I Believe in Hell

I recently responded to a member of my church who was asking questions about hell. I sent him a 750-word email in response to his questions about hell, who goes there, and how long it lasts. This response was not my first, nor will it be my last, to questions about hell. People want to know which raises the first of many questions in my mind: Why are some pockets of the Christian community obsessed with hell? Of course, I propose that question with my tongue well-planted in my cheek. I have a lot of thoughts as to why people really want to understand the nature of hell, but I ask because Christianity (and Judaism) is not primarily an afterlife religion. The setting of the story of Israel, Jesus’ life and ministry, and the mission of the church is here, the earth.

Jesus, who was working within a Jewish context, was focused, as he taught us to pray, on God’s kingdom coming from heaven to earth. The Old Testament spoke sparsely of what is popularly imagined as “heaven” and “hell.” In the Old Testament “hell” was a reference to the place of the dead (Hebrew: sheol), but the Old Testament writers do not describe this reality with much or any depth. Jesus did speak of hell (Greek: hades or gehenna), but he spoke little about “heaven.” And to the surprise of many, he never talked about “going to heaven when you die,” at least not in those terms.

Nevertheless, I do believe in hell.

I believe whatever Jesus believes about hell. I am just not sure we always understand him quite right. For example in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, many people focus on the rich man in hell (Greek word: hades) assuming Jesus was telling a story about how to avoid hell, when the rhetorical climax of the story focuses our attention on the rich man’s desire for his brother’s to repent. The point of the story is not to give us an accurate description of hell, but to challenge us to think about how we treat the poor.

In that story in Luke 16, the word for “hell” is hades, but the more common word translated “hell” in the teachings of Jesus is gehenna. Jesus uses this term, much like Jeremiah does in the Old Testament, to describe earthly destruction, which is a judgment of sorts. Brad Jersak notes, “ Gehenna is judgment to be sure—and may even point secondarily to final judgment—but the picture is first of all about the destructive wake left behind by our sin here and now, not an afterlife of eternal, conscious torment. It is quite literally ‘the way of death’” (Her Gates Shall Never Be Shut 61). (BTW I recommend Brad Jersak’s book as a way to explore the various biblical and historical readings of hell. Brad does a good job of exploring the key texts in Scripture and highlights some of the key historical contributions to this topic. Brad helped me see there a number of interpretations of hell that fit within Christian orthodoxy.) So here are my thoughts today on hell. I offer these in humility as a follow of Jesus trying to make sense of these weighty subjects.

1) I believe in hell, not only here and now, but I believe in a hell that is an eternal death. What the experience of hell is like is a bit of mystery, but we have metaphors of torment, flames, fire unquenched, weeping, utter darkness, and the like that draws a pretty grim picture. I reject the doctrines of Christian universalism and universal reconciliation (apocatastasis), while I do respect the reasoning that has led some Christians to those conclusions.

2) I believe hell is rooted in the love of God. God does not send people to hell. We choose hell when we choose to reject God. When we say “no” to God, he allows us go into eternity separated and isolated from him and his grace. God is not going to force anyone to live under his rule and reign. If we want to remain stiff-necked, self-reliant, stubborn, and rebellious, God will allow us, but we will find it to be hell. Furthermore hell as a form of judgment is rooted in God’s love, because we cannot call God good or loving if we were to assume he merely turns a blind eye to evil and injustice. For God to be love, he must not only love that which is good, he must also reject and condemn that which destroys the good. (Side note: The Eastern Orthodox of view of hell would challenge the Western idea of hell as separation. I am allow that thought work on me.)

3) I do not know with absolute certainty who will experience hell. I do not know the heart of person. I do not know the faith of a person. I do know God is good, merciful, holy, and just. I also believe God can save who he wants. Anyone who is saved is saved by Jesus and through Jesus. And I trust Jesus to do what is right concerning people in his acts of judgment. I do know that all those who call on the Lord, and turn to him in faith and repentance, shall be saved. I have given up on the game of saying who is “in” and who is “out;” that’s God’s job not mine. My job is to love God and love people, follow Jesus and proclaim the Gospel, make disciples and serve the church.

4) I don’t want anybody to go to hell. If there is somebody I think is outside of the grace and mercy of God, and I secretly desire for them to go to hell and suffer, then I should really check my heart. I don’t want anyone to perish but to come to repentance. If I start wishing for people to go to hell so they can “get what they deserve,” I have just stepped off the Jesus way and I need repentance. In talking to people about hell, I have asked, “So who do you really want to go to hell?” The answer to that question says a lot about our hearts. It is also one of the quickest ways to expose self-righteousness.

5) Is it possible for people to choose salvation after death and be rescued out of hell? I don’t know. The Scripture and teachings of the historic church are not clear on this matter. Some would say definitively, “no, once a person dies that is it…they go to hell forever.” My question is when (or where) do we get the indication in Scripture that human choice ends at death? I do not know if people can repent and choose to turn in faith to Jesus from hell, but I hope so. What if mercy does finally triumph over judgment? What if his love does endure forever? What if human choice does indeed continue after death? I cannot answer these questions with certainty so I invite people to choose Jesus now, choose life now, repent now and make no plans to experience eternal death.