Monday, March 12, 2007
One Last Thought On Hell (For Now...)
It came to me as I was preaching this sermon on hell that, if we preach "the Kingdom of God is at hand", we don't have to preach on hell. While hell alone carries with it only condemnation, the Kingdom of God carries with it a warning as well as an invitation, a choice between being less than human and being fully human. One makes it seem as if our last chance is gone, but the other continues to offer one more chance to accept salvation in Christ and citizenship in His Kingdom. While one seems to focus only on the when we die, the other deals with both the now and the not yet. If we will be people participating in and declaring Christ's Kingdom, we can be about simply loving the hell out of people.
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I came across some amazing info on Universalism on Richard Beck's blog (http://www.experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/) back in October of last year. It has challenged me to rethink my concepts of eternity and consequence. I would encourage you to check out the series of posts (entitled "Why I am a Universalist"), published in October and November of 2006. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them.
Got to read some of it. I'm not sure I'd agree with his line of thinking, but it is interesting.
Here's what I like about his line of thinking:
1. He's humble. He's not trying to cram his theology down anyone's throat.
2. He's focused primarily on the character of God--and I think that's a good thing to focus on.
3. He's checking his theology against scripture, admitting freely that you can derive other conclusions from the Bible.
4. He's theology forces a relational approach to God and man if we are to choose to follow God.
5. And finally, his theology completely removes the "But is it really fair for God to...?" question. Why concern ourselves with that question. If we have faith in the character of God (rather than our own understanding), then yes, it's fair.
I agree with all of that. I guess I should have said that I agree with his line of thinking and many of his conclusions, while parting ways from him on some of the specific areas that would separate his universalist beliefs from most other Christian beliefs. A lot of what he says are things that a lot of Christian non-universalists believe. My disagreements tend to be in the areas where he is specifically universalist, especially his reading of "every knee will bow".
I do like his willingness to leave it up to God (as if any of us have a choice). Whatever God decides to do, because I believe in the inherent goodness of God, I'm ok with.
I have a guy at work who frequently asks if I think such and so a famous thinker/doer is going to heaven or hell. My response is always the same "I don't know. It's God's decision. If he were my friend, I'd encourage him to be a follower of Jesus for the same reasons I've chosen to be one."
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