Where the hell?
Either no-one's out there or no-one wants to express their view of hell. Actually I had one e-mail from a friend who sort of said 'Yes I believe in hell, but I don't know what it is'.
I want to suggest why no-one particularly wants to talk about it - I don't think anyone actually believes in hell.
I suspect some who might read this will protest. To those I would suggest that they consider their eternal destiny very carefully. Consider the biblical passages that deal with judgement - you will note that judgement is based not so much on what you believe but on your actions (sheep and goats is but one example). So you believe in the eternal torment of the unregenerate, and the God who instituted this punishment is going to judge you. Your task (and you chose to accept it) was to do everything in your power to help your friends, relatives, acquaintances, enemies, in fact everyone you come across, to avoid the eternal flames. How have you done? How have you spent your time? How many words have you wasted? How many times have you spent valuable seconds on your own pleasure? Can you afford to sleep more than a couple of hours?
So, how will you fare in the judgement? Will you score better than 50%? What will be your punishment? It will be meted out by a supreme being who decided on eternal torment for those who refuse to believe. What will be the punishment for those who did believe but didn't do enough about it? Can there be a worse punishment than eternal torment?
So, I don't really think you believe in hell. Maybe I'm just stirring the flames, maybe it's because I'm just recovering from a nasty virus, but I don't think you do, really.
I want to suggest why no-one particularly wants to talk about it - I don't think anyone actually believes in hell.
I suspect some who might read this will protest. To those I would suggest that they consider their eternal destiny very carefully. Consider the biblical passages that deal with judgement - you will note that judgement is based not so much on what you believe but on your actions (sheep and goats is but one example). So you believe in the eternal torment of the unregenerate, and the God who instituted this punishment is going to judge you. Your task (and you chose to accept it) was to do everything in your power to help your friends, relatives, acquaintances, enemies, in fact everyone you come across, to avoid the eternal flames. How have you done? How have you spent your time? How many words have you wasted? How many times have you spent valuable seconds on your own pleasure? Can you afford to sleep more than a couple of hours?
So, how will you fare in the judgement? Will you score better than 50%? What will be your punishment? It will be meted out by a supreme being who decided on eternal torment for those who refuse to believe. What will be the punishment for those who did believe but didn't do enough about it? Can there be a worse punishment than eternal torment?
So, I don't really think you believe in hell. Maybe I'm just stirring the flames, maybe it's because I'm just recovering from a nasty virus, but I don't think you do, really.
posted by Peter and Heather King at 12:49 pm
2 Comments:
I suppose it depends on what you mean by Hell? Are we talking about a Dante / Simpsons place where the devil roasts us on a spit (and sounds like Ned Flanders) or something else? I found a link to the soc.religion.christian usenet group which I found helpful in expaining a few of the current popular beliefs on the subject.
I suspect I'm a borderline annihilationist at the moment (yippee - I have a label).
Let's discuss it at Third soon and you can try and talk me out of it :-)
Hi Peter. I stumbled across your blog while searching for the blog of the Sports Illustrated writer Peter King. Still haven't found his blog, but I'm glad to have found yours. Your thoughts are very interesting. I do believe in Hell. Some of the ideas that helped shape my sense of what Hell is are in C. S. Lewis' books "The Problem of Pain" and "The Great Divorce". Down to base levels, the idea is that Hell is a place where provisions are made for those who have decided that they want nothing to do with the Creator's transforming love changing them into what He intends them to be, they want nothing to do with submission to His will over their own. Turning down the only real happiness there is in the universe, which is submitting to Him and participating with Him in completing us and perfecting us. Those who refuse this are free to do so, but they are choosing starvation over nourishment. I think that Lewis said somewhere that there are 3 alternatives: to be God, to respond to God as creature to creator, or to be miserable. I think that Hell is no more and no less than the miserable alternative. Lewis has a good chapter in "The Problem of Pain" dedicated to Hell, but the overall book (save for the first and last chapters) has helped me both get past my personal hang ups about Hell that not long ago drove me away from organized religion, and retain a belief in Hell as a real place.
I like the questions you raise.
Thanks for blogging :)
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