Hell & the Gospel

The following was written around the time I had just become convinced that endless torment was not the teaching of Scripture.

The friend I mention was quite a colorful character. He had no idea that not too many years later I would reject ceaseless suffering, but was so incensed at me that he shockingly said the following:

"If you were tied to a stake, I could strike the match and light the fire."

Here's what I wrote about that encounter:

“Must Hell be included in the presentation of the gospel?”  A preacher friend asked me that question some years ago.  I didn’t think it was a hard question.  I said, “No.”  He didn’t think that was a good answer.  He railed on me for not knowing better.  

To him, Hell was an integral and essential part of the good news of Jesus Christ.  Escaping Hell, a fiery Hell of eternal conscious torment, was the good news.  In his understanding, escaping Hell was the whole point, or at least the main point - the point of the incarnation, the atonement, and the resurrection.  It was also the supreme motivation for evangelism, and the terrifying impetus for repeating the “sinner’s prayer.”

I defended my answer by asking where Paul ever included Hell in his presentation of the gospel, or for that matter, where he even mentioned Hell at all.  I wasn’t opposed to telling the lost of the prospect of eternal torment, but his question was must it be included.    

A confession:  I have wrestled with Hell for a long time.  I have thought on the ever-extending reach of eternity and the never ending suffering of the damned until I’ve soaked a pillow with tears- tears of inconsolable grief over the fate of lost loved ones.  If you have never shed a tear over Hell, then please don’t try to convince me you believe in it.  If you can teach and preach on Hell with an arrogant air, or explain your orthodoxy on the subject as if you are reciting the alphabet, then take your pretense elsewhere and don’t waste your time trying to straighten me out.

Straighten me out?  Yes, many of you who continue to read this are most likely going to feel the need to rescue me from my heresy, or condemn me in it.  I prefer the former.  “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject”  (Titus 3:10).  Admonish me at least twice before you reject me, and before you admonish me, hear me out.  

The struggle with the subject of eternal torment has darted in and out of my mind for at least eight years.  At first, I carefully shared my questions with a few friends, not daring any dogmatism but venturing a few honest doubts.  While shuffling the issue to the back burner again and again, I have nevertheless been convinced for a long time that the manner in which we evangelical fundamentalists (I’m including myself) have used Hell as a weapon to coerce a decision is a perversion of the gospel.

I firmly believe in the inspiration and preservation of Scripture.  I am convinced that the Word of God is the Christian’s first appeal and final authority.  So let me emphasize, my struggle has not been whether or not to accept the Bible’s teaching concerning eternal torment, but whether or not the Bible actually teaches it.  Soaked pillows, mushy sentiments, and intellectual arguments could neither convince nor console.  What saith the Scriptures? was the sincere question of my heart, and became the intense quest of my study.  

I wanted to know the truth.  The truth.  Either torment is endless, or it is not.  No matter how many believe it, or how strongly he or she defend it, if it is not true, no amount or strength of belief will make it so.  Likewise, if it is true, a whole host of unbelief will not make it untrue.  It’s true or it’s not, and I wanted to know.  Do you?