Hell?

I’m reading Leviticus with its complicated rules regarding worship, sacrifices, and the tabernacle, and I’m thinking, “Just give me the Gentile version.” But somewhere in the middle of the “priestly linen undergarments,” it hits me: No unholy thing can abide in the presence of God; without all of that ritual, any human being approaching God would die. Yet I, a once unholy being, am invited into God’s Holy presence and filled with His Holy Spirit. How? The blood of Christ—the eternal sacrifice—cleans me and makes me fit to be with God!

I am His. I am holy. I will live with God for eternity, and worship with my Christian brothers and sisters for all time. I will see the new heavens and the new earth and live forever where there is no sin or pain or fear or sorrow or death. Praise God!

If I do not allow Christ to wash me in His blood continually, I remain unholy, and the unholy cannot be with God. Which leads me to the question, is there a place of eternal punishment, and if so, what is its nature and who ends up there?

I witnessed a debate in the ‘70s between a Christian minister and the British Scholar and then-atheist, Antony Flew. Dr. Flew cited the Holocaust in his argument against the popular concept of Hell, saying something like this: According to some Christians, anyone who does not accept Christ as savior is damned. Jews, by definition, do not accept Christ and will, according to those Christians, spend eternity being burned alive. So God used the ovens of Hitler to usher millions of Jews into the ovens of Hell. Is this a loving God?

I am in no position to judge a good and perfect God, but God made me in His image and able to know good from evil. I do not believe that simple existence and sin, though abhorrent, justifies eternal, excruciating torture for anyone. (Punishment, yes. Death, yes. Eternal torture, no.)

If not eternal torture, what? What ultimately happens to persons who do not follow Jesus?  The Bible tells us that all sinners are doomed to “destruction."

 

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:8

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Meaning God)

Matthew 10:28

 

These two scriptures imply that the bodies and souls of sinners are not eternal, that they can and will be destroyed "eternally."

So, what about “The fire that never goes out?”  or the “unquenchable fire”? I don’t know. I know Hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels, eternal beings who currently war against God, persecute His saints, and attempt to rob us of our holiness. Perhaps for eternal beings, Hell is eternal torture?

 

Religious Ecstasy

Religious Ecstasy

 

As I type, my heart is thumping and my hands are shaking. I am, metaphorically speaking, handling fire. I am treading on territory usually reserved for academics and sceptics, but I am simply a life-long Christian trying to determine the legitimacy of my own experience. I am not questioning the reality; I have seen and felt whereof I speak. I am questioning the provenance.

 

Every human being, given an effective stimulus, can and will experience transcendence. The reality of the experience is not determined by its being right or wrong, good or evil, holy or unholy. For example: electrical stimulation of different areas of the brain can produce physical pleasure, religious euphoria, or an emotional “high.” The stimulus is artificial, but, to the subject, the result, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional, is real.
 

In certain situations, I have been overcome by emotion. Feelings can cause me pain, pleasure, extreme empathy, or physical collapse. I can lapse into incoherence.

 

It would be very easy for me to decide that my overwhelming desires and emotions are God given and holy. But when is that true?

 

God, give me wisdom. Take my weak and weary heart and make it strong and pure.

 

Psalm 37:4-6

Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.