I thought I’d take a little break from my “False View of Hell” series this week and post something a little different - though certainly on topic. In fact, it covers many of the topics I’ve already covered and some to come up next. But for now I thought I would share this nice little “visual” resource I ran across a few years ago concerning the proper Biblical view of death (and Hell). This is a comic style booklet by Jim Pinkoski that has been published for years by the “Amazing Facts” people (amazingfacts.org). And except for once little part throwing in the traditional error of the trinity (in Part 7), it does a pretty good job in both its broad coverage of scripture, common sense reasoning, and entertaining pictorials/graphics. It use to be available on the Amazing Facts site for full web viewing, but it seems to be only available for purchase there now. However I did find a viewable/download-able PDF version of the same book at helltruth.com.
This week I’m continuing my little paper - “The False View of Hell”. My goal with this piece is to try and show to both our Christian and non-Christian visitors, that the typical, predominant view that good people go to “Heaven” and bad people (or people just not believing in Jesus - a.k.a. “becoming a Christian”) go the “Hell” when they die, is NOT what the Bible actually says. Such a belief can only be seen in the bible when the presuppositions of that idea are read into certain Bible passages. And even then, they come into direct conflict with other parts of Scripture that point to different “afterlife” views. However, if (as I mentioned in Part 1) one looks at Scripture as a whole and doesn’t read Plato’s dualistic concepts into the Hebrew texts, it can be seen that man doesn’t automatically continue to live on past death in the “good place” or the “bad place”. Let’s dig deeper into this here in Part 2!
A few weeks ago, an atheist visitor to this site posted something that I’ve heard many a person say who was raised in some form of Christianity as to why they no longer believe in it. I’ve also read quotes from several famous atheists and agnostics over time expressing the same basic complaint. “Hell” as traditionally taught in mainstream Christianity is too absurd, too cruel, and too unconscionable to have come from any real Supreme Being of the universe . And you know what? I would agree with them.
In the following article series I will endeavor to dig deeper into this subject and hopefully show that one does not need to throw the “baby out with the bath water”. Once the truth of hell is known, the God of the Bible should no longer be seen as a vindictive monster, but the designer of a sensible master plan for his creation.
I found this article to be very interesting and thought-provoking.
James Tabor is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he has taught since 1989. The article itself is found under the subject heading of Hellenistic/Roman Religion & Philosophy. I believe that we should eat up all the information we can get in regards to this “going to Heaven” motif and by understanding the way that these other religions viewed it we can further understand where Christianity departed from the Kingdom message and what kind of influences went into this departing. The author doesn’t give any of his own assumptions in regards to whether we do or do not go to heaven when we die, it seems he intended for this just to be an informational piece.
What happens at death? To where do people go when they die? What is the solution to death? These perennial questions are frequently being asked of Christians but sadly most of the time the answers given are not biblical. The question is not, what does the church teach about this, but, what does the Bible teach about this. The following entry was taken from the New Bible Dictionary of 1982 (not so new anymore) which says some marvelous things about the state of the dead under the article on eschatology. I found encouragement in this excerpt, I pray you will as well.
Richard J. Bauckham, “Eschatology” in The New Bible Dictionary: Second Edition, ed. J. D. Douglas, (Leichester: InterVaristy Press, 1982), pp. 345-346.
For many years one of my favorite chapters in the NT Scriptures was the Apostle Paul’s famous Chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians. It is commonly referred to as “The Resurrection Chapter” with good reason. Throughout the entire chapter Paul preaches the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah, and directly because of and in the pattern of his resurrection, his followers would also be eligible to be resurrected in the future.
Posted in Death is Sleep, hell on February 22nd, 2008 3 Comments »
by Samuel M. Ohmart
Why Facts about Hell? Because there is much teaching about Hell that is not fact but dishonoring superstition, conceived in ignorance, and taught as truth by men who should know better.
IT IS A FACT:
- That the popular teaching of an eternal hell has no support in the Scriptures, as we shall show.
- that “the wages of sin is death!”— utter deprivation of being, not eternal torture.
- that fear of an eternal hell has little moral value to restrain men from sin, since millions who believe it go on living in sin.
- that fear of an eternal hell is not a necessary motive in winning men to Christ, since millions of Christians do not believe in such a hell.
In a recent interview with Time Magazine, Bishop NT Wright made some very encouraging statements about the biblical destiny of Christians. The interview was titled, Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop (click here for the article). Below are a few quotes that I thought were extraordinary:
In his new book, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne), Wright quotes a children’s book by California first lady Maria Shriver called What’s Heaven, which describes it as “a beautiful place where you can sit on soft clouds and talk… If you’re good throughout your life, then you get to go [there]… When your life is finished here on earth, God sends angels down to take you heaven to be with him.” That, says Wright is a good example of “what not to say.” The Biblical truth, he continues, “is very, very different.”
Death is natural man’s greatest problem. Every day is a day closer to that day–the day that ends all days–the day of our death. In order to avoid the inevitable horror of death most people live in a state of self-denial choosing to think that death is really not the end, it is rather a doorway into a new level of existence. The vast majority of people I have spoken to believe that at death their soul or spirit separates from their body to begin the “afterlife.” Though an increasing minority are coming to terms with their secular beliefs and realizing that death is the end (which leads to hedonism or depression). Last Sunday I shared on the topic of Life After Death and played a video clip of people’s responses to the question “what happens when people die?”
Ok, so I’m a bit of an N.T. Wright groupie. I find much of what he has to say fascinating and cogent. Even so, I do differ with him on a few things. But, be that as it may, I recently came across another remarkable lecture in which Dr. Wright laid out the case for the resurrection of Jesus. We have already posted on William Lane Craig’s approach to this subject in the post entitled Jesus’ Resurrection Proved. Dr. Craig’s approach is analytical and works almost like a legal argument. Meanwhile, N.T. Wright comes at the question of whether or not the resurrection of Jesus happened from a more historical (or big picture) perspective. This talk is called Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? and it works as a thumbnail sketch of some of the contents of his tome on the subject called The Resurrection of the Son of God, a mere 740 pages (pictured to the right). The question of Jesus’ resurrection lies at the center of our faith. Paul said it well: