{"id":8615,"date":"2010-09-27T05:36:48","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T10:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=8615"},"modified":"2010-09-26T10:03:26","modified_gmt":"2010-09-26T15:03:26","slug":"beyond-the-abyss-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/09\/27\/beyond-the-abyss-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Abyss 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Perhaps the fundamental obstacle<\/em> in embracing the biblical understanding of what happens beyond death, in particular what is traditionally called \u201chell,\u201d is the rhetorical powers of misguided Christians who have exploited hell to persuade people to escape it. It was this that Brian McLaren was tapping into in his newest book\u2019s sketch of what he calls the Greco-Roman narrative. Whether you think back to Dante\u2019s inferno, with his all-too-picturesque images of torment in hell, or to Bunyan\u2019s imagery, or to Jonathan Edwards\u2019 famous sermon, a sermon more often ridiculed than read, or to the preacher you heard as a child, the rhetoric about hell has created more obstacles to listening to the Bible\u2019s statements about hell than anything else.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So, it\u2019s time once again to raise this issue, and this time we will be pondering Sharon Baker\u2019s Razing Hell: Rethinking Everything You\u2019ve Been Taught About God\u2019s Wrath and Judgment<\/a>\"\"<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So, for whom does she write?<\/p>\n

If the idea of hell haunts your dreams and disturbs your sleep, if you ever wonder at the justice (on injustice) of it all or about the God who deems it necessary to spend the majority of humanity, beloved humanity, created in God\u2019s image, to burn there forever just because people found themselves raised in the wrong faith or had never heard of Jesus, this book is for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How important is this issue to you? I saw a tweet that was summarizing Robert Putnam\u2019s talk and it suggested 83% of good people in other religions go to heaven. Do you find such numbers compelling?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sharon Baker has no desire to abort what the Bible does say \u2026<\/p>\n

but I\u2019m even more concerned about remaining faithful to the God of love, who desires the salvation of all people (1 Tim 2:4), whose grace is exceedingly abundant beyond all we can think or even ask for (Eph 3:20), and who loves enemies, even the Hitlters, the Idi Amins, and the Osama bin Ladens of the world (Matt 5:43-48; 1 John 4:8). Our traditional views of hell as a place of eternal punishment were unbelievers dwell in undying flames contract this image of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This issue \u2014 eternal punishment, hell, the last judgment \u2014 is in my estimation one of the most significant theological issues of our age. For a host of reasons, not the least of which is global awareness of the numbers involved who have never heard of Jesus Christ, many today find the traditional doctrine of hell insufferable.And I believe what has led us our world to this condition is the insufferability of those who seemingly gloat in their belief in hell and in their utter confidence that they will not be there.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s sketch of what many have believed \u2014 she sketches Dante and then the fathers (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria) and then Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley.<\/p>\n

She next goes to one of the fundamental issues: the image of God that rises into glowing, if ignored, prominence when one sees the God of such judgments. She quotes Edwards and Richard Baxter saying things that are deeply troubling \u2014 when it comes to what God is like.<\/p>\n

She then moves to the gloating joy of the righteous who are depicted by some \u2014 theologians and pastors \u2014 as observing in joy the torments of the wicked \u2014 and among others she quotes Aquinas and Isaac Watts.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s enough for today.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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