Oh Hell!

 

On Sunday, Rowland Croucher spoke at Ranges Community Church, one of the subjects he touched on, was the subject of ‘Hell’ . If nothing else he raised a number of issues that deserve to be seriouly considered by those who like me, struggle enormously with this subject. Having said that, I thought I would dust down this ‘old post’ . If you do happen to read this i would be delighted to hear your views, it matters not if they are orthodox, progressive or liberal.

 

I’ve just finished reading Brian McLaren’s book; The last Word and The Word After That this book is the third book in a trilogy called; A New Kind Of Christian.

 

Like many others, I’ve struggled with a number of theological teachings, these struggles go right back to my teenage years. The interesting thing is that I haven’t found a great deal of resolution, they still remain. By nature I tend to give a great deal of thought to this thing called faith, in many ways this is good but in others it lends itself to a sort of obsessional lunacy.

 

The concept of hell for me presents a rather scary contradiction; it represents one of my greatest theological struggles. I’ve looked at all the options; on a good day (depending on ones perspective) I fluctuate between open –theism, inclusivism and universalism, and on a bad day I start to drift towards a Calvinist outlook one that includes ‘predestination’ ‘the elect’ and its twin ‘exclusivism’ if Calvinism is correct we are all in deep trouble, this theology has borderline sociopathic elements built into it.

 

It would take too long for me to articulate my concerns, except to say that they are more than paradoxical, they are deeply problematic, our theology on this matter at best is pure lunacy at worst bordering on romantic rationalism, this unfortunately seems to lend itself to the following proposition; that the more irrational something appears, the more likely it is to be embraced as truth, the foundation for such a proposition is that we ‘can never understand the mind of God’ and that his ways ‘are not our ways’ the other disturbing heresy(one that exclusivists like) is the irrational view on ‘free will’ this ACE is usually kept till last..

 

This book by the way is about this very same subject; McLaren has shown a great deal of tact and wisdom in broaching the subject, he struggles even more than I do, his background is conservative evangelical, slowly but surely his faith is freeing itself from the shackles of modernity and he is cautiously and tentatively embracing a more comprehensive and much broader understanding that can only be described as post-modern.

 

Many Christian have a theological understanding of scripture that can only be described as ‘default theology’ its become this, due to the missing ingredient called intelligent orthodoxy.

 

When one shows more interest in ones hobbies, than the truths of a theology that is handed out much like a giant pill, the only thing that remains is to swallow it what else can one expect. Working out ones own salvation includes some thought at least about what constitutes an intelligent faith.

 

The danger in all this is my own motive, am I attempting to custom design a faith minus all the bad bits, I can’t honestly answer this, the one thing I can say is that I place a great deal of importance on what resonates as truth, my heart needs to have its say in what constitutes so called truth, in my own case when this is missing, it creates a deep sense of suspicion and doubt, my faith is then reduced to a purely academic exercise one where my own heart is essentially divorced from my faith, this for me will always create an unhealthy emotional and spiritual dichotomy, one where the twain shall never meet.

 

Finally I’ve included quotes from his book;

 

“To believe in God is to believe in the salvation of the world. The paradox of our time is that those who believe in God do not believe in the salvation of the world, and those who believe in the future of this world do not believe in God. Christians believe in “the end of the world” they expect the final catastrophe; the punishment of others…I often say that God must feel very alone, for is there any one besides God who believes in the salvation of the world?” (Louis Evely, In the Christian Image 1975)

 

“Universalism is not as bankrupt of biblical support as some suggest (John 12:32: Acts 3:19-21; Rom. 5: 12-21; I Cor. 15:20-26; 2 Cor.5: 19; Phil.2: 9-11; Eph.1: 10; Col.1: 16-23; I Tim.2: 4, 4:10; Titus 2:11; Heb.2: 9; 2 Pet, 3:9 1 John 2:2) any case for exclusivism must do justice to these and similar passages” (Berton and Chase, p.72)

 

“How can Christians possible project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness (as to inflict) everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they have been? (Such a deity) is more nearly like Satan than God” (Clark Pinnock, in Criswell Theological Review)

Love to hear your thoughts…