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!

Many Americans don't believe in hell, but what about Pastors?

In a recent article in the Religion New Service, Greg Garrison quoted a statistic that seemed to surprise him. He said that only 59% of Americans believe in hell, compared with 74% who believe in heaven, according to the recent surveys from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The overwhelming majority of Pastors and Teachers never preach or teach on the topic for fear of seeming extreme or of being “irrelevant”, that is not addressing things that modern audiences are concerned about.

Rev. Kurt Selles, director of the Global Center at Samford University's Beeson Divinity School and quoted extensively in the article, ties this trend to the modern desire to “market Jesus”.

“When you're trying to market Jesus, sometimes there's a tendency to mute traditional Christian symbols. Difficult doctrines are left by the wayside. Hell is a morally repugnant doctrine. People wonder why God would send people to eternal punishment.”

He couldn’t be more correct. The problem, of course, is that this is disastrous for the critical matter of actually getting saved! If we remove the doctrine of sin and its’ punishment then we remove the need for Christ to have come; and if we remove that need, the entire doctrine of the cross falls apart.

Speakers said the seriousness of Jesus dying for man's sins relates to the gravity of salvation vs. damnation, according to Rev. Fred Johns, pastor of Brookview Wesleyan Church in Irondale, Ala. Selles agreed and added:

“If you don't mention God's judgment, you are missing a big part of the Christian gospel, Without wrath, there's no grace.”

That’s true as well, it’s not just a big part, it is the biggest part – in fact, it is all of the Gospel. Surely there is a part of what God does in lives of those whom He saves once redemption is accomplished and men and women walk with Him as His children…but the Gospel is about sin and its’ solution and that is wrapped up in the cross and nothing else!

The article goes on to mention that Pope John Paul II stirred up a debate in 1999 by describing hell as:

“…the state of those who freely and definitely separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy.”

Although the pope was reflecting official Roman Catholic teaching, some U.S. evangelicals expressed misgivings about the implication that hell is an abstract separation from God rather than a literal lake of fire as described in the Book of Revelation.

That puts it gently. The pope was dead wrong, couldn’t have been further from the truth. He was indeed reflecting official RC teaching, but not Biblical teaching. Hell is not for those who separate themselves but for those who, as a result of the Great Whit Throne, have been condemned by God and sentenced there – separated by Him. It is not their choice – it is His. When they are faced by that awesome and terrifying personage portrayed in Revelation 20:11ff, no one would chose to be separated; but they have no choice at that point. The pope is simply playing the RC party line.

We’ll talk more about this tomorrow…