Tag Archives: Hell

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Everyone Is Becoming Something

As the famous quote goes, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” That has never been truer than when applied to the topic of hell. C. S. Lewis vividly paints a picture of this progression:

Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others . . . but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God “sending us” to Hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.

The simple fact of the matter is that everyone is becoming something. We are either becoming a lover of self or a lover of God. We make our choices and then our choices make us.

Engage this topic further…

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Dallas Willard on the Ruined Soul and How Not to Live

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Recently Dallas Willard went to be with His Lord. I miss him already. Here is just one of the many sobering and insightful passages from his writing (Renovation of the Heart).

Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent. One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence. They will find their place in the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke. But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God… We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man.—Dallas Willard

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The Most Important Thing People Need To Know About Hell (And Heaven Too…)

Because we have been so bombarded with images of flames and devils with pitchforks, we fail to see that the essence of hell is relational. The apostle Paul, who was well tutored in the Hebrew Scriptures and a careful student of Jesus’ teachings, taught that hell is a place where people:

“pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” (2 Thess. 1:7)

Hell is the absence of relationship with our creator. It is utter darkness and where the silence of God will be absolute (a truly horrifying thought).

This brings us to a very common misconception about heaven in our culture. Leaving aside images of chubby cherubs, many have this idea that heaven is an eternal pleasure factory in the sky where people get everything they want. This is deeply flawed and incorrect. Heaven is where God is. So if we don’t like living in God’s limited presence now, then we really won’t like it later!

Think of it this way. Imagine that heaven were an eternal Opera. While I recognize the talent and skill of Opera singers, an eternal Opera would be hell for me if I really don’t like opera! In the same way, heaven would be hell for someone who does not want life with God. Moreover, the pleasure that we enjoy in heaven flows out of our relationship with God; enjoying his creative goodness and joy forever and ever without end.

Tim Keller observes that thinking of hell in relational terms is foreign to most people:

“Modern people inevitably think hell works like this: God gives us time, but if we haven’t made the right choices by the end of our lives, he casts our souls into hell for all eternity. As the poor souls fall through space, they cry out for mercy, but God says “Too late! You had your chance! Now you will suffer!” This caricature misunderstands the very nature of evil. The Biblical picture is that sin separates us from the presence of God, which is the source of all joy and indeed of all love, wisdom, or good things of any sort. Since we were originally created for God’s immediate presence, only before his face will we thrive, flourish, and achieve our highest potential….To lose his presence totally, that would be hell—the loss of our capability for giving or receiving love or joy.”

So the most important thing we need to know about heaven and hell is this: The essence of heaven and hell is relational because heaven (i.e., eternal life) is primarily defined as life with God and hell as life without God.

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” – John 17:3

**If you are interested in exploring these questions further, I have written more here.

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Is Hell For Real? How Would You Answer?

Everyone is talking about hell these days. In response to Rob Bell’s new book–love Wins–TIME magazine even had a cover story on it during Holy Week asking—Is Hell Dead? When it comes to this topic everyone has questions:

  • How could a loving God send people to hell?
  • Is hell forever?
  • Will everyone be saved in the end?
  • What about those who have never heard of Jesus?
  • Did Jesus really believe in hell?

Last month I responded to these and other issues from a distinctively Christian worldview so that we can better understand what the Bible teaches about this topic and how we can engage others when these issues come up in conversations at work, home, or on campus (cf. 1 Peter 3:15).

Click here to listen.

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow
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A Summary of What the Bible Teaches About Hell

Last night I taught a seminar at our church addressing the question – Is Hell for Real? What follows is a brief overview and summary.

Biblical Passages:

“This final dimension of judgment and hell is anticipated in the Old Testament (Dan. 12:1-2; Isa. 66:24) and taught in every section of the New: the Gospels (Matt. 5:22; 29-30; 7:13, 23; 8-12, 29; 10:28; 13:42, 49-50; 18:6-9; 22:13; 23:33; 24:51; 25:30, 41, 46: 26:24; Mark 1:24; 5:7; 9:43, 45, 47-48; Luke 3:17; 4:34; 12:5; 13:3, 5; 16:23-25, 28; John 3:16-18, 36; 5:28-29; 8:21,24); Acts (10:42; 17:31); the New Testament letters (Rom. 2:5, 8-9, 12; 6:23; 9:3, 22; 1 Cor. 11:32; 2 Cor. 2:15-16; 4:3; Gal. 1:8-9; 6:8; Eph. 5:6; Phil. 1:28; 3:19; Col. 3:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:3, 9; 2:10; Heb. 6:2; 9:27; 10:27, 39; James 4:12; 2 Peter 2:1, 3 ,4, 9, 12, 17; 3:7; Jude 4, 6, 7, 13); and the Apocalypse (Rev. 2:11; 6:16-17; 11:18; 14:10-11, 19; 16:19; 17:8, 11; 18:8, 9, 18; 19:3, 15, 20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8; 22:15). Plainly, the New Testament has much to say about the final destiny of the unsaved.” (1)

Summary of what these passages reveal about the nature of hell:

“The Bible’s picture of hell, therefore, indicates that upon death some people will be translated into a different, nonspatial mode of existence. They will be conscious, and they will await a resurrection of their bodies, at which time they will be banished from heaven and secured in hell where they will experience unending, conscious exclusion from God, his people, and anything of value. This banishment will include conscious sorrow, shame, and anguish to differing degrees, depending on the person’s life on earth.”—J.P Moreland and Gary Habermas (2)

As Christians, what should our response be to the doctrine of hell?

“No orthodox Christian likes the doctrine of hell or delights in anyone’s condemnation. I truly wish universalism were true, but it is not. My compassion toward those in other world religions is therefore expressed, not in pretending that they are not lost and dying without Christ, but by supporting and making every effort myself to communicate to them the life-giving message of salvation through Christ.”—William Lane Craig (3)

1 Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds., Hell under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 168.

2 J. P. Moreland and Gary R. Habermas, Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2003), 291.

3 http://wri.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/politically.html Politically Incorrect Salvation by William Lane Craig.