What Does the Bible Teach about Hell (Pt. 3)

So far, in dealing with the subject of hell, I have pointed out a couple of very basic issues that are foundational. By way of reminder, these posts are a response to some of the information being promulgated over at Patheos by folks like Ben Corey and Rebecca Trotter. I have attempted to show that Trotter enters the conversation with presuppositions about the Bible that are clearly outside the Christian camp. Part of what it means to be a Christian is that we take God at His word. Christians do not challenge that Sacred Writings we call Scripture, aka, the Bible. Trotter has a very serious problem with the historical records of the Old Testament and unwittingly reveals her bias from the very start. This means that Trotter, like many others at Patheos, will take the parts of the Bible they like and reject the parts they despise. If Scripture is our sole authority for what is right and what is true, and this includes information regarding hell, then it only follows that Trotter’s views are unavoidbly suspect. After all, she has displayed a disdain for the only trustfowrthy source we have on the subject of hell. 

You may place your confidence in Trotter’s argument, but you should realize that by doing so, you are placing your confidence in a modern woman, untrained in the languages of Scripture and biblical exegesis, and with a personal axe to grind against certain presentations of God in the Bible. In other words, her idea of God, man, sin, judgment, hell, etc. are informed by some other source than Scripture.

I have also attempted to demonstrated very briefly that the traditional view of hell has existed long before Christ in ancient Jewish culture. Moreover, I have also shown that this view is reinforced by the prophet Daniel in 12:2. In that specific text, I have shown that one cannot eradicate the idea of eternal torment without also eradicating eternal life. Trotter and other’s cannot have it both ways. The conclusion of their lexicographical method not only challenges eternal punishment, it challenges eternal life with God. That is what happens when someone who is clearly untrained in the langauges and handling the text sets out to argue against a view that has stood the test of time for centuries and for good reason. Before moving to the New Testament teachings regarding hell, I think you should look at least one more text in the Old Testament.

“Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” (Isa. 66:24) This is clearly a reference to the future state of wicked men and their lot in the coming eschatological judgment. “This final verse has the rhetorical effect of causing the readers, who may be enthralled with the glorious thoughts of being in the new earth where God will dwell among his servants, to focus their attention on the diametrically opposite destinies that God has prepared for the evil people on this earth.”^[1]

“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” (Ezek. 37:26-27)

Ezekiel sounds very similar to John’s apocalypse: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Rev. 21:3-4)

My point in drawing your attention to these two verses is really simple. However one understands the duration of hell, that must also be how they understand the duration of heaven, the new earth and the new city in which we are to said occupy in the future coming kingdom. That is to say that if you wish to destroy eternal punishment and eternal torment from your theology, the only way you can do so and remain consistent and honest is to destroy eternal life in heaven as well. After all, these new teachers claim that they want to be transparent, honest, and authentic. But one has to wonder if that is really the case since, as far I know, not one of them has challenged the existence of eternal life in heaven even though the ground of their objection to hell must also apply to heaven, or does it.

What does the New Testament say about the final judgment and eternal disposition of the wicked? After all, any theologian worth his salt understands that Scripture is a progressive revelation moving along a timeline with God disclosing more and more of Himself and His activities to His people.

Jesus spoke about a future judgment often: Matt. 10:15; 11:22; 12:36 and 12:41. These are just a few places where Christ spoke about a coming judgment. Paul spoke of a coming judgment often in his writings to the churches (1 Cor. 5:13; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). Indeed, it is impossible to take the Bible seriously if one dismisses the concept that a coming judgment awaits us and that the results of this judgment will be a perpetual state depending on the spiritual condition of the person being judged.

I now want to turn your attention to a text in Hebrews that speaks to the issue concerning this series before moving on to the word study fallacies that Rebecca Trotter has engaged in over on her blog in her attempt to not only destroy the Bible’s teachings on hell, but to apparently embrace and espouse the non-Christian worldview known as universalism.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. (Heb. 6:1-3)

There are at least two points that we should examine in this text as it relates to our discussion on hell. First, we observe that the author of Hebrews classifies these doctrines as elementary teaching about Christ. The idea here is that these are uncontroversial, basic components universally received by the Church. In our time we might call them the basics or the fundamentals. The sense is that these are the first in the order of things and then we move on to more mature instruction. One of the items listed among the very first and most fundamental of Christian doctrines is the doctrine of eternal judgment.

Now, if the traditional Christian teaching on eternal judgment is anywhere near as complicated as Trotter, Corey, and Bell argue, one has to wonder why was it listed as a very basic teaching in the ancient Church? It is clear that the modern attempt to dispense with hell and eternal judgment is any but simple when one reads the arguments of its proponents.

Before closing this discussion, we want to look at the construction of this text to determine how it should be interpreted. What does the author mean to communicate when he uses the construction κρίματος αἰωνίου? The construction is in the fourth attributive position (anarthrous). Aioniou (eternal) is modifying krimatos (judgment). This means that whatever kind of judgment we are discussing, it is defined by the adjective aioniou. This is a common construction in the GNT. In fact, we have the very same construction in John 3:16 when John uses this same adjective with life: ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Here John tells us that the ones believing in God’s only begotten Son will have eternal life. I want to focus on how this construction is used elsewhere in the NT so that you might recognize that the objection to  the traiditonal teaching on hell is far more philosophical than it is exegetical or even historical. Moreover, it seems much more likely the product of personal bias than it is an objective exegetical investigation of Scripture in search of truth. After all, if one disregards the authority of the Bible, they are now free to disregard it when it teaches things that they find offensive or contradictory to the Christianity they prefer to believe.

The construction of mentioned above appears in John 6:68 where Peter responds to Christ saying, “you have the words of eternal life.” Paul uses it in Acts 13:46 of eternal life in his rebuke of the Jews for rejecting Christ. It is used in Mark 3:29 to describe the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a permanent and unforgivable sin. In is used by Paul in Rom. 16:26 to describe God as the eternal God. Again in 1 Tim. 6:12 it is translated eternal life. It is used of eternal glory in 2 Tim. 2:10 where it refers to the obtaining of Salvation in Jesus Christ and with it, eternal glory. It is used in Tit. 1:2 of the eternal life that God promised long ago. In Heb. 5:9 it is used of eternal salvation. In Heb. 9:14 it refers to the eternal Spirit, and in 9:15 our eternal inheritance. In Heb. 13:20 it refers to the eternal covenant. Finally Jude uses the word to refer to eternal fire. In this construction, the word always refers to permanence, or an unending period.

As I mentioned previously, it is a serious error to transfer word meanings in the NT from one use to another without looking at the thinks like syntax and especially the context of the passage in question. One can read the 15 texts mentioned above and realize immediately that they are being used in an eternal, permanent future sense. God is eternal. The Holy Spirit is eternal. The life that Christ gives is eternal. In the same way, so too is the judgment mentioned in Hebrews and the fire referenced by Jude. Now, these are by far not the whole story. In my next post we will continue to look at specific texts that deal with subject directly to see if there is any way possible to understand them as anything other than teaching eternal, unending, permanent torment in the fire of hell.

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^[1] Gary Smith, Isaiah 40-66, vol. 15B, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2009), 753.

The Teaching of the Two Ways

I realize it may sound narrow minded, arrogant, and perhaps even bigoted to some, but when you survey the possibilities for how human beings carry on their lives, it really comes down to just two paths. There are two roads that human beings may be found travelling upon and it has been this way since the beginning of humanity.

“You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.^[1] Judah was facing a severe threat in the form of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. They turned to Jeremiah the prophet and to the LORD for deliverance. They were given one and only one choice. They could remain in the city and die, which would be the way of death, or they could leave the city and live, which was the path of life. God's anger had been kindled against the sinful behavior of Judah. I am always amazed at how often God's dealings with man in the OT is portrayed by atheists, skeptics, and liberals, as some sort of a monster, and how the wicked acts of men are entirely ignored. It used to be that when we saw the wrath of God reach such levels that we would immediately recognize the level of wickedness that led to that circumstance. For some reason, sin is dismissed and God is now a monster. God issued one choice to Judah: get out of the city and live or remain in the city and die. There was no other alternative. Life or death would hinge on one choice: stay or leave.

Do not enter the path of the wicked And do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; Turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.^[2] Solomon gives us two paths here: the path of the wicked and evil men and the path of the righteous. The contrast could not be more pronounced.

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.^[3] Here we see once again that God has placed before Israel life and death, the blessing and the curse. Essentially, God has placed Israel in the position of one choice equaling two very different paths. Which path will they take? Have you ever wondered why God has not given us more choices? Why not three or perhaps a hundred paths? Why does it have to be blessing or curse, life or death, my way or death?

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.^[4] There are two ways according to the Psalmist: the wicked and the righteous. The Lords the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish. These are sobering words indeed. The Psalmist informs us that there is the way of the righteous with whom God is intimate and then there is the way of the wicked, whom God will judge. We do not see a third option. We see only two paths. We see two roads. We see two different states and no more.

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^bwealth.^[5] Our Lord Himself also instructed us that we cannot serve two masters. There can be only one. We either love God or we hate God.

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.^[6] Jesus said he that is not with Me is ipso facto against Me. The one that does not gather with Jesus, scatters against Him. In other words, there is no neutral territory. You are not partly for Jesus and partly for modern progress. You are not for Jesus in one area and against Him in another. You are either for Him or against Him. And if you are against Him in any area, you are guilty of scattering against Him.

There are two ways, one of life and one of of death;³ but a great difference between the two ways. ² The way of life, then, is this: First, thou shalt love God who made thee; second, thy neighbour as thyself;⁵ and all things whatsoever thou wouldst should not occur to thee, thou also to another do not do.^[7] This is a section from the Didache, an early document in the Christian Church aimed at godly living.

Modern evangelicalism has found itself in a state of mass confusion. In fact, it is an incredibly arduous task just to find the biblical version of Christianity within her numerous communities these days. There are more versions of Christianity than one can possibly count within the evangelical camp, let alone in those camps that are outside evangelical thought. Indeed, the situation is so dreary that I am not sure it is even appropriate to refer to evangelical thought in the singular.

Gone is the ancient teaching of two ways. The notion of black and white has faded so much into the background that we even have fools for ministers coming out and encouraging Christians to serve the "grey god" as opposed to the traditional God of the back and white. Black and white seems oddly familiar, oddly similar to something else I recently read. Ah yes, I remember now: there are two ways and only two ways. There is the way of life and the way of death. There is the way of hope and the way of despair. There is the way of righteousness and the way of wickedness. Black and white we used to call it. Now, we have so-called preachers, pastors if you will, condemning concepts put forth and revealed by the very God they claim to serve. Indeed, their version of God turns out to be a different god altogether.

The radically anti-confessional bias within evangelicalism has not served to protect the movement from contaminated versions of Christianity, laden with heterodoxy and immoral behavior, as many hoped it would. To the contrary, it has served to open the floodgates to the very demonic programs it was hoping to keep out. In fact, many, if not most evangelicals are looking for new and exciting ways to reinvent Christianity from nearly the ground up. They are looking for those parts of Scripture they can keep as divine and those they can reclassify as human. They are examining if one has to believe that Jesus is God and if one even has to know Him to truly be Christian. They are even investigating ways they can redefine marriage and permit gay sex within the community so that they can continue being "respectable" in the eyes of the culture. It is an embarrassing, weak, and dishonorable goal that many evangelicals have, but it seems clear to me that the movement will continue toward its inevitable end of becoming completely irrelevant as a religious entity. Indeed, the movement is very close to achieving that state at this writing.

Christian communities, real Christian communities have no choice but to begin to return to the God of the black and white. This intellectual nod to the significance of Scripture while we ignore it in practice must come to an end. The quibbles over the bible being the Word of God, over Christ being divine, over eternal damnation, over the exclusive claims of Christ, over confession of sin and of Christ being required for eternal life, over human sexuality, and other basic Christian dogma must begin to end in excommunication of the unrepentant one. The confessions and creeds must be revived and the Church must insist that her members openly confess and embrace the basic tenets, the cardinal doctrines of historic Christian orthodoxy or else. Only then will we regain the integrity and credibility that reflects the image of Christ in our midst.

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^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Je 21:8.

^[2] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Pr 4:14–19.

^[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Dt 30:19.

^[4] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 1:6.

^[5] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mt 6:24.

^[6] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mt 12:30.

^[7] Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., “The Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations,” in Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, and Liturgies, vol. 7, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 377.

The Image-Bearer

The Origin of Man

One of the most controversial questions confronting modern man concerns the origin of the human species. Genetic studies claim that primates diverged from other mammals about 85 million years ago. But according to Scripture, God directly created man in His own image and likeness from the very dust of the ground without any intermediaries.  Genesis 1:26 records the event of the origin of man like this: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." It is clear from this verse that this was a conversation within the Triune God. Man is not created in the image of angels or any other beings. Genesis 2:7 provides a little more detail: "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." Notice there is nothing about man evolving from apes over the course of some 85 million years. According to the divine revelation of God Himself, God created man directly by a supernatural act from the dust of the ground and then he breathed the breath of life into this man and the man because a living soul. Man is the direct product of the divine action of God. As the product of God, man has no rights apart from God. God has complete right to do with man whatsoever He wishes. Man owes all to God. He is obligated to God in every way God has determined.

I should also point out that Jesus believed that God created man exactly as Genesis 1-2 describe. Jesus referred to this very passage in Matt. 19:4 when He said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female." This is an unambiguous reference to Genesis 1-2 and the account human creation as described in Scripture. What do we know about human origins? We know that God created man, male and female, in His image and likeness from the dust of the earth and breathed into them the breath of life. That is what we know about human origins.

Man as Image Bearer

Man was made in God’s image (ṣelem) and likeness (dĕmût) which is then explained as his having dominion over God’s creation as vice-regent. Ps 8:5–8 [H 6–9] is similar citing man’s God-given glory, honor and rule. God’s image obviously does not consist in man’s body which was formed from earthly matter, but in his spiritual, intellectual, moral likeness to God from whom his animating breath came.^[1] That man is made in God's likeness is repeated in Genesis 5:1. This is again repeated in Genesis 9:6 at the prohibition of murder with the reason given that man is created in the image of God. Paul reinforces this basic Christian teaching in 1 Cor. 11:7 when he says that man is the image and the glory of God. Finally, James also mentions this fact at 3:9 when he says men have been made in the image of God.

You see man was created to reflect the image of God to all creation and also to reflect that image back to God. The purpose of dignity of man is found in the fact that man is designed to be an accurate, albeit incomplete, reflection of the God who made him. This is the entire project of man's existence.

We see this in Christ's act to redeem humanity from the curse of his fallen condition. Man has been restored to life once again, brought back into fellowship with his heavenly Father. And as such, every Christian's single purpose in life is to once against become that image of God he was originally designed to be from the beginning. When I talk about Scripture, I oftentimes will contend that the purpose of Scripture is sanctification. What I mean by that specifically is that Scripture's purpose is to restore the image of God in man. Scripture changes us; it transforms us; our entire being; intellect, will, and emotion. The purpose of Scripture is to transform us into the image of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Hence, Scripture brings that image of God back into reality.

1 Thess. 4:3

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification." The will of God is that every believer is not only holy, but engages in holy conduct and avoids those behaviors that are not true reflections of the image of God. We live in an age when external routines and rituals are mistaken to indicate true religion. Anyone professing to be a Christian must surely be given the benefit of the doubt. How dare we actually call someone's faith into question because of what they do or what they believe. Today, anyone can live anyway they please and believe anything they please and still reserve the right to numbered among the Christian community. This is a fool's game and the Church must come to her senses and put an end to this treachery. We have no authority to call holy what God has already called vile. The Church operates with the authority of heaven only when she expresses heaven's decrees.

Reciprocity & Rejection by Man

Man was created to reflect the image of God to all creation and back to God. But Satan, in the form of the serpent convinced man that he did not have to play such a fiddle. Rather than merely being the image of God, man could be his own person, reflecting his own self to the world. He could have his own agenda for how he would live in the world. Why settle for being God's image-bearer when you can set your own agenda, be your own person, and know things on your own steam apart from God? The rest is history. Man bought into Satan's philosophy and fell headlong into sin and came under the curse of God.

As a result of this tragedy, man has turned the tables on God, so to speak. Paul says, "and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." Note that man exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. Man has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Man spends his time worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator. No longer is man interested in reflecting the image of God back to Him or to His creation. Instead, man has perverted and corrupted the God of Scripture and turned that image into one that he finds acceptable. This is the universal behavior of every unregenerate man. All unbelievers engage in this corruption of the divine image to one degree or another. They invent a god, and call him Allah. They invent a god that is nothing but love. They invent a god who is tolerant and accepting of every lifestyle imaginable, except the ones they find offensive themselves. Their god did not create the world through his divine power. He created by evolutionary processes. This god inspired only parts of the bible. Other parts are the products of flawed men. Which ones you ask? Whichever ones they find contrary to their supposedly scientific views and their informed and enlightened senses.

Christian theism is a religion that embraces the God revealed in Scripture. This God inspired an inerrant and completely reliable and trustworthy revelation known as Holy Scripture. It is the image of this God that man is to reflect in his daily life to the world and back to his heavenly Father.

Christian apologists would do well to understand that it is this God that we are called to preach, teach, and defend. It is not some god in general or theism in general. Theism in general is idolatry. Nothing short of the God of Scripture will meet the standard that Christians are called to teach and defend. Anything less than defending this sort of Christian theism is a tragic compromise that brings with it devastating consequences.

Christian theism believes that the supernatural, direct, creative activity of God is responsible for the existence of humanity. Christian theism teaches that man was created perfect. Christian theism teaches that man sinned and as a result death was unleashed on the earth as a consequence of the sin of man and that death is an expression of the wrath of God. Christian theism affirms that God sent Jesus Christ, God of very God, to this earth to die for our sin, to bear His divine wrath, and to redeem humanity from the curse and from death. Christ died, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. This is the true gospel of Christ and refusal to acknowledge it's historicity and theological significance can only result in certain judgment. The redemption of Christ is aimed at once again restoring the image of God in man so that we reflect that image of God to His creation and back to Him as we glorify Him in all that we are.

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^[1] R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 768.