{"id":18015,"date":"2013-10-04T09:47:49","date_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=18015"},"modified":"2013-10-04T09:47:49","modified_gmt":"2013-10-04T13:47:49","slug":"were-all-going-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html","title":{"rendered":"We’re All Going To Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted<\/a> some thoughts on the Bill O\u2019Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently<\/a>. In his post he writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Moss does not euphemize or equivocate about what the text says that Jesus said or that Jesus said this as a direct assertion of fact. Jesus said that if you don\u2019t give away your wealth to help the poor, then you will go to Hell. Period<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

As Keith wrote, O\u2019Reilly\u2019s reaction was typical of \u201calmost all readers of this story \u2026 surely that\u2019s not what he really meant.\u201d I think he\u2019s genuinely gobsmacked that Moss, cheerfully but emphatically, doesn\u2019t go along with that. She refuses to play along with \u201csurely that\u2019s not what he really meant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And so O\u2019Reilly takes the next usual step \u2014 which is also typical for \u201calmost all readers of this story\u201d \u2014 and he starts talking about Hell. If Jesus actually said and meant what Moss rightly notes he said and meant, O\u2019Reilly tells her, \u201cthen you\u2019re going to Hell and I\u2019m going to Hell and everybody watching is going to Hell!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To O\u2019Reilly\u2019s credit, the Gospels tell us this was also the reaction from Jesus\u2019 disciples: If what you\u2019re saying is true, then we\u2019re all damned to Hell.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll agree with Keith that what we do with that practically<\/em> is a separate issue. (Jesus\u2019 reply about camels and needles doesn\u2019t offer much practical relief from the uncompromising moral obligation he\u2019s just laid out.) But I don\u2019t think that what we make of that theologically can be a separate issue. Here is one of the few biblical mentions of Hell and what it teaches us about Hell is utterly incompatible with everything you\u2019ve probably been taught to associate with the idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the remarkable thing \u2014 the accidental insight O\u2019Reilly\u2019s aghast response points us toward \u2014 every mention of Hell in the Bible is just like this one.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the Gospels, Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples are depicted as astonished, drawing the conclusion that, if the rich who can afford to practice alms and be generous cannot be saved, then probably no one can. And Jesus\u2019 response is to emphasize that it is indeed a human impossibility \u2013 but a divine possibility.<\/p>\n

The implications of that are often nullified by Christians. Sure, we insist, there is something that we can do: whether it be trying very hard in some denominations, or reducing what is required to one human action of believing in others. But neither seems to take seriously what the text says: salvation is a human impossibility, but a divine possibility. There is nothing to suggest that human actions can add or assist, or that they can thwart the divine plan.<\/p>\n

The question may not be whether the divine aim of transforming humanity can be accomplished, but only how long some of us may resist before ultimately love wins and triumphs over hatred and apathy.<\/p>\n

On O\u2019Reilly\u2019s book, see also the 10 reasons why it stinks listed on The Jesus Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O\u2019Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes: Moss does not euphemize or equivocate about what the text says that Jesus said or that Jesus said this as a direct assertion of fact. Jesus said that if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,61,165],"tags":[418,1184,1541,3592,4510,5677,11399,13589],"class_list":["post-18015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afterlife-theology","category-morality","category-roman-catholicism","tag-afterlife-theology","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-candida-moss","tag-fred-clark","tag-hell","tag-jesus","tag-slacktivist","tag-wealth"],"yoast_head":"\nWe're All Going To Hell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We're All Going To Hell\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/10\/wpid-Photo-Oct-3-2013-1018-PM.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html\",\"name\":\"We're All Going To Hell\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We’re All Going To Hell\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We're All Going To Hell","description":"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We're All Going To Hell","og_description":"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/10\/wpid-Photo-Oct-3-2013-1018-PM.jpg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html","name":"We're All Going To Hell","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-04T13:47:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Fred Clark at Slacktivist has posted some thoughts on the Bill O'Reilly conversation with Candida Moss that I shared here recently. In his post he writes:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/were-all-going-to-hell.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We’re All Going To Hell"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}