Hell

Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in the bible....or did he?

The word "hell" occurs 15 times in my NIV bible , 13 of those times in Jesus' sermons. Jesus' audience, first century Jews, did not have the same concept of hell - a hellish place of fire and brimstone, eternal damnation and eternal conscious punishment - as we do. They believed that people went to Gehenna when they died and there their souls are purged and purified before they enter heaven. Gehenna is the word Jesus used and the word that got translated as "hell" in our bibles.

My pastor once told us of the time his 9 year old son went to camp. After one week, they got back a dirt encrusted stranger. They ran a hot bath and scrubbed and washed and scrubbed and washed until something recognizable emerged. "Ah, there you are my son!" he exclaimed.

Now that I know Judaism does not have a concept of hell and other places of eternal damnation, I can picture a different ending for the people who bloated up and died of snake venom near Edom or who puked their guts out and died while eating quail at Kibroth Hattaavah.

I think they all ended up in Gehenna where the LORD tossed them into hot steam rooms until they started to sweat toxins. Then He thrashed them thoroughly with hyssop and birch branches and steamed them even some more. Then He pushed up His sleeves and pounded and kneaded, stretched and folded them into artistic pretzel and origami shapes to loosen them up. Then He slapped them face down on thin mats and commanded His angels to walk all over them. Many a hardened sinner has turned white as a ghost and muttered, "Oh dear G_d"  when they saw the size of the angel coming purposefully toward them.

God would walk around, supervising and nodding approval and has been known to pounce on an unsuspecting sinner, wrenching his neck around and cracking 15 or 16 vertebrae into position and moving on before the victim can let out a scream. Meanwhile, his angel would continue to walk up and down nonchalantly as if this was a very common occurrence.

Then the sinners are tossed into vats of hot water and long, drawn out groans would echo around the room. Aaaaahhhhhh!!! Ooooooohhhhh!! and Ooooooooooo. They would alternate between soaking limply and blasting through energetic wash-and-spin cycles which involved all sorts of detergents, soaps and shampoos. The light-hearted work songs of the angels running the water and soap systems added to the surrealness of the whole experience.

Finally, God dips them in a cool water rinse, flips them inside out, wrings out their innards, snaps them right way up with a practiced flick of His wrists and stands them on their feet. And then He says with absolute delight, "Ah, there you are, my children!"

Comments

[Troy]

Hi Caroline! Interesting article here. How do you see Christ's work on the cross fitting in with this view? Do you see faith in Christ as avoiding Gehenna? Do you feel that those without Christ after this purging partake in heaven just as those in Christ do? I'm curious as to how you are sorting all of this out and what your thoughts are. I've been following it on FM with interest...

[Caroline]

Hi Troy;
Thanks for your comment. Those are huge questions that would require a tome to answer. In a nutshell, I believe Christ's work on the cross atoned for the sins of all people and that God was working in Him and through Him to reconcile the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us. He made us who are Christ followers ambassadors and gave us the message of reconciliation. I am one who pleads with the world, "Be reconciled to God!" [2 Cor. 5]
We, Christians, experience God's judgment while we're alive and after we die b/c every time we're convicted by the Holy Spirit, we have been judged and found short of the standard. God saves by judging so that we can be broken, repent and receive forgiveness and guidance.
Because I believe God is love and that He saves by judging, I no longer believe hell is eternal damnation and eternal conscious torture. This is a new thought for me and may evolve or change entirely. Like McLaren, I'm a hybrid exclusivist/inclusivist/conditinalist/universalist.
Exclusivist: it's all Jesus Christ
Inclusivist: He did it for everybody
Conditionalist: Evil, death, sin dealt with and will continue to be dealt with until they are finally done with.
Universalist: as of now, everyone belongs to God and in the end, they will all truly know it