The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.
Heard ANYTHING like this from the pulpit recently? It’s a sentence from one of the most FAMOUS sermons in history: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was PREACHED on 8 July 1741 by the American preacher, Jonathan Edwards.
It’s easier to JOKE about hell than face the cruel reality. MARK TWAIN wrote, ‘Go to heaven for the climate, Hell for the company’. ‘If there is no hell’, someone once quipped, ‘a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretences’ (William A. Sunday).
A lecturer in a theological college asked his STUDENTS to participate in ‘a little experiment’. He asked each person to RATE themselves on a scale of one to six, as to HOW much they doubted their faith. A SIX indicated a lot of doubt; ONE meant very little or no doubt. How would YOU rate yourself? Does the idea of hell diminish your faith?
It’s a TOUCHY subject—hell. It’s prime, religious CRINGE material. It affronts a good many people. Hell is politically incorrect. It CHALLENGES our view of God. We prone NOT to read passages which speak about hell. It moves us to TEARS when we consider the fate of our unbelieving family and friends. What about my unbelieving mum and dad? What about my friend who accidently fell to his death? Hell is ALMOST too bad to be true. It’s a touchy subject—hell.
For over 2,000 years the mainstream Christian church has AFFIRMED the doctrine of eternal punishment. However, in the last FIFTY YEARS, a big shift has occurred amongst Bible-believing Christians. The influence has come from within and without the church. Philosophers like Bertrand RUSSELL claim that any person with any SENSE of decency cannot believe in everlasting punishment. Men such as John STOTT and John WENHAM are saying that we ought to embrace a wider range of interpretations.
This morning we shall consider TWO alternate views of hell. Because if we are to BELIEVE the traditional view—if the Bible really promotes eternal, conscious punishment—then we need to be certain that the ALTERNATIVES fall short of the scriptural evidence. The most important question we can ask is, ‘What is the mind of God on the subject of hell’?
The first alternative is UNIVERSALISM. This is the view that God’s love is so big and so wide and so EMBRACING, that he cannot and will not send people to a place of eternal torment. Rob Bell’s recent book, Love Wins, tries to bring UNIVERSALISM back into mainstream thinking.
At funerals we are often told that the DRUNKEN, womanising wretch is now safely in the hands of a loving God—or at least he’s with the rest of his MATES in hell having an eternal booze-up. So DESPERATE we are at funerals to accept the death of a loved one, that the world RATIONALISES and says, ‘He is happy now. He’s gone to a better place’. This is a form of universalism.
Universalism argues that humanity will ULTIMATELY be saved through Jesus whether or not FAITH is professed in him. They usually complain about hell with QUESTIONS such as these ones:
‘Is God really going to send most of humanity to hell’?
‘If most go to hell, doesn't that mean that Satan wins? Since God only gets a few and Satan gets the majority who are lost’?
Rob Bell asks similar questions in Love Wins:
‘Of all the billions of people who have ever lived, will only a select number “make it to a better place” and every single other person suffer in torment and punishment forever? Is this acceptable to God? Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God?’ (Bell, Love Wins, 2).
I’m sure Bell is not the first to make this point. Surely God CAN’T be like this? Surely God’s not this ANGRY, this MEAN and this UNLOVING? And while you’re asking questions, DON’T forget to ask this one, ‘What does God say about hell in his Word’?
There are verses that plainly teach that not everyone is saved:
John 3:36, ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him’.
Matt 7:13–14, ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it’.
Matt 22:14, ‘For many are invited, but few are chosen’.
Whether or not we THINK this makes God a failure, or whether or not it makes us SAD or upset, isn’t the main issue. If the BIBLE says it, that settles it. What is left for us to do is to make ADJUSTMENTS in our understanding and feelings. We need to BRING our thinking into line with the word of God.
Universalists don’t understand that hell is COMPATIBLE with the character of God. That God LIMITS the expression of his love. He is not bound to save everyone. Don Carson says, ‘It is not going too far to say that the Bible world have no plot-line at all if there was no wrath’.
The universalist FORGETS Heb 12:29 which says that God is a CONSUMING fire. Books like Leviticus remind us that the HOLINESS of God is central and important. Sacrifices are PLEASING aroma in God’s nostrils because they SATISFY his justice. Sacrifices make way for a HOLY God to dwell in the midst of an unholy people.
God’s love does NOT ignore the fact the our sin is offensive to him. God is NOT simply disappointed with our choices or ANGRY at the way we judge others. He is ANGRY at the way we judge him. Ps 5:5 describes God this way, ‘The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong’. God hates our THANKLESSNESS, our impurity, our self-centredness, our DISOBEDIENCE, our despising of his holy law. Only after we GRASP God’s holiness can we MARVEL at his amazing love that bought our deliverance on the cross.
But Love Wins wants us to believe that traditional Christians have INFERIOR news to share. In our story, too many PEOPLE end up in hell. And who likes a story with a bad ending? So Bell presents an ALTERNATE view of hell where God doesn’t pour out his anger on anyone.
He says that hell is bad decisions now and after death. Bell reduces hell to bad choices. There is hell NOW and hell beyond the grave. We may choose hell, Bell says, but God will PERSISTENTLY chase people until they see the ERROR of their ways.
In the world of Love Wins, we CANNOT sing ‘In Christ Alone’ because we CANNOT believe the words, ‘There on the cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied’. We cannot BELT out, ‘Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood’. In Bell’s theology, there is no place for SINNERS to approach the cross so that they might FLEE the wrath to come. In Love Wins, the greatest causality is God whose HOLINESS and justice are pushed aside for our salvation.
Universalism diminishes the cross of Christ. Although ATTRACTIVE to the modern ear, there is NO support in the scriptures for universalism, at all.
Please stay with me as we LOOK at the other alternative view of hell. But before we do so, we need to REMEMBER that our understanding of hell ultimately comes down to TRUSTING that Jesus is telling us the truth and that he is telling us for our good. The TRUTH that Jesus tells us comes to us through his Word. And the word of God has much to say about sin and how God responds to sin.
We ought to REMEMBER John Stott’s words: the issue is ‘not what my heart tells me, but what does God’s word say’? Even though the topic of hell is hard, yet if this is the reality we WANT to know about it. Ignoring hell, denying it, or even REINTERPRETING hell will not change its reality.
In the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, Juan Manuel Fangio was APPROACHING a dangerous bend for the second time. As he ROUNDED the bend, Fangio noticed that something was wrong. The faces of the SPECTATORS were all turned away from him. ‘If they are not looking at me’, FANGIO thought, ‘they must be looking at SOMETHING more interesting around the corner’. So he braked hard and CAREFULLY rounded the bend, where he saw that his split second assessment had been accurate. The road was blocked by a massive pileup.
When we read the Bible we see that there is a MASSIVE pile about around the bend. We can DENY its there—we can IGNORE the warning signs—but in the end we must DEAL with the situation.
In the 1982 war in the FALKLAND Islands between England and Argentina, the Royal Navy's 3,500-ton destroyer HMS Sheffield was sunk by a single MISSILE fired from an Argentine fighter jet. This caused some people to WONDER if modern surface warships were obsolete. But a later check revealed that the Sheffield's defences did pick up the INCOMING missile. Although the ship's computer correctly IDENTIFIED the missile as an ‘Exocet’, it was programmed to treat Exocets as ‘friendly fire’.
HMS Sheffield was sunk by a MISSILE it saw coming and could have evaded. The Scriptures warn us that the JUDGMENT of God is coming and can be avoided. God in his MERCY gives us the information we need to avoid hell. In fact, God does MORE than give us information, he gave us his Son who lay down his life so we can AVOID the missile heading our way.
The trouble with UNIVERSALISM is that it removes hell. It says that there is NO pile up around the corner or NO missile that can destroy us. And this is totally CONTRARY to the actions of God in history and the revelation of his Word. For if there is no hell, then we don’t need saving from anything OTHER than our foolish thoughts.
The second common alternative to hell is known as ‘annihilationism’. It is the view that the unbeliever, at some point after death, CEASES to exist. That after a LIMITED time of punishment, God totally DESTROYS the rebellious person. So there is NO eternal torment because ULTIMATELY there is no-one left to torment.
The main case for ANNIHILATION flows from the meaning of the word ‘destroy’ that we come across in various passages. When God ‘destroys’ something, does that mean eternal punishment, or does it mean ‘cease to exist’? For example, in Phil 3:19, ‘Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame’ OR 1 Thess 5:3, ‘While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape’.
Those in FAVOUR of annihilation argue that ‘destroy’ means ‘cessation of existence’. And its true that it may mean ‘cessation of existence’, and here is the point, it need not mean ‘cessation of existence’. Words have a RANGE of meanings. If I say to you, ‘the stove is hot’, have I left it on, or is it stolen?
Word have a range of meanings and it is NOT helpful to enforce one meaning to make a point. Perhaps, though, the IMAGERY of fire in verses such as 2 Pet 3:7 carries the idea of total destruction. ‘By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire’. Of course fire can destroy, but it can also refine and purify. The Bible uses lots of IMAGES to describe hell, but imagery is just that, its picture language designed more to provoke an emotional response rather than describe objective reality.
Of course, annihilationism ARGUES that an eternity of horrible torment is INCOMPATIBLE with a God of love. So one theologian says, ‘The nature of hell must not contradict what we know about God’s love. God is not vindictive and does not practice sadism. The lurid portrayals of hellfire in the Christian tradition contradict God’s identity, according to the gospel’ (Pinnock).
Both universalism and annihilationism teach that human sin is NOT wicked enough to be eternally punished. Each diminishes the serious of sin. If the unrighteous ONLY suffer only for a short time, then the cross does NO more than save us from a SHORT period of suffering. But no, Jesus died to save us from ENDLESS punishment—his was a STUPENDOUS sacrifice whose effect resounds for eternity.
I was driving home with MATTHEW the other week, and I was explaining UNIVERSALISM and annihilationism to him. It’s a great Father-Son conversation. And then I asked, ‘What’s the problem with these positions’? And Matt said to me, ‘Hell is an empty place’.
The final outcome of annihilationism and universalism are the SAME: hell is an empty place. These are VIEWS which eradicate hell. By their own scheming, they WISH hell out of existence. But all the talk in the Bible about judgment and hell ring a little HOLLOW if hell is an empty place.
There is LITTLE to fear after death—if hell is an empty place. If hell is ultimately empty, then we MIGHT as well eat and drink and fool around all we like because hell is an EMPTY place. If there is NO resurrection to judgment, NO eternal future destiny, then the apostle nails it in 1 Cor 15, ‘If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”’ (1 Cor 15:32).
The warnings in the Bible about hell are REAL warnings! They are to be take seriously. They have SUBSTANCE to them. They are meant to CHANGE our thinking and our actions. They are NOT there to needlessly scare us. Yet hell is a REALITY that ought to scare us. The straight talk brings us to our senses, such as 2 Thess 1:7–9, ‘He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power’.
The imagery ought to scare us, such as Rev 14:10–11, ‘he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever’.
The writer is NOT talking about real WINE and real burning SULPHUR and real SMOKE rising. These are images that point to a reality beyond our existence. The WRITER uses every word—every way he can think of to WARN us of the reality of hell. Hell is NOT an empty place. It is the climax of God’s righteous judgment. And we shall talk more about this next week.
We need to END on a positive note. There is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus BORE the punishment for us. By his WOUNDS we are healed. The gospel is the news of what God has DONE to rescue us from hell. ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:38).
