Heaven & Hell part I: Are we obsessed by hell ?

The publication of Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” several months ago, has thrown a spark in the debate about hell, heaven and the afterlife like something we haven’t seen in quite a while. Granted, I am quite late in posting this, since Rob’s controversial video announcing the book was posted last February. So call me late to the party 😉
On the other hand, I wanted to take the time to let the dust settle. Mere minutes after the video hit the internet, before the book was even published, many evangelical scholars criticized Bell for becoming a universalist. Piper’s now infamous tweet “Farewell Bell” was probably the cherry on the cake in a whirlwind of reactions.
In Dutch there’s a proverb that quite accurately describes this flurry of activity and it goes something like this: “He threw the stick in the duck pond“. Now, if you’ve ever seen a pond full of ducks, and imagine someone throwing a stick in the midst of them, you can get the idea of what happens. And that’s exactly what happened when Rob Bell published his video. Twitter blew up, blog postings abounded and many pastors have published, or re-published, sermons and podcasts about hell. So are we obsessed by hell ? And if so, should we be ? And furthermore, what should we understand about heaven, hell and the afterlife ?

When N.T.Wright was asked what he thought about Rob Bell’s book, he basically started by asking the same question: “Why are Americans so fixated on hell?”. You can watch a video of his entire reaction here, but here’s a transcript of a portion:

My usual counter question is: “Why are Americans so fixated on hell?” Far more Americans ask me about hell than ever happens in my own country. And I really want to know, why is it that the most prosperous affluent nation on earth is really determined to be sure that they know precisely who is going to be frying in hell and what the temperature will be and so on. There’s something quite disturbing about that, especially when your nation and mine has done quite a lot in the last decade or two to drop bombs on people elsewhere and to make a lot of other people’s lives hell. So, I think there are some quite serious issues about why people want to ask that question.

My answer to that question, if an amateur can try to respond to one of the best Christian scholars around today, would be that an understanding of the afterlife is a fundamental concept with which our faith stands or falls. If there is no afterlife, then why believe ? If there is an afterlife, but it all ends up happy and lovey-dovey for all, then why make a commitment to repentance in this life ? If there is a heaven and hell, then what do they look like ? What is our ultimate hope as Christians ?

As I was trying to read through Rob Bell’s book, I decided to read a couple more books and try to get somewhat of a better understanding. In addition, one can’t tackle this subject without obviously diving into the book of Revelation. I know, I know, a study of revelation is a dangerous one. The book is fraught with imagery too weird to understand and I fully realize those limitations. For many passages, no-one has any clear answers, only more questions. But that shouldn’t allow us to put our heads in the sand, shrug our shoulders and say “We’ll just have to wait and see“. That attitude will get us nowhere.

So why study hell, heaven or the afterlife ? With the same reason and motivation we study any Scripture. To be a better witness, to come to a better understanding of our faith and how it should impact us today. Here and now. When we study such a serious and frightful topic as the afterlife, it should grip our hearts and increase our compassion for others. It should inspire us to discuss Christ, witness and boldly proclaim a message that is being used by many for many different, dare I say not always Christian, agendas.

With that being said, I’ve read the following four books , in addition to Scripture, in preparation for this little series. The books I read are:

• Love wins, by Rob Bell (1)
• Erasing Hell, by Francis Chan (2)
• Surprised by Hope, by N.T.Wright (3)
• The Great Divorce, by C.S.Lewis (4)
• Heaven, by Randy Alcorn (5)

I’ve also listened to some new and old podcasts by James MacDonald, Marc Driscoll, Tim Keller and Michael Patton. Rob Bell debated about his book on the radio program “Unbelievable” and it’s definitely worth watching if you can spare the time.

So let’s dive into the subject of Heaven, Hell and the afterlife. I’ll cover three questions over the next couple of posts. For each of the topics we’ll look at Scripture, Christian tradition and book quotes from the scholars mentioned above.

1. What should we think about heaven and hell ?
2. What does Scripture teach about who or how one gets to heaven or hell.
3. How should we respond to this ? What do we do with this ?

But before we get started, let’s set some ground rules, shall we ?

As Paul said, we all look in a mirror dimly (1Cor 13:12). N.T.Wright put it this way:

We must remind ourselves yet once more that all Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist. Signposts don’t normally provide you with advance photographs of what you’ll find at the end of the road, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t pointing in the right direction. (6)

This should call us to:

• Be humble: We don’t know the truth for sure on these topics. No-one does. No-one came back, no-one has absolute certainty. The only one who does is the one who will ultimately judge us all.
• Be afraid: We should “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13). Nothing is ours, it is God and we shall be judged just like everyone else.
• Be sad and burdened: If any of the Scripture passages are true, there are people who will not enjoy the presence of the Lord. This should sadden us more so than put us in a spirit of “Gotcha”. This is not a “We’re good, you’re bad” conversation. This is a conversation that should end up encouraging us to be a light to the World.

Now these are very, very difficult topics and I don’t claim to have any absolute truth in these. Remember that the sub-title of the blog is “Musings of an amateur”. So here goes, at the risk of being wrong, at the risk of upsetting people, at the risk of getting into very lengthy debates. But perhaps, just perhaps, these musings interspersed with book reviews can help you in your journey, whatever that may be.

Later this week, what should we think about the afterlife, heaven and hell ?

References:
(1): Rob Bell: “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived”; HarperOne, 2011; ISBN: 978-0062049643
(2): Francis Chan: “Erasing Hell: What God said about eternity, and the things we made up”; David C. Cook, 2011; ISBN: 978-0781407250
(3):  N.T.Wright: “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” ;HarperCollins, 2008; ISBN: 978-0061551826
(4): C.S.Lewis: “The Great Divorce”; HarperOne, 2001; ISBN: 978-0060652951
(5): Randy Alcorn: “Heaven”; Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004; 978-0842379427

(6): N.T.Wright: “Surprised by Hope” same ed.; pp.132