What Must I Do to Avoid Hell? Part 5

Subtitle: What does Hell mean to me?

That subtitle has been hanging over these posts for days. What's the answer, then? What does Hell mean to me? I've explained what would be required to remove Hell. Thus, the existence of Hell means a lot to me. It means that God is Just as well as merciful, Holy as well as gracious. He has righteous wrath for sin and genuine love for those who trust Him. He is good through and through because "good" requires both doing what is right and not doing what is wrong and He does both.

It means that there is justice and there is a real basis for morality. The existence of Hell assures me that sin is not just an anomaly or a fluke or a mistake of DNA, but an affront to the God of Heaven. It assures me that the Bible is reliable (again) and offers the Church back to me for support. It gives real substance to the Gospel. It provides genuine, no, ultimate value in the Cross of Christ. And it puts Man back in his proper place as creature rather than god.

Can you be a Christian and deny Hell? If "Christian" means "follower of Christ" and Christ taught the reality of Hell (and He did), then the answer should be clear. If you redefine "Christian" to mean "the follower of some group of people that consider themselves loosely connected with some guy named Jesus of Nazareth, but only in the way in which each individual envisions it, not necessarily in any concrete way", then of course you can be a Christian and deny the existence of Hell. And since we're apparently in the business these days of redefining terminology, I suppose that's not a problem. I mean, we've redefined "male and female", "marriage", "fornication", "integrity", "homosexual", right and wrong, and so much more. Why not "Christian"? So in that sense it's perfectly reasonable to be a Christian (defined as "someone who calls himself or herself a 'Christian'") and deny Hell. Easy!

None of this proves the existence of Hell or the doctrine thereof. Nor does it offer my views on the nature of Hell. These weren't the intents of the posts. But perhaps, if you can see what's at stake, you, too, might take a serious look at this rising attempt at mediating Hell. It may sound benign, even friendly. It's not. And welcoming it would be a serious mistake.

What must I do to avoid Hell? Well, there are two options. I can deny its existence based on "the love of God" who I then render no longer God, remove justice and morality, defang sin, erase Scripture, the Church, and the Gospel, and build up an unreal picture of Man. Of course, if Hell is real and simply denying the existence of something that is real and terrible doesn't protect me from it, I might need a new strategy. The other option is to avoid it by acknowledging its reality and place my faith in the finished work of Christ who died for me on the cross and rose again so I can have life -- the highest example of love there is. As it turns out, we need Hell. As a clear representative of justice and a stark contrast to Heaven, it's necessary.