A new job, a new responsibility. I always wrote short articles for the youth page of the newsletter in Assumption, but I always figured no one read those and mostly directed them at youth and/or their parents. Here, I write a full-page article for the monthly newsletter and imagine it may actually get read.
I read half of a blog I saw linked today, then I got tired of reading it and wrote this response.
In the past several months, the topic of heaven and hell has kind of caught fire… so to speak. Rob Bell’s book, “Love Wins” seems to have touched off a flurry of books, blogs, public statements, and heated discussions about eternity.
-Could a loving God send people to hell?
-Won’t all people eventually be saved?
-Is hell even real?
The questions keep on coming and continue to be replied to with still more variant answers. I think a person has to admit that some difficulties in the interpretation of scripture related to this topic exist, but personally I am beginning to think this is becoming an exercise in missing the point.
Sure, this is a valuable topic to address. Sure it even affects the understanding or even the actual salvation of those who could be influenced by a person’s conclusions here. So how is it missing the mark as far as relevance?
-Would God be pleased with a sermon where the focus is on how it is entirely unnecessary to be obedient to His call on your life?
-Would Christ be honored with the notion that his death on the cross was the excuse for sin more than the cure?
-Is the doctrine of universal salvation one that draws anyone to Christ?
The answers seem obvious. Regardless of a person’s views on whether some spend and eternity in hell, or are punished for a limited time, or are immediately accepted into paradise, or are annihilated immediately – you have to ask the question of whether this is truly an argument worth prolonging. Is it a theological point worth centering your lifestyle on?
The questions at the root of this controversy, it seems, is far too shallow. If we focus solely on what does or does not happen in and beyond physical death, we miss life. We miss abundant life, and so do those who could have been influenced by our witness.
The good news is about eternal life, but also about a life on purpose. This life is more than a cosmic twiddling of the thumbs. We are called by God to salvation in Christ and a life empowered by His Spirit. The true test of this conversation may soon be in the question of not just how it affects the afterlife of the unbeliever, but how it affects the life of the believer.
