In yesterday's post I mentioned that the normal way of articulating hell by traditionalists involves making the unrepentant go there by choice rather than God sending them there. In my estimation it is a move to try and help God's public image. No one likes to think of their God as a 'big meanie' (Or in this case the 'biggest meanie') and it's not like traditionalists have nothing to work with. The Christian god who sends people to hell is also said to be merciful, just, compassionate, gracious, and not just loving, but that God is love. A loving god sending sinners to eternal torment seems like a contradiction.
As an example of what I'm referring to, here are a few excepts from a lengthier quote by Tim Keller a well respected leader in America:
"Hell and heaven essentially are our freely chosen identities going on forever."
"Hell is a self-centered ego going on for a billion years"
"Hell is God giving you the life you want, on into eternity."
"Therefore, in a sense, nobody ever goes to hell in the Christian understanding unless they want to. "
"In some ways, the fairest understanding of the afterlife is the Christian one, which says God gives you what you want. If you want to live with God forever, that’s heaven, and you get it. If you want to be your own person, your own savior, your own lord, that’s hell, and you get that – and you stay wanting it; you do not suddenly change your mind."
Thanks Jason for this post and especially for the link to Keller's post. I found this to be a very interesting argument against the "all roads lead to heaven" idea.:
ReplyDelete"It sounds open-minded to say: I believe that any good person can find God, not just Christians. but the premise behind that statement is that good people find God and bad people do not. There are two problems with the premise. First, it holds out no hope for bad people, and lots of us know deep down that we have not lived up to even our own moral standards. Second, it misunderstands Christians’ beliefs. It assumes that Christians believe that they are going to heaven because they are good, and that is not true at all."