A Total Eclipse of the Point

Sorry, Bonnie Tyler, for taking your song title and tinkering with it. It just fit so gosh dern well. Feel free to send your cease and desist letter to the email on my profile.

With that formality out of the way, let's get to the crux of things.

Some of you may remember a couple of posts ago when I verbalized the fact that I was not going to join in on the current discussion on the nature of hell, something which has increased in fervor since the publication of Rob Bell's Love Wins. I originally mentioned that I hadn't done the necessary reading to effectively enter into the conversation. Well. that's changed, and after a lot of prayer I feel like this is something that would be good to talk about.

What I'm not going to do is tell you what I think of Love Wins. My apologies if this is disappointing, but I think the discussion needs to focus on something bigger than what one person happened to say on this subject. To paraphrase Bell, this is something which plenty of people have put forward before, (paraphrasing over) it just hasn't been as well marketed.

I will say this about the book, it has inspired what could have been a very good discussion. Any time something can get people engaging with spiritual matters is a good thing in my opinion. It gives the opportunity for truth to be shared, for Jesus to be proclaimed, and for His love to be made known. As I said, though, this book could have inspired some really good discussion. We, however, kind of ruined it.

The discussion around this text has made it seem as though hell is an integral aspect to the current work which is happening for God's kingdom here in this world. We've set up a situation in which, if someone doesn't understand hell properly, they will have no hope for living out their life in Christ. In response to that situation, I have a question.

When was the last time hell came up when you were discussing faith with someone?

Sure, the topic may have been mentioned, but I feel like most conversations about who God is and how He desires to know us don't center around hell. The conversations that use hell as a focal point are almost always the most unChristlike things I have ever seen, with the message being made up more of hate and personal bigotry than any expression of God's character (please note, Love Wins and Erasing Hell are important exceptions to this generalization).

Put simply, I think there are much more important things we could be talking about than hell. The love of Christ is so awesome (and I do not use that word lightly in any sense) that it should be enough to fill thousands, neigh millions of conversations. The ability for God to work miraculously in the world through His Holy Spirit (we're talking about divine healing of people's bodies as a starting point) is good for a couple million more. If I had to pick one story to share for the rest of forever, the amazingly redemptive narrative of scripture could easily keep me captivated. With all of this great source material to choose from for our conversations, I fail to see why hell needs to play such a huge role.

There are those, however, for whom the idea of hell is an extremely troublesome sticking point, and I don't want to invalidate that at all. There are those for whom death is an extremely prominent source of fear, and the idea of what will happen when they die must be dealt with before they can engage other aspects of who God is. Even in that situation, though, I feel that hell does not have to be the focus of the dialogue, because it is still better to assert the opportunity which a person has to embrace a relationship with God (gained through His loving sacrifice) than to use fear as an evangelism tool and focus on what will happen if they don't come to know Jesus in this lifetime. Any discussion we have on hell should be pointing towards the amazing, redemptive love of God.

If there is one point which hasn't been debated by people who are on the various sides of the current discussion of the nature of hell, it is that living life for God is infinitely better than whatever alternative might be true. For those who have been misled, Rob Bell does not say that there is no punishment for those who don't accept Jesus' loving sacrifice and embrace their place in God's family. As I understand his argument, Bell asserts that this punishment does not have to be eternal, which is the main sticking point for people. To clarify, even according to the infamous Rob Bell, there is still some manner of punishment for those who don't come to know God. Based on this undisputed fact (at least within the teachings of Christianity), if I truly love people as Jesus loves them, it shouldn't matter to me whether of not hell is eternal.

I should have a heart to keep them from having to experience that punishment for so much as a second.

I honestly hope (but maybe not believe) that Rob Bell is right. I hope that hell is not eternal, and that people, upon seeing the glory of Jesus and having countless opportunities to experience His boundless love will turn to Him. What I have been convicted of, however, is that I am wasting my time if I sit here and let a debate over what hell is or isn't like stop me from going out and loving on people in Jesus' name.

This has happened before, and it will happen again. We can't let issues like this one distract us from the point of the gospel, that being that God loves people and desires to know them. All of us Christ followers believe that. Let's go live it.

With His love and grace,

Taylor