A few years ago, I was chatting about Hell with a friend of one of our children. At the time he was at Oxford studying for a doctorate in theology. We were talking about Hell because he had come to the conclusion that it is empty – of humanity, at least. His reasoning was that once a dead person is confronted by God, the experience would so overwhelm him that he would be unable to do anything other than accept the salvation through Jesus that would still be on offer.
I countered with the objection that by doing this, God would be taking from us his most precious and mysterious gift: our free will. If, after death, we are not permitted to reject God, what meaning is there for those who, in life, accepted him? What of a Christopher Hitchens who saw God as a celestial dictator and wanted no part of him or his heaven? Since the friend is much cleverer than I, I also threw in a few tidbits about free-will from Dostoevsky in the hope that an appeal to authority might deliver at least a wounding blow.
He didn’t appear too wounded when he left, and I have no idea who won the argument or whether it merely ended up as an example of good disagreement. Perhaps not the latter since I privately concluded that he had succumbed to an overdose of liberal wish-fulfillment that would not serve him well outside of the foggy heights of academia.
Our encounter did illuminate one curious thing about today’s church, particularly the Anglican church. I used to think that Anglicans had altogether abandoned the transcendent, preferring to dwell in the temporal, the here and now. That isn’t quite accurate. The church has been replacing the numinous with shabby worldly substitutes for years. Sex instead of the mystical, utopia instead of heaven, socialism instead of charity.
And, of course, global warming instead of Hell.
The Diocese of Bristol and Swindon is right into the swing of things: the diocese has declared a Climate Emergency. Clergy and laity are doing their bit to save us from the fires of earthly Gehenna by brandishing signs with intense liturgical piety. You can see the fervour in their expressions.
From here:
The Diocese of Bristol and Swindon has declared a climate emergency after a unanimous vote at its last meeting.
In response to the emergency, the Diocese aims to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has an ambitious policy to help achieve this goal.
It is the first diocese in the Church of England to announce this aim, with others expected to do so over the coming months.
Bishop of Bristol Viv Faull said: “Care for God’s creation is key to our Christian faith. Climate change hits our poorest global neighbours first and worst, exacerbating migration, conflict over resources and the spread of disease.
Ah, my new Diocese since I returned from Canada. Sad to say. This may change in due course as the CoE is on the same trajectory as the ACoC. I’d expect things to come to a head here in the next 5 years.
I’m actually not ideologically wedded to climate change one way or the other. I think it’s our duty as Christians to be good stewards of the earth. I also think that some of the latest stuff borders on the hysterical, and am very doubtful of the wisdom of engineering a crisis that could be used to reset the political and moral landscape into something very different.
BTW on a completely different matter I can’t connect to wordpress.com from here – I just get the never ending ‘connecting’ graphic….
Déjà vu. At least you can tell everyone what happens next.
That’s odd. Try a VPN to virtually place you somewhere else, perhaps?
Yes I have actually. 🙂 Not sure how much traction it has, maybe it’s something you have to live for yourself.
Also doesn’t help that the CoE is very parochial – it is them and ‘others out there somewhere we have been told about but we have no real idea if they exist’ (waves hands in random directions) 😉
I assume CO2-spewing global Lambeths are now out of the question?
Any person who believes hell to be empty has an unbiblical view of sin, and therefore an unbiblical view of grace. If everyone ends up in heaven, regardless of how much they brutalised and harmed others in this life, then the cross is emptied of its power and Christ died in vain.
The doctrine of hell is a necessary doctrine for a properly Christian comprehension of the wonder and mystery of God, and of God’s redeeming purposes. Hell is fearful, and to be avoided at all costs, but it is not (of itself) an evil. People who think that it is already begin with an error.
Judgement and justice are good, and nobody will go down to hell without it being clear and evident that it is just for each person who ends up there. Everyone deserves hell, after all. God gives some people justice and other people mercy, but nobody gets injustice.
Agree. It’s amazing to me how many believers lack the theological understanding (and critical thinking skills) to recognize this. Even among “conservatives” there is such a strong desire to appear nice that uncomfortable aspects of the faith can be neglected or denied.
Well, technically, if hell is the lake of fire of Revelation 20, is it not true that no one is there (yet)?