Sunday, June 12, 2011
Is Hell Eternal?
An interesting question was posed in Rob Bell's new book, "Love Wins". That question was, 'is punishment in hell eternal'? I hope upon hearing that question, your heart leaps for hope for those who leave this world unbelievers. If your first thought is that of attacking such a thought, I would ask you to evaluate where your heart is. It is, after all, God's desire that none should perish. However, He loves us enough to give us a choice. The arguement for such a belief is based on the idea that the word for eternal has been translated wrong. The word is 'aionion' which is argued to mean 'for an age' instead of 'for eternity'. The arguement has some basis in the fact that Aionion can mean 'for an age' in certain contexts. However, the arguement hits a bit of a road block in Matthew 25:46. The text can be read one of two ways. Either, "And these will go away into eternal (aionion) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionion) life." Or, "And these will go away into an age of (aionion) punishment, but the righteous into an age of (aionion) life." If taken the second way we must acknowledge that either we are not eternal, we will cease to exist at some point after our physical death, or we must acknowledge that those who are saved may fall in the afterlife. Neither of these translations are as appealing as a one way road leading out of hell to Heaven. To be honest, the only interpretation of this passage that cannot be true is the one way trip to Heaven, any of the other three have a fairly good arguement. Which do I believe? At this point in my studies, I honestly don't know. What do you think?
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Hello Matt:
ReplyDeleteYou are certainly entering some highly controversial ground, but you also are raising some very good questions too. I just finished reading "The Case for Faith," which presents an interesting view of hell as separation from God (I already knew this but the book presents an interesting twist) and some of the words the NT uses to describe hell (fire, worms, etc.) are metaphors and not literal. So I'm working through my opinion about hell, maybe re-forming my opinion like you are, all with the goal of understanding His Word better. When we talked last night you mentioned the possibility of the saved in heaven falling like the angels, as mentioned in the OT. It's possible and it’s an interesting point of discussion, but it's not dealt with in scripture. I'm going to Read Rob Bell's book so I can discuss this and other ideas about hell as he sees it more intelligently. In the past, I was quite comfortable with judging who was going to hell, based on my understanding of the Scriptures: If someone didn’t believe like I believed, they were going to hell. However, after living 56 years, I am no longer comfortable with judging others - that is God's job, not mine. I've see a lot as a long-term Christian. In addition, I am a human with all kinds of flaws, who has made and continues to make mistakes, not because I want to, but because, as a human, I cannot be perfect. So for me to judge others to hell would be hypocritical, in my opinion. In answer to your question, I still interpret Matt. 25.46 the first way: literal eternal punishment and eternal life, and until I see something in God’s Word that tells me otherwise, this is what I will continue to believe. Regardless of the length of time, hell is certainly one place I don’t want to be! And there are people I know who aren’t Christians that I don’t want to go there. But this discussion is very healthy, so I appreciate your post and you have certainly made me think! In last night’s men’s class it seemed like we were getting too focused on debating unbelievers and judging them to hell instead of trying to influence them for Christ by our words, and more importantly by our behavior. That’s why I spoke out so that we could focus more on doing what Jesus has asked us to do: “…make disciples of all nations….” Matt. 28.19. We should remember that, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.” John 3.17. That’s the same reason we are here too. Don Payne
Thanks for the comment. A lot of good thoughts. I wish I had more people who read my blogs who would also leave comments. Growing together as we explore His Word.
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