Recently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hell because I no longer belong to that church or do what they say and believe what they believe? The fear of eternal damnation can haunt people for years after they have left hellfire-preaching behind.
Hell is a problem for those of us who claim Jesus to be our spiritual teacher. When we read the gospels Jesus seems to teach hell. In fact Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. As a lifelong student of the Bible I have to honestly admit that the historical Jesus spoke about hell.
Some people try to exonerate Jesus and say that all the references to hell were added later by editors, and that Jesus really didn’t say that. I don’t think so. There are too many references to hell to explain them all away as something later Christians put into Jesus’ mouth. So how do I reconcile Jesus’ words about hell with Jesus as a teacher of nonduality – that all is one with the Divine? How do I reconcile hell with the reality that everyone is one with God now and forever?
Recently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hell because I no longer belong to that church or do what they say and believe what they believe? The fear of eternal damnation can haunt people for years after they have left hellfire-preaching behind.
Hell is a problem for those of us who claim Jesus to be our spiritual teacher. When we read the gospels Jesus seems to teach hell. In fact Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. As a lifelong student of the Bible I have to honestly admit that the historical Jesus spoke about hell.
Some people try to exonerate Jesus and say that all the references to hell were added later by editors, and that Jesus really didn’t say that. I don’t think so. There are too many references to hell to explain them all away as something later Christians put into Jesus’ mouth. So how do I reconcile Jesus’ words about hell with Jesus as a teacher of nonduality – that all is one with the Divine? How do I reconcile hell with the reality that everyone is one with God now and forever?
Hell as Theological Terrorism
Recently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hell because I no longer belong to that church or do what they say and believe what they believe? The fear of eternal damnation can haunt people for years after they have left hellfire-preaching behind.
Hell is a problem for those of us who claim Jesus to be our spiritual teacher. When we read the gospels Jesus seems to teach hell. In fact Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, Jesus says that the rich man ends up in what he calls Hades, which he describes as “being in torment.” The rich man calls out to Father Abraham in heaven saying, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.” It is a disturbing image.
In his parable of the sheep and the goats, the Son of Man divides humankind into two groups, one of which he sends into eternal punishment saying, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” In the gospel of Mark Jesus says, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’”
Whew! That is enough to scare the hell out of anyone! In his parable of the weeds, Jesus says, “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The word Jesus used here is Gehenna, the name of the valley in Jerusalem that served as the town dump, which was always burning. It was passages like that that led my theology professor, Dale Moody, at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to believe in what he called conditional immortality. He taught that hell was destruction, nonexistence after death rather than never-ending conscious torment. He got criticism from his fellow professors for teaching that.
As a lifelong student of the Bible I have to honestly admit that the historical Jesus spoke about hell. Some people try to exonerate Jesus and say that all the references to hell were added later by editors, and that Jesus really didn’t say that. I don’t think so. There are too many references to hell to explain them all away as something later Christians put into Jesus’ mouth. So how do I reconcile Jesus’ words about hell with Jesus as a teacher of nonduality – that all is one with the Divine? How do I reconcile hell with the reality that everyone is one with God now and forever?
It is not hard to do. You just have to realize that Jesus was not talking literally. Jesus was using symbolic language. Jesus lived in an age when apocalyptic imagery was all the rage in religious circles. That is why Jesus used apocalyptic and eschatological language. Apocalypticism started in the second century BC when the book of Daniel was being finished, and it continued through the second century AD. The Book of Revelation is this type of literature, written at the end of the first century. So is Jesus’ Olivet discourse in the gospels and many of his parables. Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher.
Apocalyptic literature was the first century equivalent to science fiction and fantasy. The Book of Revelation is what one would call a graphic novel these days. Some elements of apocalyptic contained elements you would find in horror films and books. Jesus spoke in this style. Jesus was not a first century Mr. Rogers. Jesus was more like a first century Stephen King or Richard Matheson, who actually wrote about hell. Jesus used graphic symbolic images to get his point across. Jesus was a powerful story teller, and some of his stories were designed to shock people.
His stories were not intended to be taken literally. As a preacher friend of mine often says, they are meant to be taken literarily not literally. They were designed to prompt an emotional reaction. They worked, and they are still working. To take them literally is to miss the point. When you read a science fiction or fantasy book or watch that type of movie – Star Wars or Marvell Comics - you take them literally? Do you really think there is a Superman or Spiderman or Doctor Doom or the Joker? If you watch a horror film, do you take it literally? I hope not, or you will hiding under your bed all the time! Neither should we take Jesus’ words about hell literally!
A moment ago I read you a passage where Jesus tell us to cut off our hand or foot or to puck out our eye if these parts of our body cause us to sin. “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’” Do you take that literally and go cut off our limbs or cut out your eyes? Of course not! Then why would we take his words about hell literally?
So how do I interpret Jesus’ teachings about hell? Jesus is talking about suffering now, just like he was talking about the Kingdom of Heaven as now. He is describing the mental and psychological suffering that comes from believing that we are separate from God. That is hell. The Buddha used the word dukkha to describe this suffering. Hell is the anguish people endure here and now as a result of believing we are alienated from God and Reality. In other words hell is duality. Salvation is liberation from duality - from suffering – here and now. Salvation is unitive awareness, nonduality.
Hell is not a fate that awaits unfortunate souls after death. There is no such thing as an individual soul or spirit or self. We are not separate personal entities that are released from the body at death. That individual self is an illusion created by our brains. If the personal self is not real, how can it be tormented for all eternity in everlasting fire? It can’t. But it suffers now.
Interpreting Jesus’ teaching as a literal place of everlasting torture condoned by God is pathological in my opinion. It is toxic religion. It makes you wonder why people would believe this in the first place and why they would preach it. What kind of God would create – or even allow - such a place? It is fear-mongering. God is Perfect Love. Perfect love casts out fear. That is our true nature. I find it impossible to believe that the Christ who taught us to love our enemies would turn around and consign his enemies to a literal everlasting torture chamber.
Such a concept completely contradicts the love of God. I consider the traditional Christian concept of hell to be theological terrorism. Fundamentalists and literalists who preach it are terrorizing people. Their churches are hell on earth. The only purpose for such an interpretation is to strike terror into the hearts of people in order to psychologically manipulate them to submit to religious authority out of fear. Teaching that a loving God could literally torture people forever – or even allow it to happen - is spiritual and psychological abuse, especially when it is taught to children.
Many Christians justify eternal punishment in hell by saying that God has to do it because God is just and holy as well as good and loving. Divine justice and holiness demands eternal punishment for sin, according to this view. That is like a wife justifying being abused by her husband, saying, “Oh, yes, he has threatened to torture me but he is really a good man. And yes, he does keep our disobedient children locked in the basement and tortures them for not worshipping and adoring him as they should, but it is only right. He is a good and just father.” That is sick. But there are a lot of sick people. I have had people verbally attack me in comments online for teaching against hell, telling me I am going to hell. I will probably get some more after this episode.
God is not an abusive heavenly father. God is not a Nazi concentration camp commandant who spends his days torturing Jews and burning them in ovens. Then at quitting time he returns home to his domestic paradise to this wife and children who love him dearly. God is not an abuser. God is not a torturer. He does not maintain an eternal torture chamber in the basement of the universe for those who will not worship and adore him. God is perfect love. That divine love is our true nature. Perfect unconditional love casts out all fear. So my closing words is what Jesus repeatedly said: “Fear not!”