So why write all this?
It's a bit hard admitting "I've been wrong"; after going through about 30 years as a Christian and involving myself in the whole Christian scene. However in 1999 this is what I found myself doing. For a couple of years I had, on and off, looked at the whole area of Evolution and the debate with those who promote Creation, mostly those whose view is that the Earth is less than 10,000 and that Noah's flood happened. I had more or less assumed that what went on the the world was something that could be reconciled with scripture. After all, didn't Romans 1:20, about God's nature being obvious from the world, make that clear? However I hadn't really thought about it properly. That is a pretty shameful admission, not excused by the discovery that so many Christians haven't thought about it properly either. "So", I thought, "it's time to think about it". As I did, I learned many interesting things, mostly through "surfing the net". What amazed and appalled me though, was the sheer barefaced dishonesty of those who promote Creationism. Quotes from mainstream scientists are freely twisted out of context to reverse the meaning of what they are saying, or to promote the idea that doubts exist in the author's mind where there are none. One particular author freely compared his detractors with the Nazis. So I began to see that the foundations of the Christian faith were at best shaky ones, if they rely so much, as people argue they do, with the accuracy of the Biblical Creation, Fall and Flood accounts. This in turn made me start thinking about other doctrines which I had taken on board without thinking much about. One of the first of those was Hell. After all, it represents a pretty awesome penalty for getting everything wrong. After a few days contemplating the subject, I thought I'd put up my ideas on this website and ask for comments. What follows is what I put up. As days went by, I found other topics demanding thought. So I put up some of the more important of those on this site also. In the end, I couldn't really go any further. I had to take the plunge and admit to myself that it was all wrong, and decide that I was no longer a Christian. One of the key ingredients in my taking that plunge and deconverting was the email correspondence I had with a Creationist website owner, who illustrates all the worst features of the dishonest and ill-tempered tactics that I referred to earlier. So here are my thoughts about Hell.
So what is hell?
Well, it seems, if we get things wrong in this life, we'll end up in hell. This seems to be a continuously burning lake of sulphur somewhere. People go there for ever and ever and ever and ever... But hang on a moment. Think of a massive villain; Adolph Hitler perhaps, or Pol Pot. Suppose you have the distasteful task of passing sentence. (Maybe my understanding of "sentence-passing" is naive as will be apparent later. Hopefully it will remain so, at least on the receiving end!). This individual has, say, destroyed 10 million lives (after factoring out the responsibilities of others). Say that on average they would have lived another 25 years. Sentence him to say 10 years for each of those years, and you come to 2,500 million years. That's a long time. But it isn't infinite. If he suffered for ever and ever and ever would that be just? Even for Hitler? But the full horror of it comes alive when my turn comes to be sentenced. You rustle up a few thousand times that I lied, a few hundred times when I cheated and so on. I haven't murdered anyone, but a few times I wanted to. It comes to much the same as Joe Average, a little better here, a little worse there. I've no hope of reaching the Hitler level if I started today. But it seems I get sentenced -to frying forever - the same as Hitler? Can that be right? Yet that is what we are told will happen unless I get my act together sharpish. But come to think of it you don't need sulphur or demons with toasting forks to make a Hell if you've got forever to do it in. The slightest itch, the smallest annoyance will grow to gargantuan proportions before eternity has even begun. All possible topics of conversation with all possible combinations of people will soon become exhausted before "for ever and ever" has even properly got under way. Now from there you can easily see why the Roman Catholic church came up with the idea of purgatory. This is something pretty nasty, but still finite. If I've got forever to face up to, even in Heaven, I'd probably welcome some sort of punishment to clear my sheet of all that I might feel guilty about and mar my "forever" even there.
So what does the Bible say about Hell?
Well that's the interesting thing, because the answer is "not much". For the purposes of this discussion, we'll assume that the Bible is 100% accurate in every detail. (I don't think it is, as I say elsewhere). The first two-thirds of the Bible is the Old Testament which does not mention it once. The only references to any kind of afterlife are some vague ones to somewhere called "Sheol" mostly in the Psalms, such as Psalm 16:10, but this seems to be where everyone goes, good or bad, and the Psalmist is hoping to delay his trip there. The only references to Hell as such (the word used to translate "Gehenna" are in Matthew and Mark's gospels (at Matthew 5:29 and Mark 9:47) and a passing reference in Luke. The Matthew and Mark references are in the context of cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye if they cause you to stumble. But these nowhere imply eternal punishment as far as I can see. Luke doesn't mention it, except in Luke 16:19 onwards where he talks about the Rich Man, who ends up in "Hades" and Lazarus. Indeed, he seems to "edit out" references, for example the improperly dressed man at the wedding feast in Matthew 22:11 on isn't mentioned in the parallel passage in Luke 14:16 on. Likewise the fate of the last servant in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 doesn't get a mention in the parallel passage in Luke 19:11 on. The main reference to "everlasting punishment"; is "The Sheep and the Goats" in Matthew 25:40. But this raises an interesting point which I'll come back to in a minute. The next mention of a place of everlasting punishment is in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 (the only place which Paul, although the Pauline authorship of various of these letters is disputed, mentions any eternal punishment). I exclude as irrelevant the passages in 2 Peter 2 and Jude 6 which refer to the fate of rebellious angels. The final mention of eternal punishment is in Revelation. However this is the fate of the "Beast" (antichrist) and the false prophet in Revelation 20:10. Whilst the unrighteous are "thrown into the lake of fire" in verse 15, there is no clear indication that this is for ever and ever. So in summary, the only certain mentions of a place of eternal punishment are
- In Matthew (the 40th book of the Bible), in 3 or 4 places.
- 2 Thessalonians1:9
- Revelation (perhaps)
So I conclude, this wasn't a major doctrine of the early church. It wasn't a doctrine at all of the O.T. writers.
But where does this leave us?
What my point is, is that if I am in danger of spending forever in Hell if I don't get my act together and sharpish, this is so serious an issue that nothing else at all matters - isn't it? But the Bible (even assuming it is 100% accurate) doesn't say too much about the issue. Surely it should be warning us virtually on every page? Then there's the fact that the Bible itself isn't really accurate about what happens at the beginning. So how can we base a whole doctrine on it?
An analogy
Pondering this matter, the following analogy occurred to me. Make of it what you will. On the other side of a bridge near where I lived when I first wrote this is a long wide open road. But it has a 30 mph speed limit, an unnecessary one in my view, as it is far from houses or where children play. From time to time, however, the police mount a speed trap there. I've never been caught in it, partly because I know the road well, and slam the brakes on well in advance on my way back. But let's imagine I was caught doing 45 mph, or even 31 mph. Now what would my excuse be? I wouldn't really have one. All the approaches to the road bear signs indicating 30 mph. It's clear how I avoid trouble. I just don't press so hard with my right foot. Now it might be just a fine at the moment. But would that really change if the penalty was death? Even by 1 mph, and even as a first offence? It might be harsh, but I couldn't say I didn't know the risks. But supposing that instead of clear speed limit signs, the approaches to the road had signs on which if they said anything at all, were vague. One lot of signs was like a cryptic crossword clue, perhaps "Try and hit order for top speed". Another approach had a "900" sign, followed by a sign showing the mayor's family tree, and then a square root sign, followed by a sign saying "work out the speed limit from that". Another said "80" with a sort of small sub-sign under it saying "the work order from the roads department may have said 30 but we couldn't quite read it". And then if the penalty were still death, would that still be fair? And then supposing it was something less clearly defined, like red cars had to drive in one lane at one speed and blue ones in a different lane at another. Still on penalty of death. No longer just an easy case of taking your foot off and slowing down to 29mph until you're sure. That summarises how I feel about Hell. If it is real, whether I think it's fair or not, why aren't we more clearly warned about it?
A final thought
I haven't really discussed what qualifies for entry to Hell (or Heaven). What we are told is that it isn't a question of good deeds being outweighed (or not) by bad ones. If we sin on one point just once, we are guilty and worthy of a one-way ticket to Hell. But by faith we can be saved, all past and future sin forgiven and we go to heaven. The doctrine of "Justification by faith" is discussed extensively in Galatians and Romans, and mentioned in various other of Paul's letters, such as in Ephesians 2:8. It powered the Protestant reformation, "strangely warmed" John Wesley's "heart" etc. Yet it isn't mentioned in the rest of the Bible, except disparagingly in James. If you look in the perhaps "key" Hell chapter of Matthew 25, it seems to be all about works, the servant didn't use his talent, the goats led purely selfish lives. There doesn't seem to be an "escape clause" for faith. So again, even taking the Bible as 100% right, the doctrine we are given doesn't fit. The response of the early church or the modern church doesn't fit. The issue crumbles further if the Bible isn't 100% right. And what it says about Creation can't be right, and with it, we are told, falls the story of the Fall and the need for redemption. But if there isn't a hell, why go to all the trouble to save us from it? Or maybe the whole thing is wrong?