Hell

For most of my life I had held to a simplistic equation about the afterlife: Christians go to heaven, where they enjoy eternal bliss, while everyone else goes to hell, where they suffer eternal torment.

[It turns out that the] idea that all non-Christians are wicked is the result of some very arrogant and deeply mistaken theological systems. 

Jesus certainly did not lay the foundation for an afterlife theology that claims all non-Christians go to hell. … “Christians go to heaven; non-Christians go to hell” — but it is not based on anything Jesus ever said!

Jesus put it this way: “…the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (John 5:28-29) 

We should note that Jesus doesn’t say that those who have done evil will be tortured eternally; all he says is that they will face a judgment of condemnation. 

Jesus’s teaching on hell is basically this: if you refuse to love, you cannot enter the kingdom of God and will end up a lonely, tormented soul.

The idea of hell as the self-exile of the soul from the love of God is a theme C. S. Lewis explores in his fascinating novel The Great Divorce. Does this mean that I (or C. S. Lewis) know what happens to people who wind up in a postmortem state of hell? No. And neither do you. 

Do I believe in hell? Of course I do! I believe in the literal hell of war, and I believe in the present and postmortem hell of a tormented soul incapable of love. Most importantly, I agree with everything that Jesus believed and taught about hell. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with everything that smug, mean-spirited, self-righteous, Bible-thumping know-it-alls believe about hell. 

The idea that all Christians upon death are received into heavenly mansions of eternal bliss while all non-Christians are plunged into an eternal torture chamber is more the product of popular and pagan myth than derived from anything Jesus ever taught. He never taught anything that remotely supports the idea that all Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists will be tortured for eternity. This kind of thinking about hell crept into the minds of Christians via popular misconceptions and glitches in systematic theologies run amuck. It doesn’t come from Jesus.

Let’s try a thought experiment. Consider two women — we’ll call them Becky and Belqees. They are imaginary women but certainly representative of real people. Our imaginary women were born on the exact same date, March 5, 1959. Becky was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Belqees was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

Because of their geography, Becky is a cultural Christian, and Belqees is a cultural Muslim. Unfortunately, Becky is a mean, judgmental, self-righteous Pharisee. You know the type. She holds her Christian faith with a kind of triumphalism that makes her insufferable to everyone outside her tiny fundamentalist tribe. She has boundless disdain for all who are unlike her politically, culturally, ethnically, and especially religiously. She holds Muslims in particular contempt. 

Belqees, on the other hand, is a kind and generous soul. She is known throughout her neighborhood for her acts of charity, and she regularly cares for the poor and sick. She is a devout Muslim, worshiping God in the only way she knows within her cultural context. She loves God and she loves her neighbors. 

In a strange coincidence, these women who share the same birthday also die on the very same day. What happens next? Is your theology such that you are forced to say that Becky is escorted to her finely appointed luxury mansion, while Belqees is dragged away to a dark dungeon of eternal torture? This is a monstrous theology that is utterly contrary to the spirit of the gospel! 

The gospel is not the appalling claim that billions of people are fated to unending agony by a capricious God!

If you say, “But only Jesus can save,” I say, “Yes and amen.” 

And who are you to tell Jesus whom he can and cannot save?! Are you going to tell Jesus he cannot save Belqees? Jesus can save whomever he wants. Jesus is Lord.

[The above consists of excerpts of “Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God” by Bryan Zahnd]