Hell and Love

More babblin' on the nature of Heck...

So if God is love, what is the judgment of a loving God?

For the comforters, the gentle, the humble, the peacemakers, the seekers of justice and equity, the answer is: the measure of God’s justice is love. The love of God will open the servants of love to every being they have touched. Those who have lived their lives in compassion will know the fruits of their actions as their own. The walls that separate them from the other children of God will fall before the Love of God, and in the fullness of God’s love, they will participate fully in the lives of everyone they have touched. Each and every life that they have touched, each and every relationship in which they stand, will be their heritage for all eternity.

But what of the oppressor, the destroyer, the self-seeker? What of the one who seeks gain at the loss of others? What of the one who rules with an iron hand? What of the ones whose hate drives a bomb-laden car into a crowd of innocents, leaving death and terror in their wake? The answer, again: the measure of God’s justice is love. The love of God will open them to every being they have touched. They will know the fruits of their actions as their own. The walls that separate them from the other children of God will fall before the Love of God, and in the fullness of God’s love, they will participate fully in the lives of everyone they have touched. Each and every life that they have touched, each and every relationship in which they stand, will be their heritage for all eternity.

This--I would contend, from scripture, tradition, and..as some might put it.."direct revelation"--this is the judgment of a loving God.

Those hellfire and brimstone preachers have it all wrong. Why preach of wrath? Why preach of wrath at all?

There is nothing more terrifying than the love of God.

Heck-A-Slammin'

More on the Hell thread...

The primary theological challenge, it would seem, is reconciling eternal damnation with the Christian affirmation that God is Love. How can a loving God be wrathful?

To that end, it helps to have an idea of what love is. Numerous Christian writers have dealt with this--C.S. Lewis's "Four Loves" is an excellent primer. Most theologians hold that God's love is "agape" love, a love that transcends self-interest or emotionalism, and involves full participation in the life and spirit of another. Being a flagrant theologeek, I tend to favor the articulation found in the writings of 20^th century existentialist theologian Paul Tillich. Tillich defines love as our yearning to participate in another being, to truly know that other being, to share in their joys and their pains. Love is seeking yourself in another, reaching out across the boundaries that limit us. Love is our struggle against our separateness, our struggle against all that divides us from one another. We human beings do this clumsily and imperfectly, if at all.

But while we struggle to make love real, God exists as love in its perfection. Love is God's very nature, and love is, therefore, the foundation and root of all existence. We are created in love, and to love we will return. When we profess a faith in a God who is love, we profess faith in a Love that tears down the boundaries that divide us, and in a Love that allows us to truly be a part of another.

Oh, Heck

I've often heard H-E-Double Toothpicks described as the absence of God and God's presence. McLaren does a good job of articulating that position in "Generous Orthodoxy." Hell is an existence in the absence of God and God's love. Hatred and acts of evil cannot stand before God, therefore, they cease to have a part in God's eternity, glowering forever in the shadows. On many levels, I resonate with that position...it's both gracious and has some scriptural support.

On the other hand, I do not believe that anything can exist or does exist in the absence of God's creative power. Outside of God, there is only void, emptiness, or formless chaos. If Hell is understood in that way, it is closer to the ancient Hebrew concept of Sheol...an absence of existence.

To be honest, I'm not sure that simple oblivion--the negation of personal existence--captures the depth of the reckoning to which scripture bears witness. If there is to be justice, would it be served by simply erasing Pol Pot or Osama? Is that "reaping what you sow?" Perhaps...but I think there are other theological alternatives.