I’m sure this is a subject we will return to a few times
on this blog, but I thought these few thoughts would be a good place to start a
discussion on a very difficult subject.
I want to start by first of all making it clear that I do
hold to the traditional view. I did have an era where annihilationism had me
pretty much convinced, but further study (particularly Carson’s chapter on the
subject in The Gagging of God) drew me away from it again.
Generally when discussing this subject with others I find
that most Christians don’t really think about it that much or they simply
choose to do one of two things:
Either soften it by just loosely talking about God’s
wrath or being away from his presence (which isn’t too bad I suppose),
Or they just flat out deny it exists (which is).
However, every now and again I come across another group
of people. Those who seem to take to the doctrine very easily for some reason.
They very simply see the righteous justice of it, or they take it as a great motivation
for evangelism.
I must admit, however, that I have nearly always been
somewhat troubled by it to a certain extent.
I have found it extremely difficult to feel a real peace
about it despite years of pondering and study.
(again note that this lack of peace has not stopped me
believing in it).
When I first became a Christian I suppose I managed to
keep the idea at a certain distance, but when I was about 18 I read How Can a
God of Love Send People to Hell? by John Benton.
It’s a great book, but I have to say it did lead me into
a long period of struggle and depression as I faced such a difficult truth for
the first time.
And every now and again since then these periods come
back.
This may just be down to my temperament or nature or
whatever, but then I came across this little nugget from my favourite apologist
James R White. Discussing ‘True Conversion’ he refers to Jonathan Edwards
(someone who seemed to talk an awful lot about hell):
‘Edwards, in essence, had
suggested that the greatest evidence of true regeneration is not the common
religious affections that many possess, even in false religions: the greatest
evidence of true regeneration in the heart is whether we love those very aspects
of God's nature and character that are the most reprehensible to the natural
man.’
Not really a very comforting sentence.
But then another view point comes to mind. John Stott
(who appeared to hold very cautiously to some sort of annihilationism) said this:
‘Emotionally, I find the concept
intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either
cauterizing their feelings or cracking under the strain. But our emotions are a
fluctuating, unreliable guide to truth and must not be exalted to the place of
supreme authority in determining it. As a committed Evangelical, my question
must be—and is—not what my heart tells me, but what does God’s word say? And in
order to answer this question, we need to survey the Biblical material afresh
and to open our minds (not just our hearts) to the possibility that Scripture
points in the direction of annihilationism, and that ‘eternal conscious
torment’ is a tradition which has to yield to the supreme authority of
Scripture.’ (Essentials, p.314)
If I am honest with myself I have to say that I am closer emotionally to
what Stott seems to feel about hell, than I am to what Edwards appears to be
saying (although I don’t hold to annihilationism).
C. S. Lewis is quite balanced too:
‘There is no doctrine which I would
more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But
it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lord’s own words;
it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.’ (The
Problem of Pain p.118)
Turning back to Jonathan Edwards for a moment again. He
is someone I love and admire. I have gained so much from him for many years.
But when he gets onto the subject of hell he is seriously
tough:
‘The God that holds you over the
pit of hell, much in the same way as one holds a spider, or some loathsome
insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath
towards you burns like fire…. You hang by a slender thread, with flames of divine
wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it
asunder…. Consider this, you that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God
will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath
without any pity…you shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and
in the presence of the Lamb…. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible
misery…. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.’ (Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God)
‘When the saints in glory,
therefore, shall see the doleful state of the damned, how will this heighten
their sense of the blessedness of their own state, so exceedingly different
from it! When they shall see how miserable others of their fellow creatures
are, who were naturally in the same circumstances with themselves; when they
shall see the smoke of their torment, and the raging of the flames of their
burning, and hear their dolorous shrieks and cries, and consider that they in
the meantime are in the most blissful state, and shall surely be in it to all eternity;
how they will rejoice!’
‘The sight of hell torments will
exalt the happiness of the saint for ever. . . .’ (The Eternity of Hell Torments
[Sermon, April 1739])
‘Can the believing husband in Heaven
be happy with his unbelieving wife in Hell? Can the believing father in Heaven
be happy with his unbelieving children in Hell? Can the loving wife in Heaven
be happy with her unbelieving husband in Hell? I tell you, yea! Such will be
their sense of justice that it will increase rather than diminish their bliss.’
(Discourses on Various Important Subjects, 1738.)
‘They [the saints] shall not be
grieved, but rather rejoice at the glorious manifestations… of God's justice,
holiness, and majesty in their [the damned's] dreadful perdition, and shall
triumph with Christ; Rev. 18:20; and 19 at the beginning. They [the damned]
shall be made Christ's footstool, and so they shall be the footstool of the
saints. Ps. 68:23. “That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies,
and the tongue of thy dogs in the same." (Remarks on Important Theological
Controversies, chapter 2, "Concerning the Endless Punishment of Those Who
Die Impenitent" (reprinted in The Works of President Edwards, vol. 8 p.
339)
And just in case we make the mistake that only Edwards
speaks like this:
Thomas Aquinas
‘In order that the happiness of
the saints may be more delightful to them and that they may render more copious
thanks to God for it, they are allowed to see perfectly the sufferings of the
damned … So that they may be urged the more to praise God … The saints in
heaven know distinctly all that happens … to the damned.’ (Summa Theologica,
Third Part, Supplement, Question XCIV, “Of the Relations of the Saints Towards
the Damned,” First Article)
Isaac Watts
‘What bliss will fill the
ransomed souls, when they in glory dwell, to see the sinner as he rolls, in
quenchless flames of hell.’
Having read through those it is no wonder that C. S.
Lewis noticed that the traditional doctrine of hell ‘is
one of the chief grounds on which Christianity is attacked as barbarous and the
goodness of God impugned.’ (The Problem of Pain,
“Hell”)
Todays ‘New Atheists’ attempt to do just that:
John Loftus
‘Just in case there was any doubt
about watching your own children being tortured in fire forever might not fill
you with pleasure and joy, Jonathan Edwards assures you: It will.’
Edward T. Babinski
‘I exchanged some debate letters
with James White in the 1980s when "Alpha and Omega" was just
starting out, and I hadn't been outside the fold for very long. We discussed a
great many matters, starting with his hero, Jonathan Edwards. It was my debate
with White that led me to study Edwards' original writings, especially on original
sin and hell. Some of the things I discovered were that Edwards believed in
infant damnation--he compared young children to vipers. Edwards also taught
that the sight of seeing others tormented for eternity would just make the
righteous praise God more. All hail being lucky enough to enjoy God's eternal
snuff film!’
And the ‘Old Atheists’ try just the same:
Robert Ingersoll
‘I do not believe this doctrine:
neither do you. If you did, you could not sleep one moment. Any man who
believes it, and has within his breast a decent, throbbing heart, will go
insane. A man who believes that doctrine and does not go insane has the heart
of a snake and the conscience of a hyena.’
Charles Darwin
‘As disbelief gradually crept
over Darwin, he could "hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to
be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men
who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my
best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.’
(Darwin, Charles (1958), in
Barlow, Nora, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882)
Bertrand Russell
‘There is one very serious defect
to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I
do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe
in everlasting punishment.’
(Why I Am Not a Christian p.17)
And some ‘Theologians’:
Hans Kung
‘What would we think of a human
being who satisfied his thirst for revenge so implacably and insatiably?’ (Eternal
Life p.136)
Nels Ferre
‘If this were true’ (i.e., the
traditional view) it would make Hitler ‘a third degree saint, and the concentration
camps…a picnic ground.’ (Christian Understanding of God p. 540)
Uta Ranke-Heinemann
‘As the Church’s threat against
all sinners and all its enemies, hell serves the holy purpose of cradle to
grave intimidation.’ (Putting Away Childish Things, “Hell”)
This post has been much longer than I originally
intended, but in order to finish properly I want to give one more quote from
Edwards. It is clear that lots of his sermons focussed on judgement and hell,
and as a result the only thing most people seem to know about him is that he
once preached a sermon called ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’.
He clearly felt it was his duty to warn people, and he
obviously handled that task well. But note this too:
‘I know of but one case, wherein
the truth ought to be withheld from sinners in distress of conscience, and that
is the case of melancholy; and it is not to be withheld from them, as if the
truth tends to do them hurt; but because, if we speak the truth to them,
sometimes they will be deceived, and led into error by it, through that strange
disposition there is in them to take things wrong'. (Works Vol 1 p.392)
It is great to see that he noticed and cared about people
who were prone to ‘melancholy’.
‘No man was further removed from
the violence of a ranting travelling evangelist than Jonathan Edwards. That is
the defence which one should make when one hears people referring to him as
that terrible man who preached the sermon ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’. (The Puritans p.354)
And so my very quick final thoughts on hell:
It is true
It is Biblical
It is just
But none of these things make it instantly easy to think
about.
