All posts tagged hell

Lesson 9: What About Hell?

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Salvation with No comments

Bob reminds us we can not get way without saying something about hell. As you consider the most typical idea of salvation– a trip on the up escalator rather than on the down one — you face a problem. How do we account for the clear expressions in the New Testament of the fate of the dammed? Today this idea of Hell seems obsolete, but there still are some verses to be considered. I assume there are various possibilities: 1. Some scholars may argue that Jesus never said these things. They are inauthentic. 2. Interpreters of the verses may try to show that they have a meaning different than that which has traditionally been assigned to them. 3. Some may argue that taking the Bible as a whole, this theme of damnation is strongly overshadowed by that of a loving, caring, God. A fundamentalist will say “The words are there. You try to avoid them for your own convenience.” One has to confront his challenge.

We are all, no matter what we say to ourselves or others, continually changing the tradition. Two thousand years after the Bible was written, we live with very different families, governments, communities, economies, and technologies. Jesus justifies new interpretations when he promises the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13) Only Bob’s third option allows us to develop rather than bypass the tradition. No matter how possible #1 and #2 are, their arguments end up with either wise or stupid opinion.

There is an extensive tradition, beginning with Hosea, that pictures God as a lover who can not help himself. (Hosea 11:1-11) Like an ever-loving husband who can not abandon his unfaithful wife (Isaiah 54: 5-10) or a mother who constantly cares for the rebellious child she carried and nursed (Isaiah 49:15), God loves us unconditionally. The tradition culminates in I John 4: 7-21 where John proclaims “God is love”. John is not simply claiming “God loves” but that his nature or character is love. The aim of salvation then is not racking up a score to see if we have more good than bad marks, but changing our natures, so we can participate in the life of God.

Many theologians, including Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, continue this tradition, regarding this text as a s a complete description of the Christian life. They do not necessarily say God saves everyone. Some commit the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit that refuses God’s offer. That does not mean they are punished or tortured. The emphasis, as in the New Testament, is on not being able to enter the Kingdom (Luke 13: 5, 9). God’s wrath then is the natural consequences of living a sinful life. Some are simply allowed to die a second death (Revelation 2: 11, 20: 14, 21: 8) or are thrown on the garbage dump (Matthew 13: 30).

I have always thought that the picture offered by a saint from my parish makes good biblical sense. She suggested we found ourselves at an elevator after we died where we are asked “Up” or “Down”. When we observe we thought someone else made the choice, we are assured it has always been up to us alone. We choose the life where we are comfortable. Sometimes we are wise, sometimes we are stupid. This seems to make the point very well.

Lesson 7: Saved from What?

by Scott Noon on October 28, 2011 in Salvation with No comments

I’ve put aside my original outline and am following Bob’s advice to examine Lupe’s points one at a time. She suggested we might do well asking from what we are being saved and observed that traditional answers fall short. Let me list four different takes on from what we are saved.

1. The first is simply “from Satan and hell”. I agree with Lupe that this doesn’t really work in our world any more. “Hell has lost most of its terrors”, because most modern people laugh at “the picture of a tangible Hell filled with physical suffering and tortures”. Even though they might not be believers, they know the God whom Jesus called Father would not be involved with such things.

Quite frankly, most of the Bible laughs as well. Our ideas of Satan and hell are missing from the Old Testament all together. The New Testament uses the terms but no where close to what we continually hear.

2. Both testaments are very realistic, claiming God saves us from political oppression and injustice as well as business dishonesty and abuse. These are the things that Lupe describes as “evil for all times”. We all experience them, some of the world more than the rest of us. They pray for deliverance from hunger, war, and disease.

3. But as Lupe observed the whole world needs deliverance from “daily mindless pollution, blatant waste, indifference to others, cruel displays of wealth in times of hardship for the world; forcing people to give up their dignity through hardship and want.” I would add salvation from the loneliness of a technological society that has removed them from intimate relationships, the heartbreak of a radically individualism where they have been abandoned, the meaningless of an indifferent scientific world view that pictures us as insignificant, and the self hatred of a obsessively competitive society.

4. However, the New Testament goes even deeper claiming we primarily need to be saved from ourselves. Most of the time, it describes the Wrath of God as the natural consequences of not living according to God’s Way. Our Muslim brothers and sisters define primal sin as forgetfulness. Sin is to forget God and so to forget who we are. When I forget God, I become insecure and fearful. I am obsessed by death that makes all my efforts vain. I am continually selling my soul as I buy that which can not bring security. I find myself entrapped in fear not love.

Next week let’s begin looking at the classical pictures of salvation and how they promise to save us from these.

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