We're told in Rom. 5:10 that we "were [past tense] reconciled to God through the death of his Son." We're also told that Jesus died for all, that his death covered the sins of the entire world. So, how is it possible that by Christ's death we were reconciled to God, that Christ's death covered the sins of everyone, and yet only some are reconciled to God? It doesn't make sense. From an "infernalist" perspective (not my term -- coined in a book I'm reading), God through Christ saves 10-maybe-20% of humanity. How does it glorify God that Satan drags upwards to 80% of humanity with him to hell? It begs a more thorough consideration of what "reconciliation," "redemption," and "salvation" are. These may be more broad than we understand.
I'm convinced that salvation isn't simply coming to Jesus to have your sins forgiven, and getting out of hell and into heaven. Salvation, I'm convinced has more to do with reflecting more and more the image of Christ through one's life. Is it possible that the entire world is reconciled to God, but that the main problem is that 80-90% of humanity doesn't walk in the Spirit that God is willing to freely give, and thereby reflect the image of Christ? When we look at our own churches and see that 80-90% of people aren't walking in a way which enables them to reflect the image of Christ, we begin to understand that it may be possible for most of humanity to be reconciled, but not to walk in the fullness of what God intends. Firey trials exist for the believer in this life, and are intended to burn away whatever it is that keeps one from the fullness of Christ. Is it possible that "hell" is a firey trial after death which burns away whatever kept people in this life from the fullness of Christ?
I read Gerry Beauchemin's book, HOPE BEYOND HELL, about a year ago. He wrote about Matt. 25:46 where Jesus talks about the separation of the sheep and the goats.
Jesus refers to the goats being sent to "eternal punishment." Bell points out that the world translated "eternal" -- aeonioan in the Greek -- is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as "age" or "era" -- a finite period of time. The word punishment" is translated from a word in the Greek which was primarily used as a horticultural term meaning "to prune." The word was most often used in Greek literature to mean "chastisement" or like the pruning analogy, "corrective action" or "discipline." "Chastisement or corrective discipline for a finite period of time" is a far cry from "eternal punishment."
And even if Jesus meant "eternal punishment," we have a problem because this is the fate of those who did not feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, care for the widow and orphan, or visit the person in jail. Is Jesus saying that we avoid eternal punishment through the works we do in this life? It's hardly an evangelical message.
Most of what we know about hell we got from Dante, not from scripture. The word or concept of hell doesn't appear in the Old Testament. Jesus talks about Gehenna, and this has been translated "hell" in older translations of the New Testament, but Gehenna was a specific valley outside Jerusalem, the place of the city dump, where fires burned and never went out. As I mentioned the other night, Jesus's apocalyptic warnings about the fires of Gehenna could be understood as warnings to that generation of Jews who were about to reject him as their Messiah -- a warning that their corpses would end up in Gehenna, dumped there by the Romans, which is exactly what happened in 70 AD. I Cor. 3 references a firey judgment, but this is a judgment of believers for the quality of their works in life (gold, silver, precious gems vs. wood, hay, stubble). The book of Revelation refers to a lake of fire, but Revelation is so filled with symbolism who knows what the
lake of fire actually refers to.
There have been quite a few books written recently about this topic. Rob Bell's book, LOVE WINS, brought it front and center. Some may be concerned about bringing into question a teaching of the church that is a thousand years old. But the church lost the doctrine of justification by faith for about a thousand years until Luther in the early 1500s. This is an interesting discussion and controversy. I don't think it's going to go away any time soon.
