The Divided Waters (Part 3)

        There are further Scriptural examples which seem to express the idea of eventual universal salvation. The Bible doesn’t say we will all be accepted into eternal life just the way we are. There will be a period of correction and fine-tuning for everyone, but it sounds like we will all be reconciled after a certain amount of time. I base my interpretations on the verses shown below. They are divided into five categories: Verses about God’s mercy, verses indicating redemption after death, indications of God’s love for non-Christians, support for universal reconciliation, and verses I still have questions about.          

Verses about God’s mercy

This section features passages which express God’s forgiving and compassionate nature.

                                                

-Micah 7:19-“You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

-Psalm 145:9-“The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all His works.” See Psalm 89:31-33, 145:8-9, 14; Jonah 4:2; Luke 6:35-36; Lamentations 3:31-33; Isaiah 55:7; Matthew 5:44-45; Job 6:14; Acts 14:17; James 1:5, 5:11; and 1 Timothy 1:13.

-James 2:12-13-“Mercy triumphs over judgment.” God’s judgments are ultimately merciful. See Zechariah 7:9-10, where He defines true justice as mercy and compassion.

-Ephesians 2:8-9-“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” This is widely interpreted to mean that personal conversion can save us. However, to convert to Christianity is an action, which would fall under the category of “works.” The Bible specifically says that grace is not based on anything we do. Thus we are not saved by the act of converting, but by God’s divine mercy. See Titus 3:3-7.

-Romans 2:4-“Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” God is the one who incites us to repent.

-Romans 11:26-“All Israel will be saved…He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” God will remove the peoples’ flaws, rather than remove the flawed people.

Verses indicating redemption after death:

This section covers the idea that we’ll be able to turn to God after we die.

-Romans 6:7- “For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

-1 Corinthians 15:26-“The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” See 1 Corinthians 15:54. This flies in the face of an eternal hell. How could “death,” aka alienation from God, be destroyed if some people were doomed to eternal alienation from Him? If that were the case, death would not be destroyed or defeated. It would be in effect forever.

Indications of God’s love for non-Christians

These passages show that God loves people regardless of their religious beliefs.

-Isaiah 65:1-“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call on My name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’”

-1 Timothy 4:10-“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” This verse says “especially,” but not “exclusively.” It affirms that salvation is foremost offered to believers, but extends to others as well. If only Christians were saved, the word “especially” would not be included, nor would it say that God is the savior of all. See Ephesians 2:14 and 3:6.

-Acts 17:28-“As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” In this verse, Paul was speaking to non-Christians. This means that non-Christians are also God’s children. See Malachi 2:10.

-Romans 2:14-15-“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Nonbelievers can be morally upright as well, since God imprints His standards into everyone’s heart.

-Isaiah 54:7-10-“’For a brief moment I abandoned you (Israel), but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,’ says the Lord your Redeemer. ‘To Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” If the Lord said He’d never rebuke Israel again and knew that some Israelites would reject Jesus as the Messiah, He must have also been planning to save the Israelites who didn’t believe in Jesus. If all of Israel will be saved, this includes those who don’t yet worship Christ (see Romans 3:3-4). The text says that everyone will eventually come to know Christ in the age to come.

Support for universal reconciliation

This section contains verses showing that the whole world will see redemption eventually. 

-Hebrews 7:25-“He is able to save to the uttermost.” God is both able and willing.

-Ezekiel 18:4-“All souls are Mine.” Because all souls belong to God, He can do whatever He wishes to do with them. God has expressed a desire to save them all, so that is what He’ll do.

-Revelation 21:5-“Behold, I make all things new.” All things include all people.

1 Timothy 1:16: “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” Christ’s patience has no limitations, which means he has patience for everyone and the supply will never run out. 2: Peter 3:15 tells us to “count the patience of our Lord as salvation.” When these verses are read together, it follows that all will be saved.

-Romans 11:15-16-“If their (Israel) being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit (Israel) is holy, the lump (of humanity) is also holy.”

-2 Peter 3:9-“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” One can repent in the upcoming age, after they are resurrected. God wills for this to happen and will carry it out. See Romans 14:1-4, 15:21; 1 Corinthians 4:5; and Ephesians 2:1-0.

-1 Timothy 2:3-6-“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” Here, it’s important to note that the word translated to “will” (God “will have all men to be saved”) is the Greek word thelo. The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament defines thelo as “To will as the equivalent of to purpose, to be decided upon, seeing one’s desire to execution…Thelo indicates not only willing something, but also pressing it into action.” In other words, God not only wants to save all men, but also fully intends to do it. See John 1:7-9; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 28; Colossians 1:19-20; Titus 2:11; 1 John 2:2, 4:14; Revelation 15:4; Ephesians 1:7-10; Acts 3:21, 25-26; Luke 2:10, 3:6, 9:56, 15:4; Joel 2:28; Daniel 9:24; Isaiah 25:6-8, 45:22, 52:10, and 53:5-6.

-Exodus 21:33-34-“If anyone uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or donkey falls into it, the one who opened the pit must pay the owner for the loss and take the dead animal in exchange.” This law promotes personal accountability and extends to the fact that God owns us, and is therefore liable for us. In Genesis, He placed the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden and was fully aware that Adam and Eve would eat from it. This must have been part of His plan, since nothing catches God by surprise and all is under His control. Ergo, it infers that God was responsible for man’s fall and will redeem us.

-Psalms 66:3-4-“Through the greatness of Your power, Your enemies shall submit themselves to You. All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You.” When everyone is resurrected and the world is renewed, all will eventually turn to God. It doesn’t sound like they’ll be brutally forced to submit, but that they’ll see the full truth of God. Once God’s goodness and truth is fully revealed, no one will want to resist Him. See Philippians 2:9-11; Romans 8:21; and Ephesians 1:7-10.

-2 Corinthians 5:18-19-“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” The world includes everything and everyone in it. Also, consider Ephesians 4:6: “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” If everything is a part of God, it always will be, because He is infinite. If a part of God broke off and was no longer a part of Him, He would cease to be infinite. Losing a person would entail losing a part of Himself. See Colossians 1:16-18 and 2 Timothy 2:13.

-1 Corinthians 4:6-“Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, ‘Do not go beyond what is written.’ Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.” When the early Christians were warned not to go beyond what was written, they were likely being advised not to trust some of the popular Pagan and Jewish lore which featured dramatic tales of demons and the underworld. Such lore had begun to circulate during this time. A popular interpretation of this passage says we shouldn’t look outside the Bible for answers, but the prophets were not saying this. They didn’t purport to know everything. This is expressed in 1 Corinthians 13:9-12.

-1 Timothy 1:20-“Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.” In this letter, Peter uses Satan as a symbolic figure to convey that he allowed the men to face consequences so they would learn a lesson. See 1 Corinthians 5:4-5, 11:32; Hebrews 12:5-6; and Proverbs 3:11-12. (In 1 Corinthians 11:32, “the world” pertains to the world of sin.)

-Romans 5:15-21-“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In this passage, “death” refers to physical death, or possibly unrighteousness. It says that all people receive life and justification through Jesus. Romans 5:15-16 also says “many” receive justification, which some perceive as evidence that God doesn’t save everyone. However, the same two verses also say that “many” are sinners. If taken literally, this would imply that some people do not sin. We know the Bible doesn’t teach this, though, because there are numerous verses saying that everyone sins. For this reason, we shouldn’t be hasty to assume that “many” means a limited number of people, inferring that only a limited number of people are sinners and only a limited number will be saved. The word translated into “many” is pollos, which can also mean “all”. When you look at the verse contextually, you see that it should have been translated into English as, “For just as through the disobedience of one man all were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man all will be made righteous.”

Conversely, in Romans 5:18, the word translated to “all” is pantas. In Greek, pantas is strictly defined as “all” or “everyone/everything”. There are no alternate definitions that would allow for limited atonement. It’s an all-inclusive term.

Verses I still have questions about:

This section contains verses I’m unclear about, but they seem to support the aforementioned arguments.

-1 Peter 4:6-“For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.” When he says “those who are now dead,” I wonder whether he means physically or spiritually dead? If this verse refers to the physically dead, it refutes the common belief that we receive no “second chance” after we die.

-Isaiah 57:15-18-“I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me—the breath of man that I have created. I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid My face in anger, yet he kept on in his sinful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel.” I have questions about this passage. In 57:17, was God implying that He punished man in hopes that he would mend his ways, but the outcome didn’t pan out as hoped? If so, why did God do this if He already knew it wouldn’t work out? At any rate, the message is clear: The Lord reconciles us to Himself.

(Continued in Part 4)

The Divided Waters (Part 2)

Why I don’t believe in limited salvation or the existence of hell

-Some argue that hell exists because of God’s wrath and because the Bible says that God “hates” certain people. In arguing from this angle, one forgets that the ancient Israelites were known to speak and write in hyperbole (obvious and intentional exaggeration) in order to illustrate a point. They had no word in their language for “like” or “dislike,” so they used the terms “love” and “hate.” Romans 9:13 states, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” God is said to have “hated” Esau because He disapproved of some of his actions and did not select him for the same purpose as his brother Jacob. However, God later redeemed Esau and reconciled him with Jacob. These don’t sound like hateful actions. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says, “If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is not telling his disciples to despise their parents and siblings with blood-boiling hatred, nor is he ordering them to loathe their own lives. He’s simply telling them to prioritize God over people.

As for wrath, the Greek equivalent of the word is “orgee.” Orgee means anger. It’s interchangeable with the word “vengeance” and it means “to repay.” God does not repay with inordinate punishments, but doles out a consequence that is equal to the crime. The famous “eye for an eye” legal code was introduced in Exodus 21:24 in order to prevent punishments that were far too severe. It was not meant literally, but used as a means to ensure that the repercussion fit the crime. The Bible describes God’s discipline as carefully and fairly measured (Romans 2:6; Leviticus 24:18-20; Psalm 62:12). No sin would be proportional to never-ending punishment, since eternity is immeasurable.

There are some Biblical passages in which God becomes angry at various clans of people and says He will show them no mercy. Withholding mercy is not a permanent judgment, though. It means He will not relent from disciplining people until they have learned their lesson. Even striking them dead is not a final judgment. God causes the sinners to die physically, but also causes them to die to their sin (Romans 6:7, 7:9; 2 Corinthians 4:11). Their physical death is not final either, as they will be resurrected in the future.

In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus says, “Every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not…either in this age or in the age to come.” Some cite this as evidence that God doesn’t always forgive. This verse does not mean they will never be forgiven, though. It’s reasonable to speculate that their redemption will take place at a later time, or that they must face an appropriate penalty before being absolved. “In the age to come” is not synonymous with “forever.” Plenty of people also presume that Matthew 7:21 and Luke 13:23-28 refer to some being eternally separated from the kingdom of heaven, but neither of these passages indicate permanent estrangement from God. There may be temporary separation, but the people discussed in those passages will receive another chance. In Hebrews 3:16-19, the concept of “never entering God’s rest” is commonly read to mean that the Israelites who disobeyed God were forever barred from heaven, but it actually means they were not able to enter the  Promised Land on earth.

-In early Scriptural manuscripts written in Hebrew and Greek, people are not said to be eternally punished. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated to “forever/everlasting/eternal” is “olam.” Olam describes an undetermined amount of time, not necessarily eternity. It also meant “of God,” “age-abiding,” or “of the age to come.” In the New Testament, the word translated to “eternity” or “forever” is aion. “Aion” is the Greek version of “olam.” Some assert that aion and olam mean eternal because the words are used to describe God. However, they are also ascribed to the amount of time Jonah spent inside the big fish. He was in the fish’s stomach for three days.

The word “aion” is translated to “time” in 1 Corinthians 2:7: “No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” Obviously in this case, aion does not mean eternity. “Before eternity began” would make no sense, because eternity has no beginning. In the same way, eternity doesn’t make sense in the context of “eternal” life, because both our physical lives and afterlives have a beginning. The original phrase was “aionious” life. In this context, it meant “of the age to come.” This related to the age following the Second Coming of Christ, when the world will be rebuilt and reconciled with God.

The word “aion” is translated to “for ages past” in Ephesians 3:8-9: “…and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.” Obviously “aion” does not mean forever in this verse. An eternal secret would never be revealed, yet it is being revealed in this passage.

Even if the original Scriptures had spoken of eternity, it could be viewed as hyperbole. Regardless, the early manuscripts don’t speak in terms of eternity unless the verses pertain to God’s nature.

-Words relating to fire and torture are also vastly misunderstood. In both the Old and New Testament, fire is a metaphor for correction. It is used to refine a person, not to senselessly torment them. Malachi 3:2 describes God as “like a refiner’s fire.” It logically follows that the Lake of Fire is a refining fire as well. According to Mark 9:49, “Everyone will be salted [refined/corrected] with fire.” If the description of fire in this verse were to be read literally and associated with hell, it would mean that everyone will be damned. Obviously, this isn’t the case.

As for torture, the original Greek word is kolazo. This was translated into English as “torture.” However, the New Testament Greek lexicon defines it differently: “1. To lop or prune, as trees and wings. 2. To curb, check, restrain. 3. To chastise, correct, punish. 3. To cause to be punished.” None of these definitions entail torture. Most refer to correction, which would be a pointless process if it were everlasting. The only definition which could possibly relate to torture would be “to punish.”

There is a distinction between punishment and torture. Torture is sadistic and cruel, which are not qualities of God. Punishment serves the purpose of correction, however, and rehabilitation is punishment’s ultimate goal. You discipline an unruly child with the intent to teach him, not to torture him. You don’t hate your child when he is disobedient. In the same way, God doesn’t hate us when we rebel. He seeks to reconcile us to Himself. Consider Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Compare this statement with Romans 11:32: “God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

If God hated sinners, He wouldn’t have reached out to us. This doesn’t mean we face no repercussions for our sins. It simply means the repercussions are doled out in love. According to Hebrews 12:5-6, “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as His son.” This theme is repeated in Job 5:17; Psalm 94:12; Proverbs 3:11-12; 1 Timothy 1:20; Deuteronomy 8:5; and Revelation 3:19. Since everyone will face discipline in the upcoming age, we can conclude that God loves all of us enough to improve us.

According to world-renowned Greek scholar and translator William Barclay, “The Greek word for punishment here [Matthew 25:46] is kolasis, which was not originally an ethical word at all. It originally meant the pruning of trees to make them grow better. I think it is true to say that in all Greek secular literature kolasis is never used of anything but remedial punishment.”

-A lot of people think that passages about “death,” “destruction,” or “perishing” relate to hell. They actually relate to three different things, none of which include eternal torture. First, the use of the word “death” is not always metaphorical. It sometimes refers to literal physical death. Secondly, it can allude to the figurative death of sin. When the Lake of Fire (in which the “fire” symbolizes refinement and correction) is called “the second death,” one can deduce that it refers to the death of sin which follows physical death. The Lake of Fire is discussed in Revelations, which describes the day in which all the dead will be resurrected and fully reformed. Our reformation is both physical and spiritual. According to the text, we will be honed, fixed, and ultimately healed. Thus, the second death is the death of our sinful nature. The “fire” itself is not eternal, but its results are everlasting. We're not destroyed when our sin is destroyed. Instead, we are renewed. A sinner is “destroyed” in the same sense that you can destroy an enemy by making him into a friend.

“Destruction” and “perishing” can also mean general harm or failure, such as in the context of “the path that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13) or “to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16; Proverbs 18:24).

Romans 9-11 makes much more sense to me when read in this context. I interpret it to say that God elects certain people to have specific knowledge and to carry out certain tasks. God allows others to be immoral so that people will learn from them. However, “destruction” does not mean they will be unredeemed forever (See 2 Samuel 14:14 and Romans 11:25-32). In the same way that we can misread the concept of destruction, we also tend to use “saved” or “salvation” as catchall terms. Being saved could mean being restored or being guided toward a productive and healthy path. It can also refer to the preservation of one’s physical life. In light of the other definitions, one can see that it does not refer to being spared from eternal torture.

-The parable about Lazarus and the rich man does not read like a literal description of heaven and hell. It appears to be a metaphor that contrasts Israelites with Gentiles (non-Jews), in which Jesus advised his countrymen to show compassion for Gentiles instead of lording their spiritual blessings over them.

The rich man who is clothed in purple and fine linen represents a Pharisee of Jesus’ day. According to The Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary, “The wearing of purple was associated particularly with royalty . . .” (“Purple,” p. 863). The New Bible Dictionary says, “The use of linen in OT times was prescribed for priests (Ex. 28:39). The coat, turban and girdle must be of fine linen.” (“Linen,” p. 702). This indicates that the man clad in purple and expensive linen symbolized priesthood and royalty. In Exodus 19:6, God says of the Israelites, “And ye shall be to me a royal priesthood and a holy nation: these words shalt thou speak to the children of Israel.” The Pharisees loved money and prestige, just like the rich man in this parable. Pharisees were present while Jesus told the story, so he had to be mindful not to spell it out explicitly. However, they realized he was alluding to them and were outraged.

The poor man, Lazarus, represents a Gentile in the way he waits outside of the rich man’s gate and begs for crumbs of food (which symbolize spiritual blessings). This relates to Gentiles because they were said to have been left outside the gate of Judah in Ephesians 2:12. They wanted to be blessed by the Israelites, but were snubbed due to Judah’s holier-than-thou attitude. Jesus strongly deterred people from spiritual elitism and urged the Jews not to shun the Gentiles. He encouraged people to reach out to all who were needy, sinful, broken, “unclean,” or depraved. He preached equality and unity.

In the parable, Lazarus and the rich man’s death signified a shift in their spiritual positions. Lazarus is taken to “the bosom of Abraham,” meaning he is in favor with God. The rich man, however, is in “hell” (which simply meant “concealed” or “covered.”) He calls out to Abraham, meaning that he assumes his ancestor will redeem him because all families are blessed through Abraham. The rich man believes that he retains righteousness through his ancestry, but does not seek God. When he is enveloped in flames (symbolizing deep emotional anguish), he asks Lazarus to cool his tongue with a drink of water. Now, this is not a literal fire. Everyone knows that a sip of water would do nothing to alleviate the agony of being fully immersed in flames. In Luke 16:26, Lazarus tells the rich man, “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.” The great gulf is the rich man’s self-righteousness and lack of faith. If he humbles himself and seeks God, he can overcome his predicament.

Another factor conveys that this parable is not about hell: The rich man represents a Pharisee, but Romans 11:25-26 says that “all of Israel will be saved.” This is mentioned repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. Therefore, even the Pharisees are not condemned to an afterlife of endless torment.

Other points to consider

-The belief in hell generally incites people to obey God more out of fear than out of love.

-If you can’t be saved through your own actions, why would you be damned by them either?

-If the wages of sin is death (in the sense of perdition, rather than simply physical death), wouldn’t Jesus have had to spend eternity in hell in order to pay the full price of our sins?

-How could Jesus be more powerful than Adam if Adam was able to condemn everybody, but Jesus was unable to save all of us?

-Wouldn’t the existence of hell entail that Jesus had failed in his mission to save all of mankind? See John 3:17, 12:32, 12:47; 1 Timothy 2:4, 2:6, 4:10; Colossians 1:19-20; Titus 2:11; Ephesians 1:7-10; 1 Corinthians 15:28; Luke 3:6; Joel 2:28; and Isaiah 45:22-25.

-If we’re supposed to love our “enemies,” would God do any less? Jesus tells us to share our love regardless of reciprocation; not to merely love those who love us. Since this is the case, wouldn’t God be sinning if He only loved those who love Him?

-“The path is narrow” (Matthew 7:13) sounds like it alludes to the fact that there are limited ways to be righteous, not limited ways to be admitted to heaven. When Jesus says that many try to find the path but only a few discover it, he may be using “life” as a metaphor for righteousness.

-If we are judged immediately after death (which the Bible does not say), why would we need to be assessed again at the Resurrection? If God’s punishments are “completed” in the days of the Second Coming (Revelation 15:1), why would they continue in hell? An eternal punishment is never completed.

-If God wills that all people be saved, why would He be incapable of carrying out His own will? This would mean He’s not all-powerful. How would Jesus have won if so many souls ended up in eternal torment? As Gerry Beauchemin wrote in Hope Beyond Hell, “God, as Creator, is owner of all things (Ps. 2:8; Ez. 18:4; Col. 1:16; He. 1:2), and that includes you and I. He has never relinquished that title. Only He has absolute ‘free’ will over His property. Should we be forever lost, He would be the loser.”

-The very word “hell” is derived from “Hele,” the Norse goddess of the underworld. “Hel” was the name of their underworld, and it featured a vicious three-headed dog called Cerberus. Originally the word “hel” simply meant “hidden” or “underneath.” It appeared in the 1611 KJV spelled as “hel.” This type of underworld was introduced to Christian doctrine when the church was trying to convert as many Pagans as possible. They wanted to transition them into Catholicism by allowing them to preserve certain Pagan traditions. In the process, the Catholic Church incorporated some Pagan beliefs into their own teachings.

-Hell was never mentioned in the Torah. If Jesus were first introducing the concept of hell in the NT, he wouldn’t have spoken of it so casually. It wouldn’t have sounded like everyone already knew what he was referring to. He speaks of Gehenna, which was translated into “hell” a number of times. Gehenna, however, was a garbage dump just outside of Jerusalem. This was where worms feasted, garbage burned, and wild animals tore at the trash (hence the description of worms chewing and the sound of animals’ “gnashing of teeth.”) We can assess that Jesus was using Gehenna as a metaphor for the disaster we incur when we refuse to do what’s right. In Matthew 5:26, Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there [Gehenna] until you have paid up the last cent.” The word “until” reveals that time spent in the metaphorical Gehenna is of a finite nature.

-In the accounts of Near-Death Experiences in which people report a descent into “hell,” I notice quite a few inconsistencies. Many accounts contradict one another, and they vary depending on the person’s religious beliefs. (For example, one Pentecostal woman believes she was sent to hell for wearing makeup.) NDEs featuring heaven, however, are remarkably consistent with one another, regardless of the person’s frame of reference. Some people genuinely believe they’ve been to hell, but sincere belief doesn’t prove it happened. Others may say they went to hell because they enjoy the attention, or because they want to “scare people straight” and decide that lying is acceptable as long as it gathers more converts.

-The Bible doesn’t say you will be damned for not believing in hell, nor does it say you must believe in biblical inerrancy to be saved. Salvation is by grace, not by “correct” knowledge. The belief in salvation by appropriate knowledge has a distinctively Gnostic flavor. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Gnosticism, it was a religious movement which branched off of Christianity before the Bible was compiled. Gnostics believed in multiple gods and taught that Jesus was fully divine instead of a combination of divine and human. They also believed that one could only be a legitimate Christian if privy to “secret” knowledge. They thought that God selected specific people to endow with this knowledge, and those entrusted with it were considered the spiritual elite. Gnosticism was declared heretical by the Catholic Church, and most Christians consider it so.)

-Jesus said those who aren’t for him are against him, but he also said those who aren’t against him are for him (Mark 9:40). This can be taken to mean that as long as you don’t count him as an enemy, you’re a friend. You can have religious beliefs outside of Christianity without being “against” Jesus. As long as you love your neighbor and do what’s right, you’re on God’s side (1 John 2:29; Romans 13:8-10, 14:15-18). In Matthew 12:30, Jesus was probably referring more to his teachings than to his literal self. If you live by the principles he espouses, how could you be his enemy? The fact that one cannot enter heaven without Jesus doesn’t mean that Christianity is a prerequisite for salvation. It means Jesus is the one who lets you in. C.S. Lewis expressed this view in Mere Christianity: “Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him.”

(Continued in Part 3)

The Divided Waters (Part 1)

            Lately I have observed a great deal of discussion among Christians concerning who is “true” in the faith and who is not. It stems from a desire to sift the negative from the positive and discern one from the other. This is a noble goal, but it has the potential to become divisive if taken too far.

The topic usually surfaces when someone is offended by the way a Christian has behaved, and other believers remind the person that anyone who acts in such a way is not a “true” Christian and thus doesn’t represent Christianity. The basis of this argument is that one bad apple shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch. (This is an appropriate analogy, considering the Biblical context. We ought not to let one bad fruit poison the whole tree, or allow it to lead us into the temptation of retaliation.) That’s fair enough, and I agree with the claim. However, further classification of who is a “true” Christian often proceeds to splinter a group rather than unify it.

What classifies someone as authentic in their faith? Some would say a person is genuinely Christian only if they believe all the “right” things and hold to all the “correct” doctrines. Some say there is room for disagreement in nonessentials of the faith, but the definition of essentials is highly subjective. Some assert that belief in the trinity is an essential, while others disagree. Some state that it’s imperative to believe in justification through faith alone, while others say you can be saved if you believe in salvation through works as well as faith. Some insist that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is an essential, and others deny that it is.

If doctrine alone doesn’t determine who is a “real” Christian, what about behavior? It’s perfectly possible to believe all the traditional teachings without acting on them. It’s possible to view the Bible from a completely literal fundamentalist perspective while maintaining a hateful attitude. I’ve seen it countless times. Now, it’s easy to see why such hostile believers are doing much more harm than good for the Christian movement. Some may deny that such people are “real” Christians, but I disagree. They all worship Jesus as Lord. They all strive to live like him. However, they’ve come to very drastic and unhealthy conclusions about what it means to follow his example. They don’t represent all fundamentalist Christians by any means. I am fortunate to know fundamentalists who are gracious, pleasant, and receptive to open discussion. Nonetheless, the negative people show that fundamentalist Christianity is not guaranteed to provide spiritual enlightenment or to improve one’s character. It isn’t guaranteed not to help, but it isn’t guaranteed to help, either.

            Others will probably say that one’s religious standpoint isn’t to blame. I understand that people can grossly misinterpret Scripture and use it to justify atrocities, but after a while, I start associating beliefs with behavior and see that it forms a pattern. Who orchestrated the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the “witch” burnings, and the Planned Parenthood bombings? Who beat and murdered gay people in an attempt to make them into examples? Who shows support for such activities? Pacifistic Christians are not to blame. These were the actions of Christians who believed their Scriptures to be completely inerrant, who insisted that the world had no place for deviating beliefs, and who proclaimed that anyone of a separate faith deserved to be eternally tortured in a fiery pit of doom.

            So much of this is driven by the belief in hell. Hell, used as a terror-instilling personal threat. Hell, viewed as an instrument of righteous vengeance to be inflicted upon one’s enemies. This is why I think that hell is the single most toxic doctrine to ever taint the Christian faith.

There are numerous reasons why I trust that we can be redeemed after death regardless of the beliefs we hold during life, why I’m certain that God will eventually save the whole of humanity, and why I disbelieve the existence of hell altogether. I detailed some of them in one of my past essays, “Faith and Reason: A Crucial Balance (Part 2).” I will now explain them further. Some are statements and others are questions, but they all lead up to my conclusions.

Let’s begin here. 

(Continued in Part 2)