Resurrection
The primary purpose of this
website is to address the doctrine that proposes an ever-burning
Hell where the vast majority of the humans who have ever existed
will be tortured mercilessly for eternity. Documentation and
sound biblical reasoning is offered in the articles that show
clearly that this doctrine does not have a biblical foundation,
but has been developed over the past 2000 years from a mishmash
of mythology, extra-biblical writings, alleged "visions," and
misinterpretation of a handful of debatable Bible passages.
Likewise, the clear teaching of
the Bible does not support the idea that the moment any person
dies he is either ushered into Heaven or cast into an
ever-burning Hell. The Bible speaks not of immediate rewards or
punishments. The promise of the saved is resurrection from the
dead at some point in the future. When Paul speaks in I
Thessalonians about the return of Christ, he doesn't say that
there will be people who died and went to Heaven, and that they
will come back from Heaven with Christ to meet people still on
the Earth. Read what Paul clearly says will happen:
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Brothers, we do not want you
to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve
like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that
Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will
bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who
are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord,
will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For
the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. After that, we who are still alive and are
left will be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage
each other with these words.
However, even if one accepts that
the ever-burning Hell doctrine should be rejected, that leaves a number of issues
to consider.
The Bible does clearly state that
only those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be
ultimately saved and spend eternity as part of God's family. In
Acts 4, Peter explains about Jesus:
Salvation is found in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men
by which we must be saved.
There are passages which seem to
clearly indicate that those who ultimately personally reject the
salvation offered freely by the blood of Jesus will at some
point in the future cease to exist. The Bible does not support
the doctrine that insists that each man has an "immortal soul"
that cannot be destroyed even by God. This was a doctrine
borrowed directly from Greek mythology. (See the article
Immortal Souls for more details
on this matter.)
And yet the vast majority of the
billions of humans who have ever lived have never even heard the
name of Jesus, let alone personally rejected Him! And even in those areas of the world where
knowledge about the Bible is common, there are thousands of
rival interpretations of its contents. And most people are
exposed to only one or a handful of these interpretations. Are
individuals held accountable by God for misunderstanding the
Bible, and rejected from His favor for eternity because their
only exposure in life to the Bible was through some religious
group that had an incorrect interpretation of the Bible?
Then there is modern
commercialized religion, as promoted by many television evangelists.
To many in a media-soaked world, this is their only exposure to
religion. If someone is totally turned off by the crass
materialism of what they see on religious cable television, and
never hear a sound presentation of the Gospel, are they also
held accountable by God for their ignorance?
Many of those religious groups
that preach most vociferously about Hell tend to make grandiose
claims that their version of Christianity is the "only true
Faith." Or, at the very least they may claim that anyone who
does not embrace their doctrines is in danger of losing out on
salvation. However, most of these denominations and groups have
only been around for a few hundred years at most. In fact, many
have been around for less than a century! Thus it would seem to
be an extremely arrogant position that salvation can only be
found in their fold. Is one to truly believe that the God who
created the universe is poised to damn to an endless Hell of
suffering and torture 99.99% of all His human creation of the
past 6,000 years, and has focused all of His interest and
pleasure on only a relatively tiny handful of people at the end
of recorded history?
Is there any other possibility
that would allow for all mankind to truly have a clear
opportunity to hear the unadulterated Gospel, and to make a
fully-informed, conscious choice to either accept or reject
Jesus? Is hearing ten different ranting preachers on TV all in a
cacophony of vying claims really “Hearing the Gospel"?
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hell_eva2.htm
Recently, there has been a softening
of this position [assumption that people who never had a chance
to choose knowledgably], as many conservative Christians have
gradually moved away from the necessity of being saved while
alive. They believe that those who die without having heard the
Gospel
will be given some form of other opportunity to be saved --
by some unknown form of post-mortem salvation that is not
mentioned in the Bible. This belief is largely based on the
perceived immorality of a God of love and justice punishing
people for their lack of knowledge -- a factor beyond their
control.
One possibility
this notion brings up is a resurrection to physical life at some
time in the distant future after the "Second Coming of Christ"
to Earth. At this time, the person would have an opportunity to
hear a clear presentation of the Gospel and make a choice.
Is there a
precedent for a resurrection to physical life, after which the
person continued to live a normal human life-span?
Yes. Lazarus,
the brother of Mary and Martha, was brought back to
life--resurrected--by Jesus after being dead for four days.
There is no biblical or logical reason that this could not be
done after four years, four hundred years, or four thousand
years. A miracle is a miracle! If people go to Heaven or Hell
immediately at death, where was Lazarus "brought back from" in
order to continue his physical existence? It would appear that,
as Jesus said of him, he was "sleeping."
There is an
ongoing discussion of the notion of what happens after death in a number of
evangelical circles. The idea that God can continuing working
with people after death is the basis of a doctrine called The
Divine Perseverance of God.
http://thebereans.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=8ee31ebd9b03ba34f84a49cb71881ffa&topic=4233.msg119149
Among
these [theologians proposing the doctrine of divine
perseverance] most notably is the prominent evangelical philosopher
Stephen T. Davis. See his "Universalism, Hell and
the Fate of the Ignorant," Modern Theology 6 (January 1990):
173-86. See also Gabriel Fackre, "Divine
Perseverance," in What About Those Who Have Never Heard, ed.
John Sanders (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1995,
71-106. Other evangelicals holding this view include
Donald Bloesch, George Lindbeck, and George MacDonald.
Besides, granting that my view is incorrect, does that mean
your view which says God did not intend to save ALL MANKIND
is true? Not at all. What if Augustus H. Strong, the great
baptist theologian was correct in saying that the
unevangelized could be saved by the light they've received?
What if John Wesley was correct who believed that "many of
the heathen were taught by the "inward voice" of God and
that no person should 'sentence all the heathen and
Mahometan world to damnation'."? And what about this -
"John Stott believes that multitudes of the unevangelized
will be saved, although he has not advanced a theory of how
this may come about. J. I. Packer, and Roger Nicole allow
some possibility for the salvation of the unevangelized but
say that instead of speculating about it, we should leave it
in the hands of God. Although God's decision on this issue
is final, the church has never agreed on the nature of that
decision."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/115/12.0.html
Some might protest that the Bible
never promises a "second chance" to unbelievers. But the idea
under consideration is not that of a "second chance." It is that
there are multitudes who have never really had a first
chance to understand clearly the truth about God. The following
short excerpt is from an article that addresses this issue. The
complete article can be read at the link provided.
A Second Chance?
"There are two kinds of people in the
world," intoned the preacher, "the saved and the lost. There
is no middle ground with God."
Now there is a sobering thought. If indeed
there are only two kinds of people in the world, and if I am
"people," I must be either saved or lost. And if I'm not
consciously aware of having been saved, then I must be lost.
And if I'm lost ...
What the preacher said sounds logical, but
is it true? We have to ask, because his statement has some
frightening implications.
For example, if there are indeed only two
kinds of people in the world, then a newborn baby is either
saved or lost right from the start. If a baby is born lost,
and if all lost people must go to hell when they die, then
what happens to this baby if he dies in infancy? After all,
according to most Christian doctrine, only saved
people can go to heaven.
On the other hand, if babies are born
saved, then is it best that they die in infancy? At what age
would sin be imputed to a child? If he steals at age three,
does he become "lost" by that act? If he is rebellious at
age two, is that where he gets "lost"? And if he is lost,
does he go to hell if he dies?
It is not the purpose of this
short article to offer a complete or dogmatic perspective on
just how God might choose to deal with those who never really
had a valid opportunity to make an informed choice for or
against the True Gospel. It is merely to encourage readers to
investigate some alternative explanations regarding the fate of
those who never really had an opportunity to "choose life."
Regardless of
how God intends to deal with these people,
the fact is still abundantly clear from the Bible itself
that there is no evidence that He intends to consign them to
an ever-burning Hell where they will be tortured for eternity!
This site contains a collection
of articles, on the topic of Hell and the Afterlife, that may
each be used independently for research purposes. But it also is
designed as a systematic, sequential overview of the whole
topic, which can be read like a book.
For those who would like to take
advantage of this perspective of the content, the articles are
arranged in the
Reading Guide as they would appear as chapters in a book, along
with a few reference chapters at the end such as would appear in
a book Appendix.
Use the
links below to go to the next article, previous article, or
first article
in the Reading Guide sequence.
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PLEASE
NOTE:
No single short article can comprehensively cover
any aspect of the topic of Hell. If you have
questions or concerns regarding the material in this
article, be sure to first read through the site
FAQ before writing to the
author. It may already specifically address the very
points you are wondering about.
Unless otherwise
noted, all biblical references in this and other articles on the
Is It True What They Say About Hell? website are from the
New International Version (NIV).
All of the articles on this
Is it true what they say about Hell? website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit her Oasis
website.
All website content
© 2007, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
All rights reserved. Material may
be copied for personal use of the site visitor. For permission
to copy for any other purposes, please contact the author at
oasis7@gmail.com
