Many Americans don't believe in hell, but what about Pastors? (Part 2)

We talked a bit yesterday about the sharp decline in the belief in a real, literal Hell in our culture today.  We’d like to continue that discussion today…

A Real Place or a State of Mind?

The pope's comments on hell stirred up the ancient debate about whether hell is a real place of burning fire or a state of mind reflecting a dark, cold emptiness and distance from God.

Evangelical Christians have traditionally looked to the Bible and offered a sterner view of salvation and damnation. A Southern Baptist Home Mission Board study in 1993 estimated that 70% of all Americans are going to hell, based on projected numbers of those who have not had a born-again experience. (I think it far more than that).

There are many who have sought to lay the idea of hell as portrayed in the Bible along side of other, terrible ideas put forth by men throughout history. They look back through the pages of time and try and trace the development of the “concept” of hell and “trace” its origin.

They suggest that the human ideas about hell were still in ferment as the Bible was being written. Historian Alan Bernstein, for instance, author of “The Formation of Hell” would argue that the theological concept of hell has “a rich cultural heritage”.

According to Bernstein, the ancient Hebrews focused on the afterlife following their Babylonian captivity, when they experienced the torment of ungodly enemies who seemed to have an unjustifiably good life on Earth.

Further, he says, during the Babylonian exile, Jews were exposed to Zoroastrianism, which asserts there is an eternal, non-physical struggle between good and evil, with good triumphing in the end.

He argues that the Hebrew concept of “Sheol” — the realm of the dead — ws likely also have been influenced by the Greek mythology of Tartarus, a place of everlasting punishment for the Titans, a race of gods defeated by Zeus, Bernstein writes.

From about 300 B.C. to 300 A.D., those influences combined with Hebrew speculation about an eventual comeuppance to the worldly wicked.

According to Bernstein, in translating the Bible from Hebrew to Greek, the Greeks used the terms Tartarus, Hades and Gehenna. In Greek thought, Hades is not a place of punishment; it's where the dead are separated from the living.

But the term Gehenna referred to a ravine outside Jerusalem that was used as a garbage dump. It had once been a place of child sacrifice and became a symbol of pain and suffering, Selles observed. As a garbage dump, it was probably often a place of fire as trash was burned, emphasizing the symbolism of the flames of eternal damnation, he said.

Selles said:

“Jesus never soft-pedaled the concept of hell. It's not metaphorical in Jesus' mind; it's a real place.”

The Bible contains a litany of colorful images of hell as both fire and darkness, as in the Gospel of Matthew, which refers to “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” and “the outer darkness” where “men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

Either way, Selles said, pretending that hell doesn't exist, or trying to preach around it, short-circuits the Bible.

“This is a doctrine, a teaching, that's being neglected in churches, It needs to be preached. It's part of the Gospel.”

Actually, it is a part of the Gospel, it is sets the stage for the Gospel and is what the Gospel provides the solution for! Sin is the Problem, The Gospel (the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ) is the solution. If that solution is not availed of in life, then hell is only other alternative for man. Punishment for sin must be exacted. If God is not satisfied by the death of His only Son, then He will be satisfied by the punishment of the sinner himself. Horrible as that is, it is what it is!