When I was a college freshman, I was required to take a
Humanities course with a challenging reading list. One of the
requirements was to read Dante's Inferno and discuss in class the
symbolism and fearful consequences of possibly going to Hell when we die.
The instructor came prepared, with a selection of reproduction pictures of a
flaming landscape rendered by famous Renaissance painters. His portfolio
showed in excruciating detail each of the layers of Hell, as Dante visualized
them, and to this day I can recall these dreadful scenes.
Many people today seem to think that Hell works like this:
God gives us a life-time, but if we haven't made the right choices by the
end of our lives, He casts our souls into Hell for all eternity. As the
poor souls fall through space, they probably cry out for mercy, but God says
"Too late! You had your chance. Now you will suffer!"
I have thought a lot about this ----- could our loving God
actually be a judging God filled with wrath and anger? If He is truly a
loving God, shouldn't He forgive and accept everyone? Crusading against
evil and injustice in this world is one thing, but sending people to Hell is
quite another. The Bible speaks of "eternal punishment," but sending
people to Hell as popularly envisioned is much more extreme, and it scares me.
Recently, I came upon some of the writings of Rev. Timothy
Keller, which have helped me to put the idea of Hell into better
perspective. Rev. Keller is the pastor of the Redeemer Presbyterian
Church in Manhattan, a church with 6,000 regular attendees total at their five
services each Sunday. As a minister and preacher, Keller says he often
finds himself speaking on biblical texts that teach the wrath of God, the final
judgement and the doctrine of Hell.
The biblical picture, according to Keller, is that SIN
is defined as our separation from the presence of God. But, God is the
source of all joy and of all love, wisdom and good things of any sort.
Since we were originally created for God's immediate presence, only
"before his face" will we thrive, flourish and achieve our highest
potential. If we were to lose God's presence totally, that would be Hell
-----thus the loss of our capability for giving or receiving love or joy.
A traditional image of Hell, Keller tells us, is that of
fire. That is really a wonderful metaphor. Fire disintegrates
things. Even in this life we can see the soul disintegration that
self-centeredness creates. We know that selfishness and self-absorption
lead to bitterness, envy, anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and the mental denials
and distortions that accompany them.
Now, says Keller, ask the question: "What if when
we die our life doesn't end, but the spirituality of our life extends into
eternity?" Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self-
absorbed, self-centered life, going on and on forever.
Keller concludes that Hell is simply one's freely chosen
identity separated from God, on a trajectory that goes on for a billion
years. We see small parallels of this process in addictions to
drugs, alcohol, gambling and pornography. First, there is some kind of dependency (but
not on God), says Keller, and as time goes on one needs more and more of the
addictive substance to get an equal kick, which leads to less and less
satisfaction.
Secondly, there is increasing isolation, by one's
blame of others and circumstances, in order to justify one's own behavior.
When we build our lives on anything other than God, says Keller, that
thing in a sense (for example, wealth) ----- becomes an enslaving addiction,
something we must have to be happy. Keller believes that this
personal dependency (which doesn't need God) can go on forever, with increasing
isolation, denial, delusion and self-absorption.
People go to Heaven, Keller says, because they love God and
want to submit to him. People go to Hell because they want to get away
from God, because they do not want somebody telling them how to live their
lives. They want to be their own savior, their own Lord. They want
to live their lives their own way. That's Hell.
Keller believes that Hell is eternal, but it is not
inevitable. God gives you what you want. He says that Heaven and
Hell essentially are our freely chosen identities, going on forever.
So, Keller leaves us with this thought: It is not a
question of God "sending" us to Hell. In each of us there is
something growing. which will BECOME Hell unless we nip it in the bud.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
growth this summer at CPC.
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