biblical writers do not back away. The matter is so serious that mankind is unacceptable to God, and will be banished from God’s kingdom – banished to a horrible place of awareness – unless something is done. Not aware that they are doing so, writers touching on the nature of mankind admit depravity, but in a different way than Scripture, and with little or no lasting loss related to future consciousness. Instead of identifying persons as sinners they admit that we are flawed, imperfect, with peccadilloes – and like symbols. Depravity has, in human discourse, an implication of God. Without God, human beings can’t be depraved. In atheism, holiness means nothing. God is necessary to announcing that mankind is depraved – unacceptable to him. Secular writers are simply admitting that mankind is incompetent in the light of what we know we can be. For a few decades, following the rise of evolution, it was believed that mankind is evolving, and close to personal perfection. It is now believed, after terrible crimes and unspeakable warfare, the perfection of mankind in humanism is seen a long way off, if ever possible. The imperfection is accepted and adjustments are made to check out the life, conduct and meaning of the human race. Knowing human fallibility the scientific world commonly replicates experiments for truth about it. Being human is to assure some natural error.
In an article appearing in The Atlantic, Christopher Hitchens addressed the matter of Jew hatred – an issue of prejudice he carried over to other contexts of world society. He ends the article with reference to chosenness which, of course, relates to the living analogy of all peoples before God as found in Old Testament Israel. He then proceeded to ask questions (which are issues) about: Will the Messiah come? Are there special places and peoples? He saw some movement of antisemitism from the Jews to the Muslims in the upheavals of the first decade in the twenty-first century. There is more to be encountered on the subject. The jumble of changes and concerns seems more than we evaluate at this juncture.
The various discussions show us that Bible history is rather widely introduced to the world, but meanings, important details, and teachings have been lost or distorted – perhaps for most discussants. Mankind, granted self-consciousness by God, disobeyed the creator, seeking to be and do what we can never be or do. This rebellion constituted sin. (Whatever is not acceptable with God constitutes sin, whether large or small in the context relating to his holiness.) From that point there was need for loss or rescue. Without righteousness, real or imputed, mankind can’t have communion with God on an ongoing basis. In the plan to rescue from death and loss, God provided a family, Abrahamic, who fostered issue to twelve tribes (we might say states), to make up Israel (we might say the World). From this analogy there appeared leaders, prophets, priests, including Jesus Christ to set things right – for those who choose his faith. That choice is found in humility of surrender, confession of the condition visited to us in our spiritual DNA, and reinstatement with God through Christ’s offering. We cannot rescue ourselves. In the grace and mercy of God the atonement was provided. Only God could make it. Those who accept it gain restoration, and those who reject it seek no redemptive claim. Hell enters the debate. All we know of hell comes from Scripture. Even that is in the logic of Scripture found in parabolic teaching. The disciples pressed Jesus to be specific rather than leave it to them to make personal application of his metaphors. Jesus maintained his doctrine so to offer relief and to warn of loss related to the human condition. However, our faith to the redemptive experience of Christ is not dependent upon our beliefs about hell. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020