There I was, sitting in another small group Bible study when the topic of salvation came up. Christians, it seems, are always speculating about who will be saved from the fires of Hell and who won’t be, and how exactly God will decide.
I suppose that there is something in us that wants to rest assured that we don’t end up on the wrong side of the ledger, and so people of faith — and maybe even people of no faith — hypothesize and ruminate on this issue.
In a TV interview, Martin Iles, the head of the Australia Christian Lobby, stated that the mainstream Christian belief is that all people are destined for hell, from birth, unless they find salvation through Jesus. This was certainly the belief that I was taught as fact, growing up in the evangelical Church.
But, I’ll level with you. I am finding it increasingly difficult to square away the idea of a loving God, with the doctrine of eternal torment in the fires of Hell.
There, I said it.
In my former life, I would have called myself a heretic. Nowadays, I am kind enough to acknowledge that I am simply pulling apart everything I once believed and testing it for its usefulness and truthfulness.
So, I’ve been thinking about Hell lately. And I’m left with some troubling thoughts on the doctrine that I once held so tightly. Here’s where it’s all falling down for me:
What would I do if I were Jesus?
I could imagine if you were God, you might feel okay about sending a person to Hell if they had committed certain atrocities that you deem unforgivable — Hitler for example. But, let me ask you a question. If you were God, would you send people to Hell if they simply didn’t believe in you? It was a question that I was asked recently, and it proved to be an epiphany. Because I only had to think about it for a moment before I had my answer.
The answer was a resounding no.
No, I couldn’t imagine a scenario where I would consider a person worthy of being tormented in the fires of hell for all of eternity simply because they did not believe in me.
Could you?
The way I see it if God is real — as I believe he is — then I suppose, once we die, none of us will have a choice about whether or not we believe in him or not, anyway.
I could imagine God saying, “Surprise! I was here all along!” but for some reason, I can’t imagine God saying, “You should have believed in me when you couldn’t see me! Now that you can see me, I’m sending you to hell for all eternity!”
Love your enemies… and then punish them!
There is a point at which Christianity diverges from most other belief systems, and that is the command to love our enemies. In fact, Jesus said it himself in Matthew 5.
So, on one hand, the believer is told to love their enemies, when, on the other hand, “God” clearly does not. He punishes his enemies for all of eternity.
Why would God demand one thing of his followers, while imposing a different standard on himself? That would make God seem remarkably inconsistent, wouldn’t it?
How would I treat my children?
The most enduring metaphor used to describe God in the Bible is that of a loving Father; God is our father, and we are his children. So, let’s run with that metaphor. What would a loving father do?
I am the father of three beautiful children. Can I imagine a scenario where I would send any of my children to burn in hell for all of eternity because their behavior was not up to scratch or because they didn’t lay down their lives to follow me and serve me?
Sure, sometimes they are really naughty and incredibly selfish. But, is there anything — anything at all — that they could do that I would find so offensive that I would condemn them to hell?
No.
Even if they became estranged from me, I still wouldn’t do it. In fact, even the most vulgar and repulsive child, you would surely not condemn to burn forever.
Would you?
We have made a God who isn’t as nice as us
So, this is the problem that I am having. Under the message I have heard from the church for most of my life, we end up being more loving. gracious and compassionate than our supposedly loving God.
Think about it.
Even my friends who are a little bit rough would usually give a guy a break and cut a guy some slack. They would probably overlook plenty of mistakes, and even on their worst day, would not imagine torturing people for all of eternity because those people do not like them, worship them or believe in them.
Yet this is the supposed “Good news” we present to the world: “You are hopelessly wicked beyond measure but don’t worry; If you believe in Jesus, he will save you from the consequences of not believing in him.”
Under this system, God ends up looking rather petty, needy, narcissistic, and easily offended. Why would anyone trust or love such a God, much less spend eternity with such a being?
I wouldn’t.
If God isn’t nicer than us, he’s not worth following
I’m sure the hardcore conservatives — and others trying to confirm their own biases — will come at me with their go-to catchphrases like, “No one knows the mind of God,” and “His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts.”
When people use this as a rebuke, they are really saying, “No one knows the mind of God — except me,” and “His ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts, and I should know….”
And I know that people will point out that God is a God of justice, as well as a God of love. But, surely what makes God worth following is the idea that — while he upholds truth and justice — he is still infinitely more capable of mercy than you or I.
So, as for me — I have decided that if God is not more loving, gracious, compassionate, and merciful than I am, then he’s not worth following. And I wouldn’t send people to Hell because they didn’t say they believed in me.
To Hell with that.
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This post was previously published on Backyard Church.
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