Learning from Hell

Hell is not a popular topic. Indeed, over the last half-century or so it has grown more and more unpopular. The historical, traditional, orthodox version of Hell -- you know, that concept of eternal conscious torment for eternity -- has become the first offense for many "deconversions", people who claim to have been Christians and then reject Christianity. It has become the prime objection of many who are quite sure that "I could never believe in a God who sends people to Hell."¹ Even those "in the faith", those who seem to be otherwise well connected to biblical reality, are balking at the point of Hell. Rob Bell made headlines back in 2011 with his book, Love Wins, where he denied the biblical reality of Hell², but he wasn't the first ... or the last. Big names like John Stott, Clark Pinnock, Greg Boyd, and N.T. Wright all reject this version of Hell.

The problem, of course, is that it is, frankly, pretty awful. As it turns out, it seems that everyone who rejects the traditional orthodox version of Hell start from this position. "It is really, really horrible ... so it just might not be." The skeptic from that starting point will reject it all. The less skeptical will find a "workaround", some handy method to opt for Universalism -- "Don't worry; everyone gets saved in the end" -- or for annihilationism, the version where everyone who doesn't end up in Heaven simply ceases to exist.

Of course, defending this view from Scripture over against Scripture is pretty tough. All of what we learn about Hell in the Bible we learn from the New Testament, and most of what the New Testament teaches us on the topic comes from the lips of Jesus. Did you know that? Not Paul. Not Peter. Jesus. John speaks of "the lake of fire" (Rev 20). But it was Jesus who gave us the most extreme descriptors. He referred to "gehenna", the local trash heap that burned continually (Matt 5:22), "unquenchable fire" (Mark 9:43), "eternal fire" (Matt 18:8), the "hell of fire" (Matt 18:9), the "worm" that "does not die" (Mark 9:48), the "place of torment" (Luke 16:28), "outer darkness" (Matt 8:12), and "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 13:42)³. Now, I know that many try to turn all this into a temporary event that results in annihilation, but when John writes, "The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night ..." (Rev 14:11), it's pretty hard to hang your hat on annihilation without simply dismissing "they have no rest".

The traditional, historical, orthodox, biblical version of Hell is without doubt one of the most unpleasant concepts to our minds. Even we who believe in it because, frankly, the Bible (and, therefore, God Himself) demands it are repulsed by the idea. I have never seen any representation of Hell that appears to be too extreme in the torments it depicts. And the fact that most of the descriptions are symbolic suggests not that it isn't as bad as we might think, but rather that it is far worse than we can imagine. So, given that Jesus taught it and the rest of Scripture concurs, what's good about Hell? After all, if God is good and Hell is His idea, there must be some value to it.

The Problem of Sin

When we think of sin, we think of "doing bad things". This is one of our objections to eternal torment. I mean, why would transgressing God's rules on a short-term, temporal basis result in eternal damnation? Seems like overkill ... without the "kill". The problem, of course, is that we don't get it. First, complaining that we only did the crime in a short lifespan is like arguing that the murder only happened over a matter of minutes, so the killer shouldn't have to serve more than that for his crime. Time is irrelevant. What is? The magnitude of the crime. So we all understand that the punishment is determined by how grave the crime was, not how much time it took to commit. So what does Hell tell us about the magnitude of the crime? It is eternal, deserving of everlasting torment. That's big. In truth, sin isn't a violation of rules, but an affront to the Glory of God, an eternal concept of its own. It isn't "doing bad things"; it's Cosmic Treason against the Most High God. At this point, if you're thinking about it properly, you might begin to realize that an eternity of torment isn't sufficient to pay for the violation. Hell, then, tells us that the problem of sin is much bigger than we realize.

The "Bad News"

Without bad news, good news is irrelevant. Telling me, "Good news! There's air out here!" is pointless if there was never any fear of there not being air out there. And if there is anything at all about which we are deeply concerned as Christians, it is the Good News. So if the Universalists are right, the "bad news" is ... "Well, never mind. Everyone gets saved, so go on about your business and be happy." Not much. If the Annihilationists are right, it's only slightly more. "The bad news is that after a lifetime of sinning without coming to faith in Christ ... you'll stop being." Now, I can tell you that this isn't such a bad thing. I can tell you this because during the largest part of all history I was not ... and it didn't bother me much. Okay, at all. So if my punishment is to cease to be, that's not particularly pleasant, but it's much better than that "eternal torment" thing. Whew! But if the historical, traditional, biblical, orthodox version -- you know, the one described most by Jesus -- is true, then the "Bad News" is huge. This problem with God that our sin has brought about is far worse than we can even imagine, and the consequences are far worse than we can guess. It's a bad thing. Consequently, the Good News of the salvation offered by Christ is conversely bigger than we could ask or think.

The Magnitude of God's Glory

Here's something you may not have considered. If Hell is the just reward for those who transgress God's glory, what does that say about God's glory? If Heaven is the place where we dwell in eternal light and life in the presence of God's glory, what is Hell? You see, as it turns out, the worse Hell is, the larger God's glory is displayed. If the punishment fits the crime and the crime deserves eternal torment, how big is that crime? How big is God's glory? If the punishment for violating His glory is eternal fire of any sort, His glory must be far greater than we can imagine. And all the little glimpses here, all the biblical texts and personal experiences and deep imaginings of His marvelous glory pale in comparison to the reality.

Hell is bad. It is biblically a place of eternal torment apart from God. It is far worse than we can imagine. But it has positives. It tells us that sin is worse than we thought. It tells us that the bad news is worse than we imagined. But it also tells us that the Good News is far, far better than we dreamed, and that our God's glory is beyond comprehension. Indeed, if Hell is understandable, then God's glory isn't that big of a deal.

It is my suspicion that the problem of Hell is not a problem of justice or even a problem of biblical warrant, but a problem of a failing to see the magnitude of sin and the just reward of violating an eternal God. It appears not to be a biblical problem, but a personal one. It appears to be another case of "not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (Mark 8:33). You know, if God is good, if the Holy Spirit properly informed His people since He was sent to lead us into all truth, and if the Bible can be trusted.
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¹ Bertrand Russell, famous atheist, wrote in his essay "Why I Am Not a Christian", that since Jesus taught Hell, he was not a good moral teacher.

² Rob Bell has gone on to reject other biblical concepts since, so I use the phrase "seem to be otherwise well connected to biblical reality" advisedly. In fact, it appears that many who start off rejecting the biblical Hell end up rejecting a lot more of historical, traditional, orthodox views of Scripture.

³ References for these descriptors are singular. Actual references are multiple. There are lots of places Jesus says these types of things.