Sadly, Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" cannot really be applied to this particular bit of theology

Yes, theology - I did say that I'd be including some of that here. Just over there in the sidebar, in fact. This post comes from a couple of things - first, the concepts of heaven and hell in the Bible are some of the most terrifying that I've come across. The idea of final judgement, in particular, has long been on my list of "doctrines to which I'd like to apply a large bottle of Tipp-Ex". And secondly, Sam Allberry, the curate at St Ebbe's church in Oxford, recently posted some of his thoughts on just this issue the other day.

Seeing as how "hijacking other people's conversations" is one of my all-time favourite hobbies, I thought now would be as good a time as any to put online some of the notes I made after talking through the concept of hell with Sam at the end of last term. Because they're incredibly long, I'm putting them behind a cut - they were also written more for my benefit than for anyone else's, which is why their tone is much more personal than general. Still, if you find them interesting, let me know - this is the kind of thing that I'd like to be able to think through rather more.

These notes were made following a discussion with Sam Allberry on final judgement, 5/12/06. Things that Sam said are in plain text (although they’re not word-for-word, and Sam certainly shouldn’t be quoted from this!), additions by me are in [square brackets].

The first thing to note is that there is no “Ebbe’s Line” on topics like this. The staff team are still learning as well, and disagreement on this kind of thing is definitely legitimate. Older and wiser Christians have struggled with these issues for years; John Stott is one example. He has come to the conclusion that the “eternity” of judgement refers to annihilation, that it’s the effects of this annihilation that are eternal rather than conscious punishment. Philosophically that works well, although it’s maybe not as well biblically supported as some other viewpoints. That said, there is evidence to back it up – the use of language in the Bible talking about “destruction” in terms of judgement, for example. Essentially, although an important issue, it is definitely not central; it’s the kind of thing that Paul said we should be convinced in our own minds about.

Secondly, talk about heaven and hell is always going to have problems because our impressions of both have been enormously coloured by mediaeval artwork. Even if we don’t really think that heaven is a cloudy place where we drift around playing harps, elements of that kind of image do make it into our consciousness – it’s all too easy to think of heaven as some kind of ethereal place, whereas [as Revelation and other places seem to make it pretty clear] it’s physical. Similarly with hell, it’s very difficult to entirely remove the image of hell being a big fiery pit where Satan pokes us with a toasting fork and generally has a wild party. The concept of hell being Satan’s territory, in particular, is one that is certainly not Biblically supported. [The afterlife is so far beyond our current understanding that we’re always going to have difficulty trying to imagine it – it’s best to try and work entirely from what the Bible actually says.]

Even the parts of the Bible where we’re told about hell can be very confusing, because a lot of the time they’re talking in symbolic language. This sometimes leads to odd combinations of metaphor – hell is described as a fire in some places, and as darkness in others. It often helps to use the context in which hell was mentioned – this will sometimes tell you which particular aspect is being demonstrated. Once again, though, most of these passages are very much open to interpretation.

As regards the problem of eternal punishment being out of proportion to a sin in finite space-time, there are a couple of things to remember. One is that our concept of eternity, that of just a time that goes on and on and on without end, is probably not eternity as experienced in heaven. [This makes sense if you assume that God is not subject to time at all, which we would assume is the case – eternity would be a pretty horrific experience in our terms, however we were going to spend it, so it seems sensible that it would not be experienced like that.] The second is that our concept of retributive justice is also different to God’s. In our terms, we see a particular crime as being fittingly punished by a particular punishment [such as longer jail terms for more serious crimes]. Justice as God sees it is much more relationally-based. If we are breaking the relationship that he has set up, the punishment is also relationally-based – the language that is sometimes used Biblically is that of God “turning his back” on us. [Once again, the fire-and-toasting-fork image has a lot to answer for – existing without the love of God, although still a horrible concept, is much more consistent with his character than is the image of being tortured by the Spanish Inquisition.]

When we come up against something that we don’t understand, it’s often best to go back and look at what we do understand. In this case, looking at justice as God shows it is helpful – the Old Testament concept of “an eye for an eye” demonstrates proportionate, personal and calm retributive justice. There is no room for “making an example of someone” in this form of justice – people are punished for what they do, not for what they might do, or what someone else has done. Because of this, we can be sure that final judgement, in whatever form it takes, will both be just and will be seen to be just. No-one is going to complain about the treatment they receive, because everyone will see that it is fair. [That’s still a terrifying concept, mind you. But it does help.] Furthermore, problems such as “what happens to stillborn babies?”, although they may not have answers now, will also be seen to be solved justly. [We don’t need to worry about God dogmatically going “You died too quickly and never did anything. Fitting punishment for that is…eternal pain!”]

The best demonstration that can be found, both of God’s love and of his justice, is the cross. While we were sinners, Christ died for us – this shows both that sin is serious and that God was so concerned for us because of it that he sent Jesus to deal with it. [God didn’t do that lightly – nor will his justice be a slapdash job.] Although it may seem that “trust that God will be fair, even if we don’t understand now” is a bit of a Band-Aid solution, it isn’t if we can back it up with evidence. And we have plenty of evidence, both of God’s justice and of his mercy.

The way to deal with problems such as these is [as seems to be the case with most things!] to pray, to find out more from the Bible, and to talk with other Christians. The shades of opinion on this issue are very wide-ranging [and it’s important to note that it’s very much possible for two people to read carefully and prayerfully through the relevant parts of the Bible and come up with wildly differing conclusions – these divisions, provided they don’t cause splits in the Church, are absolutely fine!], and God can take it when we don’t know what he’s doing.