Tags
Bible, Christianity, Death, Eschatology, Eternal Punishment, God, Hell, Jesus Christ, Judgment, Salvation, Theology
This is the final part in a five-part series on the biblical doctrine of hell as eternal punishment. For part one, follow this link.
Conclusion
We have examined the biblical words for “hell.” Sheol and Hades, while often translated as “hell” in older versions of the English bible, are more appropriately left untranslated in modern versions. Moreover, these terms refer not to the final state of the wicked, but to the intermediate state between death and the final resurrection to life and judgment at Christ’s Parousia. Therefore, any argument that suggests that these terms simply refers to the “abode of the dead” and not to hell as eternal punishment is a red herring. The term Gehenna is used by Jesus as a metaphor for eternal punishment. That it refers to an actual garbage dump outside of Jerusalem is irrelevant because that image is meant to convey the prospect of never ending torment (as the fires of Gehenna burn continually, so also will the “fires” of hell).
We have also seen that the bible does indeed teach the doctrine of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and it does so quite explicitly. We looked at three passages – Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:46; and Revelation 14:11 – all of which teach that the future punishment of the wicked will be conscious and everlasting. There are other passages we could have looked at, such as 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 or Revelation 20:11-15. All of these passages share one thing in common: Their native context is that of the final judgment at the end times prior to the initiation of the eternal state. Arguments against these texts essentially consist in playing semantic and linguistic games with the text of Scripture (such as saying “eternal” does not really mean “eternal”); they are not the fruits of proper exegesis, but rather the inventions of clever eisegesis.
Finally, we have considered two major objections to the doctrine of eternal punishment – namely, that it’s incompatible with God’s goodness and his justice. In each of these cases, the objections originate from a misunderstanding of the attributes of God and the Creator/creature distinction.
It is clear from this brief treatment that the objections to the traditional view of hell and eternal punishment find their genesis out of a rejection of the God revealed in Scripture. As an old saying goes, “God created man in his own image, and man returned the compliment.” In our revulsion of the God revealed in the Scriptures, we have fashioned an idol; a God who is all love and no justice; a God who will indiscriminately forgive sin and allow people into heaven even if they reject his Son; a God who must bow to the dictates and understanding of the very creatures he has made.
Furthermore, in rejecting the doctrine of eternal punishment, we are rejecting the very revealed word of God. We fall into the same trap our first parents fell into in the Garden all those millennia ago when the Serpent tempted them by saying, “Hath God said?” These two concepts – the Triune God and his revealed word – form the foundation for all Christian thought and practice. When we abandon this firm foundation, we are left, as the Apostle Paul says, “Tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”[1]
Consider the ramifications of abandoning this doctrine. What happens to our evangelism? What happens to our exhortations to holy living? What happens to our theology? Without hell, our evangelism becomes meaningless; from what are we warning sinners to flee? Without hell, our exhortations become meaningless; what is the point of holy living if every one eventually gets to heaven anyway? Without hell, what happens to our theology becomes empty and meaningless; as H. Richard Niebuhr once said, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a world without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” As confessional Christians, we must defend this doctrine from its detractors; not because we glory in the eternal torments of the wicked like sadists, but because we glory in the Triune God of Scripture and in his revealed word. Venema was right in saying that our attitude toward this doctrine reveals our willingness to submit to the word of God.
Soli Deo Gloria!
[1] Ephesians 4:14 (English Standard Version).
