"I think one of the most simple ways to think about hell, without having to deal with all of the problems that arise out of explaining and interpreting all this imagery that's so ghastly, is to just think of this concept: That God is just; God is holy. And if God is holy and God is just, I'm gonna have to stand before Him. And I'm not just, so whatever happens in that environment is bad news. And it's a dreadful thing to contemplate: To ever think you're going to have stand naked before a righteous and holy God. My only hope is to have my sin covered by one who's acceptable to God - being covered by the righteousness of Christ. And I say to people, '"Think about it! What would you do if you had to stand before God...naked?'"
-R.C. Sproul
This scares me deeply. I've always been fearful of the idea that I was not a child of God afterall, and I would face the eternal punishment of God when my life ends or Christ returns. But I do have the confidence of the Spirit in me guiding me through my life, so even when I sin and fall back to square one, I know that God is still with me. :) Yet I will continue to strive to be someone God can always call one of His own.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
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5 comments:
Yeah, when I was real young I used to try to imagine Hell. I realized that usually when I thought of pain I always implicitly thought of it ending, so the thought of pain was never a deep worry. I would then catch myself when this happened and instead try to realize that there was no relief, that whatever I could think of as being bad, hell was worse. That has bugged me since and given me a seemingly constant undercurrent of anxiety.
Moral - don't think kids can't understand abstract things such as hell.
heh, i haven't thought of eternal pain so much as how terrible it would be to be a fish in cold water and to experience the coldness of the water in every movement. Needles of cold. Agonizing to live in such a state. How terrible to be a fish.
I think it's wrong to threaten people with the fear of hell though. John Piper would say that one ought to seriously question their faith if they came to Christ as a result of their fear of hell. This is because he believes that essential to salvation is some degree of love for who God is. If one is merely fleeing hellfire, it's not really a "Oh God, you are incredible and I am ashamed (humbled) to even be considered an object of your mercy." That goes with an attitude of gratefulness, eh? I agree that hell is a very important reality though.
But the AWESOMENESS of God is even more important and I think your quote from Sproul captures that. God, holy, just, pure.. He is all these things and more, and we will stand with our hearts and souls exposed before Him. Totally unworthy and missing the mark. And Christ our only hope will proclaim his death as payment for us. Amen?
Amen.
I dislike the whole system - it's an annoying catch 22. I dislike how people say on the one hand God wants us to freely choose to love Him, and then if we don't we go to Hell. I've talked with my dad at length about this. He says Hell is ultimately our choice, but I say if Hell is a place no one wants to be in then no one really wants to go there. So, it seems more like a cop out to me. Imagine I created a system where my kids had to either love me with all their heart or get punished for eternity, then told them, while they were being punished, that they are ultimately to blame for their punishment and that I had given them the free choice. While kind of true, that is only an abstraction away from holding a gun to someone's head and telling them it's their choice to give me all their money or die. I don't call that truly voluntary or free.
If I didn't worry about hell I'm not sure that I would stick with Christianity, and this seems widespread in my opinion. For instance, all those denominations that consider Hell a metaphor or are universalists become watered down and slowly disappear. I don't see how the holy God presentation is much different than this. If I don't incur any kind of punishment by being less than God, then I don't know why I should be afraid. I see and know of plenty of people who are gads better than I am, but I don't fear being around them. As far as I can tell, all my fear of my betters comes from the possibility of pain (mental or physical).
So, that is all to say, the sort of things you guys are saying have not made sense to me, and if someone could explain them, given the counters I've stated above, I would be appreciative.
I've always thought of hell is just the reality of a place without God. I believe everything Good is connected to God so if you don't choose God you end up with the absence of all that's good too.
It would like moving into a beautiful house where all your needs are met and you love it there. However you don't own the house and the owner is gone to find a new house. He offers to adopt anyone who would want to go with him when he moves to a new country and a new house. He's been gone a long time so some people there don't really even want to know the owner - they just want to live in this great house. Therefore they stay when he moves and after he moves the house changes because no one is paying for food, water, upkeep, etc. until it becomes rundown and an awful place to be. The owner wanted them to choose to be with him and enjoy all he had, but some only wanted to use the owner's stuff, never care about a relationship with him and never bothered to see that all the good they loved was because of him and his generosity.
So maybe Hell isn't so much a punishment as it is the reality of how life is without God and all that is connected to him. Either way it's awful.
Just some thoughts...
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