{"id":41967,"date":"2017-10-13T05:43:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T09:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=41967"},"modified":"2017-10-16T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T13:36:08","slug":"michael-pahl-jesus-gehenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/michael-pahl-jesus-gehenna.html","title":{"rendered":"Michael Pahl on Jesus and Gehenna"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In a recent blog post, Michael Pahl wrote the following<\/a> about Jesus and \u201chell\u201d- or rather, Gehenna, a reference to the Hinnom Valley. But what was the significance of that valley? The idea that it was a burning trash heap seems to come into existing literature only later. And so Pahl suggests looking at Jeremiah 7<\/a> instead. From that text, Pahl draws a number of conclusions:<\/p>\n

1) The fires of Gehenna were made by humans, not by God.<\/p>\n

In fact, 2) God abhorred the fires of Gehenna.<\/p>\n

And why did God so despise the fires of Gehenna? Because 3) they were the epitome of senseless human violence, particularly violence against the most vulnerable\u2026<\/p>\n

4) Gehenna symbolizes God\u2019s judgment, but this divine judgment is not an \u201cangry God directly inflicting violence upon sinners for eternity\u201d judgment.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 5) \u201creap what you sow\u201d judgment\u2014if we sow violence, injustice, and oppression, we will reap that violence, injustice, and oppression upon ourselves, in very human, very natural, ways, within human history and not beyond it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a 6) judgment specifically upon the powerful, those with social or economic or political or religious clout, for the ways in which they oppress and commit violence against the weak, those on the bottom rungs of our social and economic and political and religious hierarchies.<\/p>\n

With this background on Gehenna in mind, we can now fully appreciate Jesus\u2019 words on hell in the Gospels.<\/p>\n

Jesus<\/em>\u00a0isn\u2019t talking about a \u201cliteral hell\u201d<\/em>\u00a0where unrepentant unbelievers go after they die to be tortured in God\u2019s inferno for all eternity.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s talking about<\/em>\u00a0the violent consequences of our own violent actions,<\/em>\u00a0right here in our lived lives<\/a>,\u00a0right here in human history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s talking about such consequences<\/em>\u00a0especially for those who\u00a0use their power to oppress the weak<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>who\u00a0live in wealth in indifference to the poor<\/a>, who\u00a0have the means to care for the sick and clothe the naked and feed the hungry but refuse to do so<\/a>, who\u00a0rest secure in their status and privilege while committing grave injustices against the vulnerable and the marginalized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s talking in particular to the uber-religious, the people who think they\u2019re on God\u2019s side because they believe the right things or do the right rituals<\/em>\u2014but\u00a0they burden others with moral demands while doing nothing to help them, they focus on minor moral issues while neglecting the weightier matters of justice and mercy and allegiance to God above all other powers that be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are sobering words, serious warnings, for every age and certainly our own. But all this is right in line with the good news of Jesus and Jesus\u2019 way of love.<\/p>\n

After all, there\u2019s nothing more loving, nothing more like Jesus, than standing in solidarity with the powerless, the stepped-upon, the pushed-to-the-side, and standing up to the oppressive powers that be\u2014whatever the cost to ourselves.<\/p>\n

And it is this hell of our own harmful actions and their destructive consequences\u2014our sin and all its death\u2014that Jesus has come to save us from. Jesus calls us to leave behind our damaging, violent ways and follow him in his path of compassionate, inclusive, forgiving, self-giving love. If we don\u2019t do this the result will only be death for ourselves, for others, for the world. But if we do this we will find life, full and flourishing life for all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s an amazing post, and so I encourage you to go to Michael Pahl\u2019s blog and read it in its entirety<\/a>. Then let me know what you think of it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent blog post, Michael Pahl wrote the following about Jesus and \u201chell\u201d- or rather, Gehenna, a reference to the Hinnom Valley. But what was the significance of that valley? The idea that it was a burning trash heap seems to come into existing literature only later. And so Pahl suggests looking at Jeremiah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":42008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[3812,4510,5677,7366],"class_list":["post-41967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afterlife-theology","tag-gehenna","tag-hell","tag-jesus","tag-michael-pahl"],"yoast_head":"\nMichael Pahl on Jesus and Gehenna<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent blog post, Michael Pahl wrote the following about Jesus and "hell"- or rather, Gehenna, a reference to the Hinnom Valley. 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