by Steve Hays
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
The focus on this book is on philosophical objections to hell. I'm using "hell" as shorthand for everlasting conscious punishment or misery. That's the position I defend. The book is more about the concept of hell, with a few hermeneutical considerations along the way. Many people both inside and outside the church often have a view of hell based on folk theology.
Jesus uses "outer darkness" (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30) as one of the images for hell. What is that image supposed to conjure in the minds of readers?
The light/darkness, inside/outside contrast may trade on the metaphor of a fortified city.
If you arrive after the city gates close at night, you will be stuck outside. You will be exposed to the elements as well as the dangers associated with the night (e.g.nocturnal predators).
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels' (Mt 25:41).
Traditionally, the fiery imagery for hell is regarded as a metaphor for the punitive psychological pain and suffering which the damned experience. And that may be correct.
Insofar as the damned are raised to life, it might possibly include punitive physical pain as well.
However, fire, and other synonyms, can have a different figurative meaning. For instance:
But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn (1 Cor 7:9).
There it denotes sexual passion. "To burn" can mean "to yearn ardently" for something.
So the imagery of hellfire might symbolize punitive frustrated longing.
Hellfire
Traditionally, fire is the element most commonly associated with hell–especially in the popular imagination. Fire is such a memorable metaphor. But what does hellfire signify?
Universalists think it stands for purification while annihilationists think it stands for destruction. Of course, these two interpretations tend to cancel each other out.
I think it’s safe to say that traditionally, hellfire is associated with pain. Fire burns. And it’s quite possible hellfire in the Bible plays on that connotation.
However, there’s another possibility which I haven’t seen explored. Those of us who live in the Frost Belt associate fire with warmth. Nothing like curling up beside a crackling fireplace on a chilly night.
But, of course, the Bible is set in a hot, arid part of the world. A place where drought and wildfire results in famine. Hunger and thirst. Starvation and dehydration.
It’s not coincidental that figures of eschatological judgment depict God drying up rivers and streams. Especially in the Mideast, these were sources of freshwater and drinking water. Or take the famous lake of fire in Revelation. A lake is normally a freshwater body. Consider the “Sea” of Galilee, the Nile, and the Jordan River.
Fish, game, livestock, and vegetation were dependent on lakes, rivers and streams.
Conversely, figures of eschatological salvation depict God turning the desert into an oasis.
The relationship between fire and water is paradoxical. We normally think of water dousing fire. But fire is a drying agent. Eschatological fire can evaporate bodies of water. Fire represents searing heat (among other things).
So it’s possible that the metaphor of fire is associated with the related metaphors of hunger and especially thirst. Unquenchable fire signifies unquenchable hunger and thirst. And these, in turn, are figures of yearning. The damned forever long for what they shall never have. Dying of thirst, but cursed with immortality.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Retroactive prayer .................................................................................
God's time-travelers ...............................................................................
Falling on a grenade ...............................................................................
Damnation in the multiverse ........................................................................
Into the cave ......................................................................................
Why is postmortem salvation false? .................................................................
God will wipe away every tear ......................................................................
Inclusivism ........................................................................................
Krishna, Christ, and Manitou .......................................................................
What is faith? .....................................................................................
Will few be saved? .................................................................................
Jewish evangelism ..................................................................................
Reformed exclusivism ...............................................................................
"The paradoxes of hell".............................................................................
Infinite loss, infinite comeuppance ................................................................
So many Christians–so few lions! ...................................................................
Shades of faith ....................................................................................
The wider hope .....................................................................................
Gouging his eyes out ...............................................................................
Are there babies in hell? ..........................................................................
Elect infants ......................................................................................
Valley of Hinnom ...................................................................................
The general resurrection ...........................................................................
"An everlasting Auschwitz" .........................................................................
Some objections to annihilationism .................................................................
Kill the body, not the soul ........................................................................
Is annihilation objectively worse? .................................................................
Body and soul in hell ..............................................................................
Hell under fire ....................................................................................
The hermeneutics of annihilationism ................................................................
A Fudgesicle's chance in hell ......................................................................
Bedlam .............................................................................................
Hell is what you live for ..........................................................................
Life in the compound ...............................................................................
Virtual hell .......................................................................................
The dark island ....................................................................................
Film noir hell .....................................................................................
Posthumous punishment ..............................................................................
Circumstantial luck ................................................................................
Scandinavian hell ..................................................................................
Postmortem stages ..................................................................................
Lost ...............................................................................................
"The damnable thing about damnation" ...............................................................
Punitive "torture"..................................................................................
Hell is bad...except when it's good ................................................................
The futility of atheist outrage ....................................................................
Dogs and wolves ....................................................................................
Outer darkness .....................................................................................
Hellfire ...........................................................................................
Lazarus and Dives ..................................................................................