Do We Miss Hell?
Every once in a while when I served as a parish pastor, I would joke with colleagues or parishioners that stewardship would be a lot easier had it not been for Martin Luther. When they gave me a slightly confused look, I would say that I just thought it would be easier to raise money if I could threaten my people with hell, or at least with purgatory, rather than assure them they were justified by faith rather than their good works.
Just to be clear, it really was a joke in that I am regularly and incredibly grateful for the Lutheran witness to God’s grace and the promise that we are, indeed, justified by grace through faith rather than through our own accomplishments. But….
But it sure would seem easier if we had this massive threat to hold over people. If you don’t give a certain amount or do a certain amount your eternal salvation is in doubt. Don’t you think that would fill the coffers the way it did, well, in the middle ages?
All of which brings me to hell. (Not a totally clear transition? Stay tuned.)
I’ve been reading through Matthew’s Gospel as part of my Daily Bread devotions and one of the things I’ve noticed is that Matthew seems more interested than his compatriots in punishment in general and hell in particular. Actually, it’s hard to say it’s “hell” he’s focusing on, as it’s usually referred to as “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Which sounds close enough to me.) But what has struck me is that the overwhelming number of times this reference is made, it’s at the end of parables. Not only that, but as you read the rest of the New Testament there are very few references to hell (outside similar parables) and in the Old Testament next to nothing.
And yet in the popular religious culture, of course, the threat of going to hell is alive and well as a motivator to church attendance and better giving and as a deterrent to all manner of sins (as defined by the community and its preacher, of course).
Which brings me to my question: does the mainline church miss hell?
For the last few decades at least, you see, “hell” has stopped being a particularly lively or compelling topic in mainline preaching and conversation. Given it’s relatively scant place in Scripture, that may be a far more faithful treatment of the topic than many on the far right of the religious spectrum would guess. But while many of us have a harder and harder time imagining the God we know in Jesus consigning someone to a place of eternal torment and therefore applaud this development, I have wondered from time to time if we’ve figured out exactly what is a good substitute for hell.
What, that is, is the motivation for our gathering, our giving, our serving and volunteering? At least things were pretty clear when you had heaven as the carrot and hellfire as the stick. But what now? Even heaven seems increasingly difficult to talk about, as we perhaps too narrowly defined it as, well, the opposite of hell. So if we don’t have the mother-of-all reward-and-punishment schemes to fall back on, have we figured out exactly what we’re offering people. Community? Perhaps, though a little vague. Justice, certainly, though harder to attain (especially, some might argue, absent the threat of hell). Abundant life? This one appeals greatly to me but has been at times co-opted by the prosperity-gospel folks on the one side and Madison Avenue on the other.
I think if the mainline traditions are going to have a future, we need to be far clearer about why we gather and what we imagine participation in our communities yields. I’m not advocating for a return to hell, mind you, just recognizing that we need to recognize that in a world of many faiths, many narratives, and many, many ways to make sense of our lives, we need to get straight what we think is the heart of the Christian faith and offer that in as winsome and compelling a way as possible. I don’t miss hell, but I’m not sure we’ve quite figured out what to do without. And that needs to change.
As always, I’d be interested in your thoughts.
Post image: “The Descent into Hell,” Tiintoretto 1568.
David, I think you’ve hit it on the head here- and another thing we can (tongue in cheek)blame Luther for, I think: why many people are not interested in church any more. Think about it.
Your posts have often been great posts about the What and How. This one is about the Why – and it’s the million dollar question. WHY should folks read a re-formatted Bible? WHY should people attend worship -even if we’ve followed your prompts and made it more engaging? WHY should people be Christian rather than spiritual but not religious? And I’d wonder if there is a good Modern or Post-Modern answer for these questions. I wonder when people talk about “Post-Modern Christianity”, when Christianity is referring to an organized religion, because it seems to me those two ideas are mutually exclusive. If there is an answer, I suspect it will be discovered by re-hearing Jesus’ message apart for our worldviews. The process for that it seems to me is to review how each worldview- Traditional/Mythic, Modern and Post-Modern – has interpreted Jesus through it’s own lens and then see what’s left or been missed. I would suspect that would be Theosis- Union- the spiritual experience that Jesus had that became the heresy he was killed for: “I and the the Father are one.” To realize that experience for ourselves, most of us need a guide, a path and the power to do so. Christ provides all three- and a community provides a crucible and company. Maybe not the direction you were thinking but thanks for asking the question, and reading my response.
David, thanks for this post. I think this question is at the heart of “Why religion?” When we talk about MTD: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, it’s about what can get human beings to behave in life, find comfort in the face of death, and fear/respect authority. That might be simplistic, but there it is. My opinion (which you have helped me shape in class at Luther Seminary, here on your blog, and through WorkingPreacher.org) is that our work as the church ought to be about teaching and proclaiming the Gospel as such GOOD NEWS that people are drawn in and transformed. Yes there are lots of distractions and competition. But rather than lament the privileged place church once had in America, we now have to get over it and get on with the transformational message and activity that the Spirit uses to continue to draw people into faith.
Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins” does an awesome job of opening up the question about Heaven and Hell by reframing it in terms of this life now. Do we know what Hell is? Yes, because we have seen and even made life “hell” for others through sin and evil and suffering. Do we know what Heaven is? Hopefully, we have also seen those “Kingdom of Heaven” moments all around us, as Jesus was keen to point out in the parables. Both are happening right now in this life. Perhaps the eternal continuation of both can be seen through that lens (a hermeneutic that all people have a chance at comprehending)?
I talked a little about this topic in a blog post last year called “Hellfire and Brimstone” at: http://www.benmcintire.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/hellfire-and-brimstone/
As someone who attends church and hasn’t been to seminary :), I go because I know God loves me and I love God. That and being part of the body of Christ, brings me joy and brings me to church. Hearing God’s word, partaking in Communion, and being with God’s people on Sunday, fills me with peace as I try to follow the ways of Jesus.
The “church” reminds me of someone with Multiple Personality Disorder. There are so many “brands” of Christianity. Some churches still preach hell, damnation and so on, while others are swimming in grace that entitles one to all worldly rewards…money, success, great health. There are so many sects, divisions, theories, and kooks proclaiming OUR “brand” is the ONLY way, truth and etc. Christianity can’t even decide what Christianity means. Talk about the “blind leading the blind”….LOL.
P.S. It is no great wonder that many people are opting for spirituality over religion.
That’s part of what I’ve found so interesting is that in the rejection of all the brands of institutionalized religious expression, the counter to that is often to create your own brand of a singular religious expression.
Having talked with many of my friends that others consider SBNR, the real expression that seems to be their baseline is trying to understand the generic moral and ethical practices that are shared across institutionalized religions of many expressions. It does seem to me that as this article relates the reasons behind why people do what they are called to do (Fire Insurance or Loving Response really being the spectrum), the SBNRs I’ve lived among are looking at those issues in the rear view mirror and looking forward to how they can best serve the neighbor.
I think that’s something interesting for us – forgetting why we do it and just doing it. Theologically, and as a pastor, I still feel it is very important to emphasize good works, service, and neighborliness as a loving response to what God has done for us and given to us, but what if people simply don’t care about the why as much when compared to the ‘What are we going to do?’ Are people even tired of the discussion because we’ve talked too much about it without doing much about it?
What if in place of the conversation about Hell, the action and preaching focused on, as Ben relates in Bell’s book, relieving the real life hells that people are suffering from at this moment?
I’ve quoted Jay B. McDaniel before, but it applies here again:
Salvation does not occur all at once or once and for all. Instead, it occurs by degrees. But one thing is clear: we cannot be saved alone. Part of being saved lies in awakening to our connections with others, cognizant that we are gathered together in a network of inter-being. If someone asks, “Are you saved?” we should not say “Yes” or “No.” We should say, “Sometimes, but you better ask my neighbors, too. If they are still suffering, I’m not saved either. We are in it together.”
Given hell and salvation in the present, ongoing capacities, what then might our conversation naturally turn to? Not simply a destination and how to get there or avoid it, but a recognition of existing problems and how we might get after things.
Part of the “suffering” of humanity relates to religion in all its forms. There are those who are gleeful that they are “saved” and those they deem outside of their religion are doomed to hell.
These are the teachings that bring misery and heartache into the world…promoting a holier-than-thou attitude. Most churches and religions do not offer aid without strings attached.
It’s too bad that people are not deemed worthy of life, love and happiness just because…
Is hell a real place/dimension or was it just the worst case scenario early writers could describe or is it a holding place for souls i.e. Hades? Is it simply that people who do not except Jesus die and those who do accept Jesus have eternal life? Is there actually any consensus on what hell is? I personally dislike hell fire and brimstone preaching, heard it at a church camp as a kid once and thought it was unethical. Thankfully my Sunday School teachers and minister did not employ scare tactics. Personally I think ppl need love, acceptance, and forgiveness first and that talk of judgement ought to be in the context of really evil things being put to rights. I also think that as God is love he must have plans for restorative justice. I mean as a mere mortal I couldn’t bear the thought of someone condemned to eternal torture.
I’m interested in how easily, Dr. Lose, you dismiss hell. It seems that Our Lord took it quite seriously, and so did the apostolic witness we have in the New Testament: St. Paul, St. Jude and Revelation, to name a few.
The problem with your question is that it assumes that we have the freedom to substitute what Our Lord taught, and the apostles passed on, with something more accommodating to our modern, liberal sensibilities. You will never find something better, and the road itself may be paved with good intentions, but the destination is, I fear, the land of apostasy.
Hello, I’m currently a university student going into Lutheran church work, and I came across this article as I was doing research on what the ELCA believes about hell and the devil.
I found this article very interesting and it made me wrestle with some doubts I have been having in my faith. I too, have questioned in a similar manner as others have mentioned. Basically, “Why do we do what we do? Why do we believe what we believe? Is our religion just to get us to behave? Is our religion only to be a comfort in the suffering and death of this life?”
In relation to this article, I then thought, “If there is no hell, what are we doing all this for anyway? If there is no hell, there is no need for religion.” Is that correct? Because then everyone would be saved and it would not matter what religion you are, as in universalism.
But perhaps that is your point? The church does not want to preach hell and brimstone, and does not want to tell people they are going to hell if they don’t believe in Jesus. But that is precisely what we have been called to do through the Gospel. That’s why the Gospel is so important:
For if there is no hell, why do we need Jesus in the first place?
We wouldn’t need Him to save us from anything. That’s the whole point of Him coming – to save us from death and destruction and damnation in hell. Why religion? Why hell? It’s because of why Jesus came – to save us from hell so that we could join Him forever in heaven. Believing that is faith. It’s why we do what we do, because we want other people to saved from that. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation. Jesus is why we believe what we believe. And He is why we preach the Gospel of His death and resurrection – to save people from hell and bring them home to heaven. It is only by the Gospel of what Jesus has done for us on the cross and in the empty tomb that we can be saved. As Scripture states, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). And in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am THE way, and THE truth, and THE life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
These are the verses that came to mind as I wrestled with these ideas, and I concluded that Scripture points to the centrality of Jesus as the only way to be saved from hell. Without hell, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross would be… for what? To save us from sin? But why would we need to be saved from sin if there is no hell? Why bother at all? But we know that Jesus came for a very specific reason. When he predicts his death in John 12:27-28, He says, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Jesus’ reason for coming to die and rise again is to save us! To save us from hell and bring us home to heaven! That’s what the Gospel is all about.
eternal life.