HOW CAN WE STUDY OUT THE ISSUE OF HELL WITHOUT HAVING OUR RESEARCH AFFECTED BY ▪ OUR VIEW OF GOD ▪ OUR VIEW OF THE ATONEMENT ▪ OUR APPROACH TO SCRIPTURE OR ▪ OUR PERSONAL NEED ?
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Herein Lies the Problem
The stubborn fact is that Scripture is richly polyphonic on the topic of hell and judgment—as if by design. Thus, if we become dogmatic about any one position, we reduce ourselves to reading selectively or doing interpretive violence to those verses that don’t fit our chosen view. Our theological prejudgments blind us to passages we may have read many times but never really seen. Even a tentative removal of traditionalist lenses leads to the question, “Why didn’t I ever see that verse before?”The complexity of the text is not a deficiency! If we can momentarily suspend our penchant for forcing the text to harmonize with our systems or even with itself, we’ll see some magnificent tensions between those old Moroccan leather covers. For example, the Bible repeatedly affirms that God has given humanity the real capacity for authentic choice. To choose between life and death, heaven and hell, and mercy and wrath implies the real possibility that some could choose the way that leads to destruction. The Bible testifies that some may opt for choices that result in permanent posthumous exclusion (the lake of fire, outer darkness, etc.). On the other hand, the Bible just as plainly teaches that God is also free: free to relent, free to forgive, free to restore even when judgment is promised (Hos 11; Jonah 1: 1; 3: 4, 10; 4: 2, 11), free to pursue lost sheep “until he finds them,”free to play out a cosmic history where, in the end, “every knee will bow,” “all things will be restored,”“everything will be reconciled,”and “all will be made alive,” a time when absolutely everything will be “summed up in Christ,”and when Christ will, in turn, hand a saved cosmos over to his Father so “that God may be all in all.” The Alpha purposes of God for the universe will come to their Omega point in Jesus Christ. Thus, before we plant our flag on any one version of hell, we must take all of the biblical texts on hell and judgment, mercy and restoration into account.
Her Gates Will Never Be Shut
Hell, Hope, and the New Jerusalem
Bradley Jersak