Abstract
This article encourages readers to press past recent debates on the nature of eschatological hell to examine those NT uses of gehenna and hades that cannot be interpreted as afterlife states. The author demonstrates how these texts—Jms. 3:6, Matt. 23:15 and Matt. 16:18—treat hell as a kingdom, present among us and within us.
The author suggests James’ use of gehenna may not in fact be a departure from Jesus’ use of the term, but instead, a cipher for interpreting him, given that James often functions as a commentary on Matthian Jesus-sayings (esp. the Sermon on the Mount).
The author also sees the importance of this ‘shadow-kingdom of hell’ motif as crucial to the church’s purpose and the believer’s spiritual formation, particularly as we locate and storm the gates of hades among us and within us.
The Deconstruction, Defense and Denial of Hell
After nearly a decade of renewed deconstruction, one might think ‘hell’ has been parsed as far as it can be. Our debates focused on more carefully defining and distinguishing terms like sheol, hades, gehenna and tartarus. We plumbed ever more deeply into the abyss of mythological backstories, historical contexts and theological developments surrounding the criteria for divine judgment, and the nature and duration of afterlife states. Nuanced eschatologies began to coagulate, until eventually most settled into a spectrum covering three (very general) positions:
(i.) conventional [mislabeled ‘traditional’] eternal conscious torment; (ii.) conditionalism (including conditional immortality and annihilationism); and (iii) universalism (loosely termed if we include hopeful inclusivism). Each of these positions privileges particular biblical texts and either subordinates or marginalizes others. The honest student of Scripture admits that harmonizing all the texts is virtually impossible without some iffy exegetical gymnastics. Meanwhile, less responsible (or less nerdy) Bible readers have retreated to the opposing trenches of defending hell or denying that it exists. In the end, it may well be that we simply convince ourselves of the position we most prefer—a more troubling prospect for those in the conventional camp.
Brad, could you publish future pdf with page numbers on them? I print them out because it is easier to study with a pen in hand on paper than looking at a monitor. Anyway, I printed out Hell is a Kingdom: the Missing… and all the pages spilled out of my printer and I spent a fair chunk of time trying to sort them. Then I realized I could look at the pdf on the computer and find the first line on each page and sort in a few second… silly me. But if the pdf did have page numbers I think it would be handy.
MERRY Christmas to you and your loved ones!!!
Thanks Jake,
I’ve now paginated this particular piece and will try to do so for future pdf files as well.
Enjoy
Thanks for this Brad. I think it’s hard to overestimate how important it is to recognise that Hell is a kingdom, second only to realising that the gospel is a kingdom. When we don’t grasp these two factors, we de-eschatologise the Christian faith. That is to say that we at one and the same time push the operative, prophetic power of the testimony of Jesus back into the confines of a particular period of history and push its implications forward into a future afterlife, neither of which currently exist. The Christian faith is reduced to personal religion. Which may be okay for the religious, but of no relevance to those who desire and call for equality and social justice in the present. That is to say it fails to provide for peace on earth, good will among men, so no Happy Christmas!
Nice introduction! 🙂