Doctrines are not crafted based on airy fairy goose-bumpy feelings after partaking a contemporary Christian worship session. They are formulated with solid scriptures. One of which is the popular doctrine of Hell, that states God will allow people to consciously be burned in hell, endlessly.
It's easy to blindly and unquestioningly believe this doctrine, which has been handed down through several generations, but when we think about the very essence of God (pure, unconditional, unadulterated Love), the idea seems quite hard to grasp.
If I, a normal human being, do not ever wish to see someone being burned endlessly, no matter how much evil he or she may have caused, why would I presume that God who is Love, would have less love than I have?
Jackson Baer's book (
What the Hell: How did we get it so wrong? Eternity, grace, and the message of love) awakened me to really think about the concept of endlessness. It helped me pop the bubble of endless lava. Most of us, when we say that "God will allow someone to burn in hell for eternity", do not actually comprehend the concept of eternity. Eternity, as it is taught, is not five hours or five hundred BILLION years. It never ends.
The issue is beyond our sentimental speculations about God's nature. When we believe that God will allow the "sinners" to be burned in hell or the lake of fire, endlessly, what we are inadvertently saying is, that Adam's offense was superior to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Or in other words, the talking serpent wins.
While Jackson Baer's book helped me pop the concept of the never-ending lava bubble, Julie Ferwerda's book -
Raising Hell: Christianity's Most Controversial Doctrine Put Under Fire -
systematically dismantles the Godless doctrine of Hell, brick by brick. It's one thing to say, "Hell doctrine is baseless" and another to explain WHY it is so. This book does the latter, in a superb fashion.
While I resonate and cheer with the core point of this book, which is about debunking the doctrine of hell, there are pages where I zone out at times, not necessarily because I disagree with it or not, but because I merely see them as the author's take on things only. But as I said, it is besides the core point of the book.
The facts we think we know about 'hell' or 'eternity' are mostly the interpretations that we have heard about it for many generations, rather than the root words, that the translators have deliberately mistranslated.
Consider reading this book if you think the idea of an endless torture of a good chunk of humanity does not align with God, who is unconditional love. Consider reading it if you believe Adam's offense cannot be bigger than Jesus' redemptive work on the cross. By reading this book, you have nothing to lose regardless of what you choose to believe in the end. This book is an invaluable resource for the thinking Christian.
I'll wrap this post up with the description of the book that is found on the back of the book cover.
"Have you ever wondered...do earthly parents love their children more than God loves us? Does God ask you to forgive your enemies—as many times as necessary—when He is not willing to do the same? Is being punished forever for sins committed in a short lifetime really a demonstration of justice? Does everybody get the same fair chance to believe in Jesus before they die? Most of all, if hell is mankind's worst possible fate, and if God is truly loving, then...
- Why does He fail to mention hell in Genesis as the price for sin?
- Why doesn't the Old Testament ever speak of hell?
- Why does Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, never once mention hell?
- Why was hell not part of early Church established doctrine?
Dare to question. What have you got to lose? If you've ever had doubts or questions about the justification for eternal torment, Raising Hell will open your eyes to a radical new look at God's love for all mankind—and what the Good News is really about. Picking up where Rob Bell and others leave off, Julie Ferwerda offers compelling evidence as to why she now believes the doctrine of eternal torment is the biggest deception of the modern Church."
