Hell And The God Of Love

We're continuing a discussion of the existence of the human soul after death. 

Back in October, 2008 Dr. Ken R Vincent delivered a lecture delivered to the Psi Beta Psychology Honor Society at Houston Community College on The Dark Side of Spiritually Transformative Experiences. The lecture was later published in 2009 in the liberal magazine Universalist Herald as an article titled "Religious Experience Research Reveals Universalist Principles."  In his college lecture Dr. Vincent quoted two people who had negative near-death experiences of hell. 

• “I was in hell…I cried up to God, and it was by the power of God and the mercy of God that I was permitted to come back.” (Rommer, 2000, p. 42)
• “God, I’m not ready, please help me…I remember when I screamed (this), an arm shot out of the sky and grabbed my hand at the last second.  I was falling off the end of the funnel, the lights flashing; and the heat was really something.” (Greyson & Bush, 1992, p. 100)

I won't comment on the validity of these reports. However, I do want to emphasize that even such a far-left leaning journal as the Universalist Herald finds it important to acknowledge the existence of hell. However—and this is critical—they do not believe nor teach that hell is permanent. In his article Dr. Vincent suggests that

“Hell may last as long a sinful humanity lasts, but that does not mean that any individual will remain in it all that time. The time of purging can only continue until purification is reached. And a God driven to employ endless hell would be a God turned fiend himself, defeated in his original purpose…. but God will never desert the soul.”

Is the Biblical teaching of hell indeed a teaching about a fiendish God who loves only selectively? Here are Jesus' comments about hell as reported by Matthew's Gospel:

• But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. ... If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. - Mat 5:22, 29-30 ESV
• And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. - Mat 10:28 ESV
• And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. - Mat 16:18 ESV
• And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. - Mat 18:9 ESV
• Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. ... You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? - Mat 23:15, 33 ESV

Is this indeed the same Lord who said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" - Matt 11:28 ESV? And again, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" - John 3:16 ESV?

How does one reconcile a loving God in Christ with the concept of souls going to hell after the body has died, only to be resurrected and confined body and soul to hell forever?

And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' ... "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ... Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." - Mat 25:30, 41, 45-46 ESV

The Greek for eternal does indeed say that the darkness, fire and punishment will never cease. The huge question that troubles many is how to reconcile this Word of God with His revealing of Himself in Christ as the God of love who bears our burdens and carries our sorrows (Isa. 53:3-4). The brief answer lies in the fact that we have been endowed with the power to choose. While every sin is by its very nature damnable, in the final analysis it is the sin of refusing to accept God's mercy in Christ that condemns.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ... Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:17-18, 36 ESV

As someone has said, you can only get into hell over the crucified body of Christ. But there is much, much more that needs to be said about this. That discussion will have to wait for later postings.