Walking Thoughts

These are my notes from a talk I gave at an outreach event last year.

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Our topic tonight is Hell: Isn’t God just an angry condemning judge? And there are really two parts to this question. The first one is about hell. Is there even an afterlife and, if so, does hell really exist? The second one is really a question about God’s character. If I’m to believe that God is really a God of love, then why would he send people to hell, wouldn’t that make him an angry condemning judge, especially if He sent me to Hell only because I didn’t believe in Jesus Christ!
Let’s address the first – does Hell even exist?  Is there even an afterlife? I want to challenge our perspectives regarding this issue. As humans, we have a strong propensity for self-preservation, for our own safety, comfort and joy. So our natural desire would incline us to want to disbelieve in a Hell where we would experience eternal suffering and pain.  But our comfort in or dislike of something does not justify its existence or non-existence. Just because I, or anybody else including my friends, professors, the media, popular culture, or even religious people and leaders don’t like the idea of Hell doesn’t mean that I am free to believe that it does or does not exist. Ultimately, its existence is not built on any human being’s preference on the matter. The bible describes hell as a place where all the evil and injustice in this world will be dealt with and confined forever. So if you think about it, we would probably want hell to exist if we care anything about the exercise of justice.  Think about this, the worst wrongs that have ever been committed against you, the most malevolent hurt you’ve experienced at the hand of another will be dealt with in hell – justice on your behalf will be exercised. The thing is, we all want due justice, except when it is due to us. So I want to challenge our beliefs on hell that are built on our own preferences, because the implications of it are pretty immense and it’s good to wrestle with hard things even when we don’t like them. Rather than choose to disbelieve something by ignoring it, it’s better to wrestle and deal with it.

 So if hell does exist, I want to know about it from somebody who would actually know a thing or two about it. Most of what we know about hell comes from media, popular culture, and in many cases academic classrooms. We can envision a big red dude with horns and pitchfork dancing around with all his little buddies, or we might think like Ted Turner and see it as one big party. Well, when Jesus walked the earth, He spoke quite a bit about Hell and in no light terms. He described it as a place of torments , as darkness, as a everlasting  fire, never-ending punishment.  He says it is a place where the worm, maggots that feast on flesh, never die. Jesus doesn’t sugar coat it - it is a place of the worst kind of suffering and pain…

The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame… I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

Luke 16:22-24;27-28

While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 8:12

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with^(I) unquenchable fire."

Matthew 3:12

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Matthew 25:46

It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Matthew 9:46-48

And when He spoke to us about it, He did not say He wanted to send us there, but rather, He described it as a destination not to be desired, a place to be avoided at all costs and He had the way out. His heart was one of compassion, not condemnation.  It’s an act of care to inform somebody of the consequence of their own self destructive actions – it’s an act of love to actually save them from it. And that’s how the Bible describes Jesus’ action on the cross.

But that leads us to the second part of our question - If there is a Hell and Jesus told us we would go to hell out of love, why would God send somebody to hell just for not believing in Jesus Christ, doesn’t that make Him an angry condemning judge?

Well the question we’re dealing with here has some implicit assumptions. First, we are assuming that the reason God is “punishing” or exercising judgment on people is because they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ.  Jesus made it absolutely clear when He said I am the way, the truth, the life – that no man comes to God but through me;  it’s not because we don’t believe in Christ that God exercises judgment on us, rather, our own wrongdoings against one another and against God have earned us our own judgment and Jesus said that if we want any hope of escaping the consequences of our own evil behavior, He is it, He can do it. He is the way out, He has the power to give us a pardon, He has the keys to our cell and is willing to forgive us and let us out. If we choose not to accept His help, well then we’re really choosing hell for ourselves and we are accepting the consequences of our own actions. The assumption is wrong – God doesn’t send people to Hell because they don’t believe in Jesus, rather He is in the business of saving people from their ultimate destination.

 

The second assumption is one about our own character – the question, why would God send somebody to hell if He is a God of love, implies that this somebody is either inherently good and never did anything that rightfully deserved punishment or that they may have been basically good and tried their best but failed to recognize Christ as their Savior.  I guess it’s because so many of us where graded on a curve, or maybe it’s because we just like to compare ourselves to others, but we assume that God also looks at our goodness on sliding scale or a bell curve.  But according to Jesus’ commentary on the ten commandments, that couldn’t be further from the truth. For example He said, if you tell somebody they’re an idiot, you’ve actually committed murder in your heart; or if you’ve looked at somebody lustfully, you’ve already committed adultery. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount raises the standard for everybody, it makes us accountable to God’s standard of perfection, not relative to one another.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' ²²But 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.

Matthew 5:21-22

So the question of why would God send somebody to hell should really be why would God allow anybody into heaven?  But what if the person was entirely perfect except he/she made one little mistake by accident and told a white lie while the rest of her life was devoted to feeding the hunger, helping the poor, and all sorts of good things – would God still send that person to hell because they didn’t believe in Jesus? Well, if such a person ever could exist, they wouldn’t be sent to hell because they didn’t believe in Jesus, remember, the first assumption. Would a white lie deserve hell even after all the good they did? Let me ask you this – why don’t we give people with parking tickets a lifelong prison sentence and give mass murderers a $20 citation? In our justice system, the authorities deem the punishment appropriate for the severity of the crime committed.  So could it not be that the severity of the punishment we’re seeing for this so-called innocent white lie is really an indicator for God’s view of the severity of wrongdoing in general, whether large or small? Deceit, whether white or utterly malevolent, is wrong and God will exact the due punishment for it. After all, don’t we want him to exact the punishment against those who stole from us, deceived us and hurt us – don’t we want him to exercise justice? So is God just an angry condemning judge? Perhaps, if there actually existed a flawless human who in some way kept every single commandment perfectly according to God’s standard and was still sent to Hell for their actions. Is He an angry condemning judge? Maybe, if it were not for the means of escape He provided through Jesus Christ who so graciously came down here to warn us about the consequences of wrongdoing. And  not only that, is willing to save us from them.  So maybe, just maybe, God is a judge who has the power to pass a right ruling and properly sentence somebody to a punishment they rightfully deserve? I think all of us who actually care about justice would hope so. But wherever your view lies on Hell and God’s character, I’d challenge us to examine our assumptions and consider the implications and consequences of our choices.

 

There was once a great and noble King whose land was terrorized by a crafty dragon. Like a massive bird of prey, the scaly beast delighted in ravaging villages with his fiery breath. Hapless victims ran from their burning homes, only to be snatched into the dragon's jaws or talons. Those devoured instantly were deemed more fortunate than those carried back to the dragon's lair to be devoured at his leisure. The King led his sons and knights in many valiant battles against the dragon.

Riding alone in the forest, one of the King's sons heard his name purred low and soft. In the shadows of the ferns and trees, curled among the boulders, lay the dragon. The creature's heavy-lidded eyes fastened on the prince, and the reptilian mouth stretched into a friendly smile.

"Don't be alarmed," said the dragon, as gray wisps of smoke rose lazily from his nostrils.

"I am not what your father thinks."

"What are you, then?" asked the prince, warily drawing his sword as he pulled in the reins to keep his fearful horse from bolting.

"I am pleasure," said the dragon. "Ride on my back and you will experience more than you ever imagined. Come now. I have no harmful intentions. I seek a friend, someone to share flights with me. Have you never dreamed of flying? Never longed to soar in the clouds?"

Visions of soaring high above the forested hills drew the prince hesitantly from his horse. The dragon unfurled one great webbed wing to serve as a ramp to his ridged back. Between the spiny projections, the prince found a secure seat. Then the creature snapped his powerful wings twice and launched them into the sky. The prince's apprehension melted into awe and exhilaration.

From then on, he met the dragon often, but secretly, for how could he tell his father, brothers or the knights that he had befriended the enemy? The prince felt separate from them all. Their concerns were no longer his concerns. Even when he wasn't with the dragon, he spent less time with those he loved and more time alone.

The skin on the prince's legs became calloused from gripping the ridged back of the dragon, and his hands grew rough and hardened. He began wearing gloves to hide the malady. After many nights of riding, he discovered scales growing on the backs of his hands as well. With dread he realized his fate were he to continue, and so he resolved to return no more to the dragon.

But, after a fortnight, he again sought out the dragon, having been tormented with desire. And so it transpired many times over. No matter what his determination, the prince eventually found himself pulled back, as if by the cords of an invisible web. Silently, patiently, the dragon always waited.

One cold, moonless night their excursion became a foray against a sleeping village. Torching the thatched roofs with fiery blasts from his nostrils, the dragon roared with delight when the terrified victims fled from their burning homes. Swooping in, the serpent belched again and flames engulfed a cluster of screaming villages. The prince closed his eyes tightly in an attempt to shut out the carnage.

In the pre dawn hours, when the prince crept back from his dragon trysts, the road outside his father's castle usually remained empty. But not tonight. Terrified refugees streamed into the protective walls of the castle. The prince attempted to slip through the crowd to close himself in his chambers, but some of the survivors stared and pointed toward him.

"He was there," one woman cried out, "I saw him on the back of the dragon." Others nodded their heads in angry agreement. Horrified, the prince saw that his father, the King, was in the courtyard holding a bleeding child in his arms. The King's face mirrored the agony of his people as his eyes found the prince's. The son fled, hoping to escape into the night, but the guards apprehended him as if he were a common thief. They brought him to the great hall where his father sat solemnly on the throne. The people on every side railed against the prince.

"Banish him!" he heard one of his own brothers angrily cry out.

"Burn him alive!" other voices shouted.

As the king rose from his throne, bloodstains from the wounded shone darkly on his royal robes. The crowd fell silent in expectation of his decree. The prince, who could not bear to look into his father's face, stared at the flagstones of the floor.

"Take off your gloves and your tunic," the King commanded. The prince obeyed slowly, dreading to have his metamorphosis uncovered before the kingdom. Was his shame not already enough? He had hoped for a quick death without further humiliation. Sounds of revulsion rippled through the crowd at the sight of the prince's thick, scaled skin and the ridge growing along his spine.

The king strode toward his son, and the prince steeled himself, fully expecting a back handed blow even though he had never been struck so by his father.

Instead, his father embraced him and wept as he held him tightly. In shocked disbelief, the prince buried his face against his father's shoulder.

"Do you wish to be freed from the dragon, my son?"

The prince answered in despair, "I wished it many times, but there is no hope for me."

"Not alone," said the King. "You cannot win against the dragon alone."

"Father, I am no longer your son. I am half beast," sobbed the prince.

But his father replied, "My blood runs in your veins. My nobility has always been stamped deep within your soul."

With his face still hidden tearfully in his father's embrace, the prince heard the King instruct the crowd, "The dragon is crafty. Some fall victim to his wiles and some to his violence. There will be mercy for all who wish to be freed. Who else among you has ridden the dragon?"

The prince lifted his head to see someone emerge from the crowd. To his amazement, he recognized an older brother, one who had been lauded throughout the kingdom for his onslaughts against the dragon in battle and for his many good deeds. Others came, some weeping, others hanging their heads in shame.

The King embraced them all.

"This is our most powerful weapon against the dragon," he announced. "Truth. No more hidden flights. Alone we cannot resist him."

Melinda Reinicke, Parables for Personal Growth (San Diego, CA: Recovery Publications, Inc., 1993), pp. 5-9.

Is God cruel? Those who know the scriptures would immediately say, no, God is faithful and merciful. His steadfast love endures forever.  However, it's easy to tout the company line and regurgitate what's written and what one has heard every Sunday for the past umpteen years.  For the heart to follow the mind is a more challenging endeavor - especially in the wake of extremely difficult, painful and hurtful trials.  Is God trustworthy and good? Yes, but how do you tell that to a young man I know who was born "by accident" to a prostitue; who lived his life disregarded and shunned by his family?  Essentially orphaned, he grew up on the street, having been shot, stabbed, abandoned and punished for being born in a circumstance that was entirely out of his control.  How do you convince an another older gentlemen who described to me how his father, the church's pastor, experienced a mental breakdown, abused the family and left him, his younger siblings and mother with nothing?  Explain this truth to a woman I met who, as a young child, was raped by a deacon in her church? Or how do you explain it to a young man, having a history of friends and family very close to his heart leaving and hurting him, finally thinking his hope for having a family with a woman he loved was in reach, only to have that come to an abrupt and surprising end?

These are all true stories, and you may be responding to them in one of a several ways. You may be thinking, in a very disassociated and objective manner - That's fine, but they just need to trust God.  What's the big deal, anyway? They must not be believers.  Or you may be sympathizing with them, feeling pity for them in their trials.  Or, you may even be starting to question God yourself because you are all too familiar with hurt and pain.  This just proves that God is cruel.

I would propose that none of these assessments are valid.  To simply say, "just trust God" negates the very real trial and circumstance that God has orchestrated in order to help that person build trust in Himself.  Rather, encouraging them to exercise patience and waiting on the Lord is required - having faith that He will act in the time of distress and waiting is what proves God's trustworthiness and our trust in Him.  On the other hand, to show pity brings God good and wise judgement into question.  He is the author of all trials. Should we pity the "poor person" saying he should never have deserved this - never! God is wise and His ultimate authority and sovereignty is being displayed for that person's good in God's ultimate glory! Is God cruel? No, He is compassionate and like any good father, will train His children to depend on Him through whatever it takes.  He will train them in faith through the trials of life.  The fact that there are trials is not evidence of God's cruelty, but rather His kindness in providing the means through which we can see His power, His glory, salvation and deliverance. Is God cruel? No - in His compassionate mercy He has already told us that He will grow our faith through the trials He orchestrates.

He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  As soon as He hears it, He answers you.  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide Himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.  And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Isaiah 30:19-21

 
And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.  There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do all that which is right in His eyes, and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer."
Exodus 15:24-26

The the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not."
Exodux 16:4

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin."
Exodus 20:20

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built good houses and live in them, and when your heards and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the houses of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Esodus 8;11-17

His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous
Psalm 11:4-5

The crudible for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.
Proverbs 17:3

 

He brings us trials to test our heart. Is He cruel for testing us? No - it is the very testing, the trying and the trials that build our faith in Him rather than faith in ourselves.  The faith that grows in our hearts can only be proven as real, genuine and precious because of the trials! He is exercising fatherly discipline to train us in faith.

'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.  For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.' It is for the discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons, For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Hebrews 12:5-7

Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4

 

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuiness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7

 

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:12

So whatever became of those individuals I mentioned earlier? The orphaned boy recently gave His heart over to Christ, trusting Him for His salvation and the hope of a future that is good and not evil.  He has been folded in to the family of God where he is not rejected but is being cared for and loved by the body of Christ.  The woman who was raped by a church deacon has grown into a God-fearing woman who, now as a pediatrician, works to serve the Lord caring for children and helping to protect them against abuses.  The young man who experienced unrequited love spent time truly questioning God's goodness but trusted the Lord and is serving Him as his first love. The older gentlemen spent much of his young life as a man with a hardened and embittered heart towards God. Though Christian by profession, he held God at arm's length from his heart until one night, after returning to his mother's house, darkened from no electricity with no food in the cabinets, he found his mother face down on the ground praying.  She grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to the floor saying, "Pray." Reluctantly, he acquiesced.  No sooner had he begun praying to God, when there was a knock on the door. Going to see who it was, he was surprised to see one of the neighbors handing him a bag of groceries and $200 saying, "God gave me a sense that your mother might need some groceries and money tonight." He is now a pastor of a growing congregation of God-fearing believers.

Maybe your pain and hurt still runs very deep.  In your disillusionment, it still seems very difficult for you to concede that your horrendous circumstances could have been orchestrated by a good and loving God rather than a cruel God.  My friend, please hear me - it is your own sin of pride and hardness of heart that is keeping you from experiencing the joy of humbling yourself in your trial.  God has the best plans for you, and wants to give it to you if you would only be willing to lay down your demands for your own will to determine how things should be or have been. Understandably, the trial is painful. Of that there is no argument, but softening your heart to the One who is willing to heal you is something you will have to choose to allow Him to do. Please take His word to heart.

For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.  Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
Psalm 97:7-9

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him . . . you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  As soon as He hears it, He answers you.
Isaiah 20: 18-19