Hell No!

Being raised in the home of a Dutch Reformed minister, the concept of hell was real and relevant. Good people when they died went to heaven and those who did not lead worthy lives were doomed to hell. For many years I believed in that system of a punitive God who sat in judgement separating the sheep from the goats. Hell was a place of eternal suffering and damnation that was to be avoided at all possible costs. The best way to stay out of hell - be good: straight and narrow good!

Borrowed from Facebook

In my late twenties, I began to really question the subject of evil and the notion of Hell. How could a God who is all loving subject a creature made in the divine image to an eternity of pain, agony and affliction? My struggle was intensified by the various examples I witnessed in the world of people suffering, in most cases unjustifiably; wars; human oppression; the struggles of emotional, spiritual, and physical pain. What I witnessed in my daily life did not correspond to my understanding of the nature and being of God. 

I am blessed to journey this life with a partner who is not afraid to enter into earnest and sometimes complicated theological discussion from time to time. I think it was Kathy who initially said to me, “There is no such place as Hell: Hell is here on earth” At first, that statement struck me like a thunderbolt. My worldview was being challenged and I was forced to think again about what I actually believed. A seed was planted and over the years, through study and reflection, new beliefs came to the forefront of my thinking.

Today, and many years later, I have come to believe that there is no Hell. It was created by the institution to control the masses; to keep the prevailing notion of “theism” in place which believes that humanity was in need of a God who rescues; and the concept of Hell was fashioned to keep people in positions of powerlessness by the use of guilt and the threat of eternal damnation. Do well educated people of our day, who no longer, if ever, believed in a three tiered universe, truly believe that there is a place of hail, fire and brimstone? Why? If that is what you believe, how have you come to that understanding in your faith journey? What is your concept of “Hell” based on?

Over the past month or so, I have been rereading the writings of John Spong, the retired Bishop of Newark, and a leading light in articulating a theology for the 21^st century. I am currently in the midst of his splendid work, A New Christianity For A New World. (You can purchase a copy of the book by clicking here.)

Now, a lot of folks dislike Jack because his ideas supposedly threaten the very foundation of traditional Christian teaching. But I urge you to reconsider and listen carefully to the short clip below. One thing is for certain, this leader in the Church, has clearly done his homework; his rationale is well thought out; no one knows the Scriptures better than Jack Spong; he believes in a God who is very much alive and can be found in the here and now; and the good Bishop also believes in the afterlife.

If someone were to ask me today if I believed in Hell, I would simply say. "Hell..... no."

Love One Another - Brian