Hell

When the word “hell” is spoken, what comes to mind?  Immediately our minds go to a fiery place of everlasting torment where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Terrified that this may be our eternal resting place after our bodies die, we may find ourselves looking for a little insurance to avoid such a fate.  Sometimes, upon finding such insurance through some form of religious expression, we stop thinking much about hell, except for the fact that we may have family or friends who may end up there.  For many people, however, reflecting on hell does not elicit fear of eternal punishment, but disgust and distraction.  Why would anybody want to pursue a god who allows such unjust punishment?  Especially if faith is primarily presented as afterlife insurance, many have abandoned the concept altogether.

                Right now a lot of literary works are being published that either face hell directly or in passing.  Publishers don’t publish unless they have a certain level of confidence in forthcoming sales.  So, apparently, quite a number of people are taking another look at the concept.

Is hell relevant?  Before we take a look at what biblical passages have to say about it, another question: does the conversation even need to happen?  If it’s an afterlife thing, or nothing at all, or something in between, does it really make any difference in our lives right now?

                Yes, no matter which side you’re on, it makes a difference.

                Some fan the flames of hell because it keeps people separated: you’re either in or out.  Usually the people who are confident of being in do the fanning.  Those who believe God may condemn a person to hell based on a narrow  criteria being missed can feel equally condemnatory toward any and all hellbound folks.  There are psalms in the Bible which basically confess, “I hate who you hate.”  If we’re convinced that someone is going to hell, we no longer need to feel much compassion toward them.  This orientation significantly impacts a person’s sense of mission, as well as their motivation.  The message of Christ easily gets boiled down to one’s ultimate destination.  Everything is moot, really.

                Others are so disturbed by the concept that they are repelled from the loving Jesus they are being called to embrace in order to escape God’s wrath.  Hell becomes a stumbling block now that makes hell all the more certain in the future.  Thinking in terms of missions, this creates a strategic problem, because the bait has become the poison with which some fish for men.

                Some folks have built entire ministries on a strong concept of hell.  To think differently could jeopardize everything.  Fat chance of that changing…

                At the same time, everybody wants evildoers held accountable.  There are some folks in history that all agree should be in hell, if there is such a place.  We just don’t generally think of ourselves going there.

So, what the hell are we talking about?  The Bible is split into two parts, the Old and New Testaments.  The only word that is translated in the English word hell is Sheol or Hades, which are Hebrew and Greek words, respectively, both referring to the place of the dead.  This place, in ancient thought, was a sort of holding area under the earth.  But other than a reference to this cemetery-like location, there is no reference to any sort of torturous place of judgment based on how a person lived their life.  This is quite startling, since the Old Testament covers the beginning of everything up until around 400 BCE.  For the first several thousand years, there’s no mention by any prophets or kings or scribes about the potential fate of those who did not make the right faith decision in life.  Hmmm.

                In the New Testament, Jesus refers to Sheol/Hades twice.  Once, in speaking about how the Kingdom of God will overpower Sheol/Hades – death is no match for God.  The other time is in a parable about the importance of the “haves” caring for those caught in extreme poverty.  A rich, uncaring man is sent to Hades while a beggar named Lazarus is sent to Heaven.  The parable wasn’t an effort by Jesus to teach about heaven and hell – he simply used what the culture believed about afterlife to exalt the importance of charity toward the “have nots”.  In one occurrence, the Apostle Peter uses the word Tartarus, translated as hell in English.  It’s where tartar sauce is made.  Or, it may be a section of Hades where the wicked are punished.  Maybe they make the sauce…  Tartarus is a borrowed term from Greek Mythology, which would have been readily understood and appreciated by a Greek audience.

                None of these, so far, really speak of the fiery destination that has been used to scare the hell out of its potential sojourners.

                The imagery finds it roots before Jesus’ day, but also in Jesus’ teaching.  Twelve of the 14 references that can be translated as hell come from a different word that will often appear in a Bible’s footnotes: Gehenna (Greek) or Hinnom (Hebrew).  Both words refer to a valley right outside the city of Jerusalem.  Approximately 600 years before Jesus was born, this valley was a beautiful setting with a grove of trees and lots of people enjoying its park-like location.  But around 630 BCE that all changed.  Practically overnight, it became a truly unholy place.  So unholy, in fact, that it became fit only for the city dump and a graveyard for the poor and wicked.  A dump, where fires burned continuously, where wild dogs would gnash their teeth at each other over fresh meat, where people would weep as their loved ones were laid to rest, disgraced forever.  Read about it for yourself in 2 Kings 22-23.

                Everybody knew about Gehenna’s story.  Everybody knew the story.  And everybody knew it was the dump.

                With only two exceptions, when Jesus speaks of what has been translated as hell, he is referring to the city dump.  In most of those cases, he is basically instructing his audience to stop destructive behavior and thought patterns, because if they continue, they will be throwing their life away right now when there is a way that leads to life as it was meant to be – following Jesus.

                Not an eternal torment because they failed to accept him as Savior and Lord.

                Over time, the concept of hell grew into what we have today.  Much of the common depiction actually stems from Dante’s Inferno, written in part as a way to maintain judgment for those who had been saved by infant baptism but strayed away in their lifetime.  But that was centuries after the New Testament was completed.

Bigger than Hell Avoidance.  If avoiding a hellish afterlife wasn’t a primary concern for Jesus, or Paul, or the rest of the New Testament, perhaps it shouldn’t be primary for us, either.  If the primary reason we said that we have chosen Jesus in the past was to avoid hell, I think we may need to reevaluate what we’ve done and make a new, more informed decision.  If we’re just concerned about afterlife, we’re likely to miss the life we have right now, or even disregard it is somewhat meaningless.  Jesus didn’t spend three years of his life just waiting around so he could secure you a ticket to heaven.  He came to teach us how to live life the way it was meant to be lived.  Full of meaning.  Marked by compassion.  Thrilling.  Terrifying at times.  Deep.  Joyous.  Peaceful.  Whole.  Lovely.  Risky.  A life worth pursuing, and a life worth dying for.

                The irony is that if you’re really concerned about afterlife, the only way to gain confidence is through abandoning your obsession with death and give yourself fully to life in Christ.  It is then that your relationship with God will begin to flourish, and your confidence about all of life – past, present, and future – will grow.  Faith isn’t about saying magic words.  Faith is a living relationship with God who is bigger than we can ever imagine and yet visible in the person of Jesus Christ.

                I encourage you to let go of your need of hell.  There is a better motivation for following God, and it’s right here and now.  There is a better message to communicate, one that offers unparalleled hope right now for people who are stuck in life.  Following Christ does give hope for today and forevermore.  Live in that hope.  Live the hope for others to see.

                May your life become controversial.  Not because you speak so convincingly and passionately about death murky transition, but because you overflow with life so much that people want an explanation for your confident hope.

How To Study the Bible...

Before you engage a text, you really need to ask yourself if you’re game to study, or if you just want to read on a devotional level.  When we read devotionally, we don’t think as critically while we read – it’s more of an in the moment, spiritual kind of thing.  There’s nothing wrong with this ancient practice, known as Lectio Divina.  In fact, it’s the core of daily devotions.  But this kind of approach, especially for more complex topics or passages, just isn’t helpful, and can even be destructive, especially where people are involved.  Poor scholarship has made women second-class citizens and kept entire races of people in the chains of slavery.  Devotional reading is great, but to experience more of what the Bible has to offer requires some thoughtful prayerful work.  That’s what this very brief guide is for.

                Before you read a text, take a deep breath, relax, and pray, seeking to be present to God’s presence as you engage the text – the Spirit guides, but guides can’t guide much if the followers aren’t following, or even looking in the guide’s direction!

As you read a text, be aware of the most basic journalism questions: who, what when, where and why?  Understanding the most basic context sheds immediate light on the text.  What genre is the passage – poetry, history, prophetic words, instruction letter, etc.?  What words and phrases need greater clarification?  Don’t be afraid to dirty up your Bible with notes and highlights – God will not be offended.  In fact, a well-worn Bible would only be a sign of devotion, not disrespect!

Before you consult an outside source for deeper insight, answer some basic questions yourself: what might have been the author’s purpose in writing this particular passage?  Who was the audience of the writing, and what difference does that make?  How is the author’s worldview different than yours?  Does it make a difference regarding the meaning of the text?  It is tempting to jump quickly to outside sources, but be patient.  Learning to think for yourself by using these questions (and more) will help you dialogue with the outside sources instead of simply adopting their position.

As you consult a study Bible, web sources and commentaries, keep the following in mind.  Everybody is biased.  Realizing this ahead of time will help you appreciate the vantage point of the source you’re using, and you can mentally dialogue with them.  For written sources, check the publisher.  If it’s a conservative Christian publishing house, that theology is going to permeate whatever you read.  If it’s a romance novel level of publisher, you can bet that the author struggles to find an audience beyond the fringe to take him or her seriously (this is not necessarily bad, but needs to be taken into consideration).  Checking the date and location of the author also informs their analysis.  Web content can be wonderful and useless.  See who a particular person is quoting a lot and you’ll have a quick idea where they are coming from.  By the way, you are also biased which greatly colors your rendering of a text.

After you piece all of this together, put all your information in front of you and begin determining again what you think the author of the biblical text was trying to communicate and to whom.  How was their context similar or not to yours, and how does that impact your application of a text to the present day?

This is about as preliminary an approach as you can get, but will get you headed in the right direction.  This is where I start every week in preparing to teach, even if I have taught the text many times before over the years.  The discipline helps insure that you are remaining open to continual learning, and humble enough for the Spirit to move and shape.