Foundational to the reasoning informing Francis Chan's videommercial for his new book is the oft-presented premise that, when it comes to hell, we mere mortals are helpless to understand the mysteries of God's justice.
"Sure" goes this anemic apologetic meme, "to us hell seems cruel and unfair." (And here the person saying this is likely to shrug with an air of amiable haplessness.) "But who are we to try to understand the mind of God? God is for the faithful to worship and obey, not comprehend. All we know is that God is good, and hell is real. How those two things are reconciled must remain a mystery beyond our fathoming."
To me the real mystery is why it's not considered at best absurd and at worst dangerous to suggest that God has a sense of justice diametrically opposed to the sense of justice that is innate to just about every human being. The entire notion is offensively ridiculous. And it's no small thing that it keeps legions of non-Christians bemusedly wondering what mind-numbing drugs Christians take that allows them to not just accept that idea, but actively promote it.
And when non-Christians point to hell as Exhibit A for the case that the Christian god is either too helpless or too cruel to take seriously, why, exactly, do Christians cleave to the distinctly unsatisfying response of "Who (shrug) can know the ways of God?"
1. Because they believe that the Bible says hell is real -- which doesn't leave them a lot else to say about it besides that to us God's justice is insane unfathomable;
2. Because they get off on being part of the team so winning that the penalty for not being on that team is eternal torture; and
3. Because asserting that hell is real but that the morality of hell can't be grasped neatly and absolutely absolves them from any and all moral responsibility for what, to every last appearance, is a grossly immoral cruelty.
And there's the blanket, not exactly warm but definitely fuzzy, that so many Christians contentedly wrap around themselves so that they can sleep at night.
Except that even they don't buy it. Have you ever noticed how no evangelical (or at least not one in anything resembling a national spotlight) will ever actually say that Gandhi, for instance, is right now burning in hell? You can sooner get a garden snail to sing the national anthem than you can an evangelical to just once come out and say that all Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and virtually anyone else who dies a non-Christian goes straight to hell. They simply will not say it. What they will say (and always with that little shrug that allows the prickly mantle of responsibility to slip from their shoulders) is, "Hey, what can I do? It's not me. It's in the Bible."
Even they choke on the distasteful thing they've already swallowed. The injustice of hell is so profoundly anathematic to everything humans instinctively hold dear that even those who believe in hell invariably balk at claiming the objective final truth of hell. Even they can't force their mouths and brains to override their hearts.
And the moment following that inevitable little skip in their pre-recorded message, they're right back to wondering (insofar as they care) why non-Christians persist in rejecting their theology.
If it's true that by justice God means something diametrically opposed to our understanding of that word, what, then, are we to make of Jesus when he talks about love? About peace? About altruism? About honor, righteousness, compassion, loyalty, dignity, truth? Is what Jesus means by those words also radically different than what we mean by them?
And if it is (and why wouldn't it be?), then where in the heck does that leave us?
If we know going in that we can't make sense of God's justice, then what grounds do we have for believing that anything about God makes any sense at all? And why do we even have our inborn sense of right and wrong, if it's so obviously contrary to God's sense of the same thing? Aren't we built in God's image? Isn't the whole idea that we're supposed to champion out in the world the very values of God? But how can we do that, when we so clearly have zero comprehension of justice, which, relative to engaging with others, is arguably the paramount value?
If hell is real and God just, we know squat about justice. If God could shut hell down, but for whatever excellent (and highly secretive) reason chooses not to, then any Christian who goes out into the world meaning to create within it more justice may as well substitute for their goal getting eels to excel at tap dancing. It simply doesn't make sense for me to fight for something that not only do I not understand, but which all available evidence indicates I have perfectly and exactly wrong.
And what are we doing making laws? If our ideas of justice are so egregiously erroneous that, contrary to everything we think, know, and understand, it is, in fact, morally righteous and just that 95% of people who have ever lived spend eternity being tortured in hell simply for dying non-Christian -- even if they died never having heard of Christ -- then why on earth would we bother codifying into laws our clearly dumbass ideas about justice and morality? Then we're like toddlers trying to cook a seven-course gourmet meal. Complete waste -- and extremely dangerous. Guaranteed bad results.
The bottom line on the whole issue of hell is that if hell is real, then God -- and therefore Jesus, who (let us never forget) according to Trinitarian theology is God -- is a sadistic lunatic. And the only way to get around that logically airtight truth is to assert that God's understanding of justice has virtually nothing in common with all of humanity's ideas about justice.
I don't think God is a sadistic lunatic. I think God is just, fair, compassionate, rational, and loving. The Bible's few words about hell are open to all kinds of intellectually, scholastically supportable interpretations. To choose to call true the interpretation of hell being a real place, in real space and time, where real people are forever being fried alive?
Now that is crazy.
John also blogs on JohnShore.com. He invites you to "like" his Facebook page.
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I know that in my imperfect exercise of justice, I try to do what is right. God always does what is right because in addition to noting how people think and act, He can also read the heart.
When God exercises justice it is not a burden for humans instead it makes them happy. Psalm 106:3 “Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.”
The English jurist Blackstone had it right when he said:
“God has so intimately connected, so inseparabl
Institutio
Good article!
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
So the question is who does God determine is guilty and who is not?
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The good news is that because Jesus died on the cross for our sins;
Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Only god knows. Anyone saying they know are jsut guessing and should be ignored.
Hell exists only on earth as our creation. Hell is all around us, the question is do you live in the Kingdom or is your world Hellacious or somewhere in between.
Most "Christian
I'm afraid you have unfairly characteri
Not all Christians that believe in hell shrug their shoulders when asked to defend their belief. Very few of them fall into the 3 caricature
There is much more to the story than the one-sided portrait you painted. Yeah, there are some wackos out there. But there are also caring, thoughtful Christians who have done their homework and do not agree with your opinion on hell.
Nobody should call God just. That would imply God makes decisions. And that implies God is in time. And that implies God is in the physical universe. I'm willing to allow that a god like Zeus or Odin, because they are in the physical universe, might be just. But I don't think they have many worshipper
For me, on the personal level, I try to take Jesus' postion with the woman caught in adultery. He didn't condemn her, he forgave her and told he to sin now more. Now Jesus KNEW that woman would sin again but that example was meant to show just how merciful he is.FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH IN HIM.(john 8:11) So raher than have faith in a compassion
For this article, the Bible verses James 1:13, as well as Job 34:10-12 pointed bring out that God cannot act unjustly or wickedly. Would it really be justice to condemn someone to eternal torment, say for killing a loved one.. especially if you know that you will see them again, interact with them again, love them again? No, it wouldn't be justice at all.
Then you have the account of the Prodigal Son at Luke chapter 15, where God is likened to that Father. And of the four cardinal attributes (Love, Justice, Wisdom, and Power), qualities that God has no equal in, only one, Love, is the quality he directly identifies himself with.
The old testiment itself is a great place to look back and see how criminals were punished. If Hell was a firey place of torment, then why require that criminals be executed prior to being thrown into the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) or executed prior to be put up on a stake? That would make no sense if the evildoer was going to spend eternity being tortured.
And certainly, if a firey hell was real, why is there no indication that Adam went there? Adam, without any doubt, can be considered the worst human ever to existed, because he brought sin and death onto the entire human family. If a eternal torment existed, there is no other person in the history of mankind, who would deserve this punishment more. None. Not Hitler, Not Stalin, Not anyone more than Adam. Yet, God told him that if Adam sinned, he would die. And when he did, God's response was, not a punishment to eternal torment, but to return to the dust (Genesis 3:19). There is no mention, anywhere, of his status after he had died. In fact, if Adam, the worst sinner of all of mankind, had been sent to eternal torment.. then it would have been proof that God is a liar, because that was never mentioned to Adam as part of the punishment of death.
I've never been in that position myself, but some humans show remarkable forgivenes
The truth is that the God of the Bible is not fair. He allows sinners into heaven and sends relatively good people to hell. He ultimately doesn't judge us based on our performanc
What then does that say about Jesus? Was Jesus of poor character? Was he unloving?
Pigufan, makes the following statement below: " The notion that anyone who never hears about Christ is doomed to hell simply because they were born into a culture that doesn't know him is anathema. "
Hmm, I don't necessaril
Matthew 5:17 "Think not that I have come to destroy the law, and the prophets, for I have not come to destroy them but to fulfill them."
To fulfill something is to both fully fill something and fully end something at the same time. A glass fully filled with water, for example, also fully ends something; it ends the emptiness of the glass, the glass lacks emptiness. Just as the exampled glass lacks emptiness, irrational
Law(s) that lack(s) justice are irrational and are a shame to both man and God.
Some often point out that the law(s) identify sin, but often neglect to comprehend that irrational law causes sin because it is sin, and people as a result suffer the pains of hell.
And when the desperatio
When I look back and study ancient history there is no doubt that times were desperate: sickness, disease, crime and chaos. Babies born with any deformitie
Animal sacrifice was prevalent in many cultures and when that ceased to appease the Gods, humans were quite naturally offered, though today we would call that irrational and illogical.
The Divine Emporers, and Kings, were as insane as the God(s).
I believe it was Harry Truman who said, "Walk softly but carry a big stick", which equally sounds like a desperate man. Perhaps it is that hell, in the face of such calamity, was the ancients big stick.
Unfortunat
Whisper words of heaven, carry a big stick, Let It Be. LOL Gotta keep a sense of humor about these things.
I'm not sure how people figure political secularism
Next time those atheists start yaking, I'll remind them where they learned their tactics from, and that they no more mind sending someone to hell then do theists, the only difference being that they prefer it to be in the here and now.
Oh, the irony.....
I cannot believe in a god who would condemn more than half of his creation. I just don't buy it.
More than half the people on this board still think that it was the Emancipati