A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Jesus and Hell

Scot McKnight reviews a portion of Edward Fudge's Book, Hell: A Final Word. Fudge makes the following five points:
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1. Gehenna, Jesus' typical term, is a trope for the place of destruction/fire south of Jerusalem. It cannot be proven to have been the dump in the 1st Century.

2. What happens there? The wicked are destroyed, they perish there. Matt 10:28: "fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell/Gehenna."

3. Gnashing of teeth means anger, not pain. Cf. Acts 7:52-54.

4. Eternal punishment fits with other uses of "Eternal" as an adjective: salvation (Heb. 5:6), redemption (9:1), judgment (6:2), punishment (Matt. 25:46), destruction (2 Thess. 1:9). Big conclusions: the term refers to something in the Age to Come, it is endless and it refers to the result of an action. An action leads to something being permanent: one is not redeemed forever, one is redeemed and then lives forever; one is not judged forever, one is judged and then has consequences forever.

5. Rich man and Lazarus: it's a parable; Fudge sees Jewish folklore at work here; it's Hades not Gehenna; this parable says nothing about hell; it's not literal; it aims to motivate Jesus' contemporaries to care for the poor with the threat of irreversible consequences.
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The details are here.

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