Hell: What the Hell is going on?
At our Youth house group a few weeks back we looked at the subject of hell and tried to get a better understanding of what, as Christians we are really meant to believe and then tell other people. I love it when the young people pick the subject, no sweat ay?!
We asked a few key questions:
- What is our perception of hell? (what does it look like?)
- Where has this view come from? (who or what was the source?)
- What’s the bible say?
What amazed me as a ‘liberal’ (not a very helpful definition) was how clued up these young people were. We discussed Dante and the ‘Divine Comedy’ of which many pictures of Hell have taken there influence and we also took a brief look into medieval life and the use of Hell there too. What I found fascinating was that they were the first to critically break down the myths of the Devil and his pitch fork and a place under the ground where naughty people go, but I wanted them to go deeper, i wasn’t planning on stopping there. So we went straight to question 3 and opened up dialogue about how we read the verses that use Hell for describing and criticizing. We looked at the original Hebrew and Greek words such as Sheol, Gehenna, Hades, etc and the way the people of Jesus’ time would have understood them. Then we unpacked the Context.
Context
The surrounding verses of a verse are what make the verse make sense. A lot of our understanding is taken from what one verse tells us. That’s OK, but it’s settling with half the story. We studied the verse on Hell using 3 simple rules:
- Who’s speaking?
- Who are they speaking to?
- What is the context in which they are speaking?
It is amazing how a verse makes much more sense in context, here’s an example:
Matthew 10:28 NIV
‘Do not be afraid of those kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.’
Nice and easy going verse ay? lets use our rules:
- Jesus is speaking
- He is speaking to believers, the 12 followers to be exact.
- The context (Verses 1- 42) he is telling them to not be afraid of people who are against them and who can kill them for what they are about to do. He makes the point that God is the one ‘who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ emphasis on destroy and the use of Hell is Gehenna (physical dumping ground where nothing can inhabit outside Jerusalem) . He also makes it clear that this is not a utopian idea that he is bringing but something that will break through even family ties (It’s pretty heavy stuff).
This is just one example and i’d be shooting myself in the foot if i then said this is our definition of Hell, we don’t need to read any of the other verses. But what this does show is that there are verses (this is among many) that speak of Hell (in this circumstance Gehenna) of which there is no eternal punishment, it just destroys and ends! Shock horror! But what does this mean for our theology on Hell? how does this fit into the bigger picture? Now telling you my opinion takes the wrestling with God away from you which doesn’t help you at all. But I will say this.
More then one word
Hell is more then just one word and it means a variety of things in context and in it’s original wording. If you take one verse out of context and put your own agenda on it, your not bringing the kingdom of God, your making your own religion. We have a collection of scriptures in the Bible that are around 2000 years old, so why do we settle with the images we are given from the middle ages interpretation? God surely still speaks to us right?!
Anyway, Here’s a bit of a challenge i will give you a some of the verses on hell and I want you to read them all using our rules above and without having a prepared answer in your mind from your up bringing that explains what is being described.
Gehenna Verses
Matt 5:21-25
Matt 10:28
Matt 23
Matt 23:33 (Geena – gay’ (Hebrew) – a valley, deep…)
Hades Verses
Luke 16:19
Acts 2
Tataroo Verse
2Peter 2 (Greek Hell)
Every Blessing,
J
Don’t put your ladder on the wrong wall..
Ok so I am not a professional, I have a professional title thanks to a degree but i am not a professional. I say this at the beginning so all those career driven professionals know that I am not speaking from that perspective.
Someone once said they spent their whole life climbing the ladder of success only to discover that their ladder was leaning on the wrong wall! What a profound statement! We live in a culture where we actually believe we are called to make money and write lists…where did that come from?! There are two stories we should look at, 1st is the rich young ruler (Luke 18) and the other is Mary and Martha (Luke 10).
One day a rich man comes up to Jesus and asks him what he has to do to get the ticket into Gods family. Jesus and the Man talk and the mans answers are riddled with self achievement. The rich man thought he had it all sorted. He could tick off the commandments and recite scripture. Yet to Jesus this wasn’t what Jesus was looking for. He asked the rich man to ’sell everything and give to the poor…’. Now i am not saying that this is a message to all of us…just the gist of it. What God looks for in people is righteous living not self righteous acts. If you have money, that’s amazing, what a blessing…but if your life is structured around it and you make decisions based on your bank account…you have left God out of the equation…Good luck with that.
The Second Story is about two ladies, one who was focused on the party and all that needed to be done and the other on the guest. Martha (Lady 1) was running round sorting stuff out and preoccupied with the practical bits and bobs on her list but her sister Mary (Lady 2) was just spending time with Jesus ignoring all that ‘needed’ to be done. As we know Martha then moans about Mary and Jesus replies to her saying ‘”Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” (v.41-42)
Our job is to sit at the feet of Jesus and follow his example. The rich man and Martha was of the same kingdom, though they didn’t think it. Both were products of the world and it’s logic sturcturing their lives around achievment, tick boxes and success. Both their ladders were on the wrong wall. What about yours?
See Gods call to the Christian is not to go to church on Sunday, to read your bible everyday, pray prayers or be successful. We often think it is and yeh sure those things are important parts of our life, but they are not the crux. God asked the rich man to look after the poor. Now it would be another blog to look at who the poor are, but in a summary…people in need are the poor and helping them is not donating a few pound a month…it’s making ourselves uncomfotable to help them. It’s giving our socializing money, our time, our comforts…Bit of a challenge ay?
Well this blog is way to long so i’ll just finish now by saying: Are you leaning on the Worlds wall or a Kingdom wall? Do not let your decisions be based on your assets. Base them on Jesus. Don’t make decisions based on the words of the successful but on the homeless, poor, outcasted and those that do not fit the Worlds mould. (hmmm i just described Jesus…funny that)
שלום
Shalom
J
Re-seed your dead patches
In a time of relfection, when you fully stop worrying about what you need to do and just be, God speaks. What God can say however is not always pretty, the images you are given may not be of a beautiful view. God is an honest God.
Today i saw a garden.
In this garden was grass. lots of it. but not all of it was alive.
Look at the dead patches of grass, that is yours, they are your dirty secrets, your failures, your weaknesses. They are not what i intend for you, let me dig that up and plant new seed. Let me renew your roots.
I don’t often (if ever) get images like this, but then again, i don’t often stop…
So a challenge to the ‘millions’ reading this…Spot the dead grass and ask God to plant new seed, to renew you. God is about restoring us to the image of Him he intended, nothing dead stays dead with God.
שלום
Shalom,
J
You know what grinds my gears…
Today I finally finished listening to a talk by Mark Driscoll (American Pastor) and I am SO glad its over. Throughout the talk Driscoll was arguing against the movement known as ‘emergent Church’ and subtly attacked the theological studies of a number of writers, such as Rob Bell and Brian Mclaren. EVERYONE has the right to express a view on someones theology but how it is done is CRUCIAL.
If you have a bit of time to hear the talk out you will notice that the way in which Driscoll preaches makes you feel bad about the second cup of tea you had this morning! Its subtle but manipulative. Also if you listen to his comments on the writers he is critiquing there is a clear misrepresentation of what was said in the first place. A good example of this is his view on Rob Bells question about Jesus being of virgin birth, Let me clarify. In Velvet Elvis, Bell asks the question ‘what if Mary wasn’t a Virgin…’. Now this sounds bad, however in context Bell is asking us ‘was not Jesus life more significant then his Birth’. Bare with me on this, Bell goes on to say he believes the Bible is Truth and that Jesus was born of Mary and that is Truth, but the whole purpose of Velvet Elvis is to ask the question is Jesus still relevant to a world that desires facts.
Now my point in this blog is not to play the attack game but to ask you all to READ things for yourselves. The bible states in 1Thessalonians 5:21 ‘Test Everything. Hold onto the Good’. So test everything. Which ironically is the point of Velvet Elvis. The Truth will out and no question will cause the truth to break so when you are told to not question what ‘the bible says’ or ‘tradition’, remember this verse.
J- Out
Welcome
This Blog will be thoughts and ideas that will help us understand why the church could be described as…an Ugly Bride. I promise not to offend anybody…..to much…
