Questioning Eternal Hell Part 5: What about judgement and justice?
Over the past few weeks I have been inviting us to question the Doctrine of Eternal Hell. I have been using as my guide a book by David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved, trying to communicate the essence of some of the salient points he makes in the book. A question that some may be wondering at this point is: Is there any justice? Where is the justice? If the doctrine of eternal hell is potentially incorrect will the abusers, perpetrators and oppressors of this world ever be held to account, and if so how? In offering some perspectives on these questions, I would like to take us to what seems to be the framework in which most of the New Testament writers worked within. In this regard, David Bentley Hart writes that within in the New Testament you will find two seemingly contradictory lists of statements. On the one hand, you will find statements that seem to support the idea of eternal damnation. A sample of such verses include: • Matthew 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” • Jude 13 [These people are] wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. • 2 Thessalonians 1:9 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” On the other hand, you will find statements that seem to support the doctrine of universal salvation: • For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, shall all be made alive (1 Cor 15:22) • For when I am lifted up I will draw (or drag) all people to myself (John 12:32) • In Jesus Christ is “the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21) How do we resolve these seemingly contradictory viewpoints with two seemingly absolute statements being made on both sides? The way in which advocates of eternal damnation have resolved these statements has been by placing their emphasis on the word eternal as in eternal fire, eternal destruction, eternal punishment. While on the other hand they have had to do some re-interpreting of the meaning of the word ‘all’. And so when the Biblical writers mention the word ‘all’ advocates of eternal hell would say that the word ‘all’, doesn’t in fact mean ‘all’, it actually only means a few. When the New Testament writers use the word ‘all’ they suggest that these writers only mean ‘all’ of the elect… or ‘all’ of God’s chosen, despite the fact that the actual references in the New Testament do not in themselves contain any such qualification. But David Bentley Hart suggest that the reason that these two sets of statements seem to be contradictory is because for centuries, theologians have been relying on defective translations of the original Greek word aionios being translated to mean eternal, forever, infinite, unending. But David Bentley Hart suggests that even thought he word has a certain flexibility of meaning no-where in the ancient world was the word used in that way. Rather the word had the meaning of ‘an age’ denoting a period of time with a beginning and an end. Originally it was a word that described simply the life-span of a human being, but later came to be used to describe much longer periods of time. And in this sense the ancient Greek word aionios forms the root of our English word aeon, which although coveys the idea of an extremely long period of time is still a period of time that will come to an end. Some would suggest that by implication the word aionios could be interpreted to mean eternal or forever and ever, but that was certainly not the standard or normal understanding of that word in the ancient world. And with this, David Bentley Hart says these two seemingly contradictory perspectives in the New Testament no longer need to be contradictory. Instead he says the New Testament writers invites us to see the future as comprising two horizons. The first horizon points us to the end of the age. And within that horizon there is space to understand that there is a cosmic justice according to which all of us will have to give account and experience of the consequences of our actions done in this world. An accountability that will be experienced as a judgement. But the good news is that there is a second horizon to which the New Testament framework points that takes us beyond the first horizon to ‘the age beyond all ages’. And in that second horizon, there is the final promise of the complete healing and restoration of all things. David Bentley Hart would therefore suggest that all those passages in the New Testament that deal with punishment, judgement and consequences are referring to that first horizon and describe penultimate, but not the final state of affairs. While on the other hand, all the passages that point to the final reconciliation of all things, points to the second horizon, the age beyond all ages, when as the writer of Ephesians puts it God “will bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth” (1:10) and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:28 God will be All and in all. What does the judgement and accountability of that first horizon look like? The judgement of the ‘end of the age’. The fact that the New Testament contains a variety of words, metaphors and images to speak of these things should alert us to the fact that they are ultimately beyond our full comprehension for those of us who in this world see as though through a glass darkly. But one of the primary images and the metaphors that is used in the Bible for this process of judgement, and accountability is the metaphor of fire. In Mark 9, Jesus is described as saying: Everyone will be salted with fire. The fire in this passage is the fire of Gehenna, one of the words that is usually translated as hell, but the reference to salt clearly suggests that this fire is a purifying and preserving fire that everyone will go through. We see this image of the purifying fire of Divine Love also near the end of the Book of Revelation. The Kings of the earth, in other words, those who have used power in this world in oppressive and violent ways pass through this fire before the final unveiling of the New Heaven and New Earth where we see them now entering the New Heavenly Jerusalem. David Bentley Hart writes that “...though Paul speaks on more than one occasion of the judgement to come, it seems worth noting that the only picture he actually provides of that final reckoning is the one found in 1 Cor 3:11-15, the last two verses of which identify only two classes of the judged: those saved in and through their works and those saved by way of the fiery destruction of their works”. If the work that someone has built endures, that one will receive a reward; if anyone’s work should be burned away, that one will suffer loss, yet shall be saved, even though as by fire. This reference to fire clearly suggests not the fire of eternal, infinite, unending punishment, but rather a potentially painful purification process for the final purpose of realising that second horizon of the complete restoration and reconciliation of all things. It is a process which Paul suggests will be more painful for some than for others, because it is a painful thing to have our darkness laid bare. And for those who have already entered fully into the grace of God made known in Christ, it will not be painful at all but simply and experience of the full light of Divine Love. And so the more we are able to do the painful work of honestly confronting our own darkness, selfishness, anger or greed in the here and now, (traditionally referred to as the word repentance) the less painful it will be later on. And in addition the more we will even now begin to feel and experience the Divine Love and Grace shining upon us and within us. (This is really the kind of work that we covered in our previous preaching series on the 12 Steps). I hope that this contrast has been helpful, between the judgement passages in the New Testament on the one hand and the universal salvation passages on the other hand? They don’t have to be contradictory or sit in opposition to each other. Instead of placing them side by side, Christian Universalists resolve them by placing them in sequential order, so that while there is indeed room for accountability and justice, however that may be conceived, God’s final word is not judgement and punishment and the unending torture of those who fall short. God’s final word is in fact love and the healing of all things where every tear will be wiped away. If Eternal Damnation is God’s final word, then God’s final word is pain, cruelty and torture… By contrast Paul reminds us that 3 things remain… three things endure… faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. It suggests that God’s final word is Love. I end with a passage of scripture that if read in the light of these things can be understood to be pointing towards both horizons, the end of the age, and the age beyond all ages. 2 Peter 3:10-13 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. One of the questions some might ask: If all are assured of salvation in a Christian Universalist framework, then Why live righteous, holy and godly lives? But the Righteous is he heavenly life… it is to be in alignment with the wisdom of life and the wisdom and love of God and to be in alignment with our own true nature. The unrighteousness life by contrast is the hellish life. Unrighteousness us essentially to be out of alignment with the truth of our own being, to be out of alignment with God and the Wisdom of Life. The unrighteous life, the life of disharmony is the very life we are being saved from. By contrast, the righteous life, a life of love, wisdom compassion, goodness, is the life we are saved for… it is the heavenly life that we can already begin to taste here and now the more we open ourselves to the Divine Grace. There is so much more that could be said and so on the Sunday after Easter I would like to further explore these ideas a little further.
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