Suppose you moved to another country you knew little about. And you learned that in this country there is only one judge in the entire court system. You are curious about this, so you decide to attend a court trial...a major one, too...a murder trial. The evidence presented is overwhelming, and a guilty verdict is inevitable. The suspect is sentenced to life in prison, which is, according to that nation, the fair and just sentence for such a serious crime.
But, then, a very close family member of the judge steps forward and admits that he loves the murderer very, very deeply and cannot stand the thought of the murderer spending the rest of his life in prison. He offers himself in the man's place, saying he will carry out the life sentence so the murderer can go free. The judge agrees to this offer, explaining that it doesn't matter if the actual murderer carries out the sentence...as long as SOMEONE carries it out...then, justice will be served.
Ideas of love and sacrifice aside...would you leave that court room believing that the decision was just? Would you believe that judge was even remotely familiar with the concept of justice?
The emphasis in Christianity is so heavily on Jesus paying the price (death) for our sins. What kind of a judge is God? Does punishing an innocent man really justify our sins? Why would it?
Friday, January 22, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Issue of Hell
Hell is a place of eternal torture. It lasts forever. If you end up there, it will never, ever stop. For ever and ever, you will cry out for mercy and relief, but you will receive none. It is worse than any pain you could possibly experience here on earth. And it lasts forever.
I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard these words spoken to me. I recall one particular night at youth group during which we all went outside and sat around a huge bonfire. Our youth pastor preached about hell. He dared us to imagine what it would feel like to jump right into the fire and to imagine what it would be like to have that feeling relentlessly forever and ever. It scared the crap out of me.
Perhaps that is the point. Perhaps scaring the crap out of people is the reason the concept of hell was incorporated into religion in the first place. If you can scare the crap out of people with a concept, you can use that concept to cause them to greatly fear leaving the religion.
Does the concept hell really make sense? It is said that hell is a place where the sinful are punished. First, what is the purpose of punishment? Is it to get revenge or to get back at a person? Or is it to teach? Does a good parent discipline simply because they want to get back at their child for what the child has done or to teach the child not to repeat that behavior again? Most people would agree with the latter.
So, what is the purpose of hell? How can it be a teaching experience if there is no possible opportunity to escape? Why would someone punish somoene for a wrongdoing without giving them a genuine opportunity to make things right after they had come to see the error of their way? Why does there have to be a point in which it is "too late"?
Secondly, I am quite convinced that there is no crime actually worthy of hell. Hitler must be one of the worst men to have ever been a part of modern society. And yet, if we're going to talk about what someone "deserves," I don't think his acts are worthy of a literal hell that last for all eternity. While he did do horrible, horrible things, that suffering would barely hold a flame next to the horror of trillions of years in hell followed by trillions more and trillions more and so forth...just never ending.
It seems to me that hell is a place in which people are punished far beyond the severity of their crimes. And it is a place that serves no real purpose...well, besides scaring the crap out of people.
I cannot tell you the number of times I have heard these words spoken to me. I recall one particular night at youth group during which we all went outside and sat around a huge bonfire. Our youth pastor preached about hell. He dared us to imagine what it would feel like to jump right into the fire and to imagine what it would be like to have that feeling relentlessly forever and ever. It scared the crap out of me.
Perhaps that is the point. Perhaps scaring the crap out of people is the reason the concept of hell was incorporated into religion in the first place. If you can scare the crap out of people with a concept, you can use that concept to cause them to greatly fear leaving the religion.
Does the concept hell really make sense? It is said that hell is a place where the sinful are punished. First, what is the purpose of punishment? Is it to get revenge or to get back at a person? Or is it to teach? Does a good parent discipline simply because they want to get back at their child for what the child has done or to teach the child not to repeat that behavior again? Most people would agree with the latter.
So, what is the purpose of hell? How can it be a teaching experience if there is no possible opportunity to escape? Why would someone punish somoene for a wrongdoing without giving them a genuine opportunity to make things right after they had come to see the error of their way? Why does there have to be a point in which it is "too late"?
Secondly, I am quite convinced that there is no crime actually worthy of hell. Hitler must be one of the worst men to have ever been a part of modern society. And yet, if we're going to talk about what someone "deserves," I don't think his acts are worthy of a literal hell that last for all eternity. While he did do horrible, horrible things, that suffering would barely hold a flame next to the horror of trillions of years in hell followed by trillions more and trillions more and so forth...just never ending.
It seems to me that hell is a place in which people are punished far beyond the severity of their crimes. And it is a place that serves no real purpose...well, besides scaring the crap out of people.
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