Hell: The (Imaginary) Elephant in the Middle of the Room

The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love

During one of his shows, the comedian Daniel Tosh once shared that he wore a WWJD (“What would Jesus do?”) bracelet to the movie theater. When he got into an argument with someone talking on their phone, he was about to choke them when he saw his bracelet and thought, “What would Jesus do?” “So,” says Tosh, “I set them on fire and sent them to hell!” Everyone laughs (or cries) for it’s a perfect description of the elephant in the middle of the room (our psyche). The name “Jesus” literally means, “God is Salvation.” And that’s the Gospel in a Word... that became flesh and walked among us. It’s a declaration of fact; not a threat. When we preach the Gospel, but go on to say, “If you don’t believe the gospel by the day your body dies, then you will suffer endless conscious torment,” we simultaneously say, “There is no Gospel (no salvation) for people that need saving.” For what is it that we need saving from? Our sin. And what is sin? Sin is lack of faith in Jesus, the Word and Will of God, the Savior. So, belief in “Hell” as endless conscious torment is simultaneously a belief that God is not salvation for people that need saving. For about fifteen hundred years, most theological systems have been built around this “elephant in the middle of the room.” Calvinists, and their kin, deal with the elephant by claiming that God is all powerful (so can save all), but God is not all Love (so doesn’t want to save all). Arminians, and their kin, deal with the elephant by claiming that God is all love (and so wants to save all), but God is not all powerful and so can’t save all, for God has decided to make a power more powerful than himself. And they often call this “free-will,” by which they mean “my-will...” which is quite a problem if that’s the very thing we need to be saved from: our sin. We’ve built our theologies around this elephant in the middle of the room, and it’s an imaginary elephant. After 40 years of looking, I can no longer find it in Scripture. But I have found plenty of scriptures which reveal that endless conscious torment is an impossibility, for there is no “thing” without end except “the End” who happens to be “God is Salvation”: Jesus. And yet, there are three concepts or words in Scripture that we think of as “Hell,” and translators sometimes translate with the English word “Hell.” They are what I call “The Three ‘Hells.’” Hell #1 is Sheol/Hades. Sheol is the Hebrew word translated as “Hell” half of the time in the King James Version in the Old Testament (The other half, it’s translated as “grave.”) Hades is the Greek word that the ancients used to translate the Hebrew word Sheol. In the Old Testament, everybody (except maybe Enoch and Elijah) descends into Sheol. David thinks that even Yahweh descends into Sheol. And some come up from Sheol. In the Apostle’s Creed, we all state that Jesus descended into Sheol (Hades in Greek). Hades is the realm of death, lies, lostness, darkness, chaos, isolation, lovelessness, hopelessness, and faithlessness (No one actually believes in hell (#1), for hell (#1) is literally “not believing.”) It’s the realm of evil. Hell #2 is just the opposite. Hell #2 is Eternal Fire. In the Revelation, there is a lake of fire and “theion.” Theion from theos (God) can be translated both as “brimstone” and “Divinity.” In the Old Testament, Sodom is destroyed by Eternal Fire, and yet Ezekiel prophesies that Sodom will be made new. So, the fire is eternal, but the burning is not. “Our God is a consuming fire.” “God is Love.” And “God is One.” He’s not part fire and part love but one “hunk of burning love.” Fire consumes and receives the offerings and fills the temple. We are that temple. A better name for Hell #2 is “Heaven” or, at least, the substance of Heaven. When Jesus is transfigured, he becomes a man of Fire. The Fire is The Life instead of death, The Truth in the place of lies, The Way in the land of the lost, The Light in the dark, Logos in chaos, Communion instead of isolation. He is Faith, Hope, and Love: The Good. Hell #1 is the opposite of Hell #2 but not an equal opposite. Hades is temporal; it comes to an end, but the Consuming Fire is eternal; it has no end, for it/He is the End. “Then Death and Hades (Hell #1) were thrown into the lake of fire (Hell#2). This is the second death (the death of death)... And death will be no more... And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold I am making all things new.’” – Revelation 20:14, 21:4-5 Hell #3 is “Gehenna.” That’s a Greek word for a Hebrew term, “Ge-Hinnom,” which means “Valley of Hinnom.” It’s the valley on the eastern and western edge of Jerusalem, which is a prophetic picture of “the New Jerusalem coming down,” the Bride and Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God, that is Heaven. Hell #3 is the place where Hell #2 (Heaven) meets Hell #1 (the outer darkness). A better name for Hell #3 would be “Judgment.” In the Old Testament, Israelites sacrificed their children to demons in unholy fire in Gehenna. And yet, according to Isaiah, “the Breath of God, like a stream of brimstone, doth set it ablaze.” That’s Holy Fire... which means that demons did not receive those children; God did — The One who makes all things new. In fact, Jeremiah prophecies that one day this valley will be inside of the New Jerusalem. The Wounds on the Body of Christ are the burning edge of that New Jerusalem. Jesus was crucified on a tree just outside of Jerusalem by the northern end of this valley. Jesus is the Judgment of God — and The Judgment of God is Salvation; that’s His Name. Because of the (imaginary) elephant in the middle of the room, we hide in hell (“Hell #1”) terrified of Heaven (“hell #2”), trying to save ourselves from the Savior (“hell #3”) as we tell the world that we’ll help them do likewise. That’s not just bad theology -- could anything be more . . . satanic? Many years ago, praying for a friend who suffered horrid abuse as a child and who was terrified of fire, my wife and this friend had a vision of Jesus standing in a fire. This was the last place that she ever wanted to look for Him. In the vision, He motioned for us to join Him. And so, in prayer, we held hands and prayed, “Baptize us with your fire.” After a time, I asked my friend, “What do you see?” She said, “You’re ugly.” I said, “I know, but in the vision.” She said, “I am talking about the vision. You’re charred and burned up. We all are.” My wife confirmed that fact, and then said, “Ask Jesus to blow on us.” I did, and He did, and then my friend gasped in wonder and began shouting, “I’m not fragile!” for underneath the ashes, these indestructible, unshakable, and eternal beings were revealed. Jesus had descended into us, where He took us by the hand and walked us through judgment and into the Kingdom, where it was revealed that each one of us is not “what we have done,” we are what God has done and even who it is that I Am is — we are the temple, bride, and body of Christ. Never hide from the Judgment of God, your Father — His name is Jesus. When I was a boy... and mean to my mom and my sisters, my dad would sometimes send me alone to my room (Hell #1). It was so hard, for at the age of seven, my dad was my heaven (Hell #2). But worst of all was when he’d come sit next to me on my bed and talk: Judgment (Hell #3). His words were always Grace. But sometimes they burned my ego and caused some tears. But the tears would turn to laughter as he would hold me on his lap. And in this way, he shaped me in his image, such that I freely will what he also wills: his judgment. It turns out that this had been the plan all along. Satan will tell you that Jesus died to save you from the Judgment of God. But Jesus is the Judgment of God to save you from yourself and a world that you have constructed around the lie that God is not Good, not Life, not Love, and not Salvation. It’s a tragedy that we have told this world that endless conscious torment is the Judgment of God when the Judgment of God is to give you Jesus — “from the bosom of the Father,” His very own heart. [Click here for a list of questions for reflection and/or discussion related to this sermon]