LET’S TALK ABOUT HELL (BETTER)

I’d like to think I’ve said and written enough about hell.

Indeed, I’ve said too much for the liking of some and not enough to be clear to others. In Her Gates Will Never Be Shut (Wipf & Stock, 2009), I attempted to address many of the questions Rob Bell would pose a year later in his career-changing work, Love Wins. I would have loved 10% of his book sales. But at least I’m not bitter. What we had most in common were critical reviews by people who didn’t bother to read either book.

I was also happy to offer my two cents on hell in Kevin Miller’s documentary movie Hellbound? My greatest contributions were surely my titillating handlebar mustache and the cemetery scene (no spoilers). Despite a decade of painstaking descriptions of the variety of biblical and patristic notions concerning hell and divine judgment, I still hear (too often) that I “don’t believe in hell.” But fear not—I do. The rumors are just slander. And you know where slanderers go, right? (Cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Gal. 5:23, Rev. 22:15). Ouch, eh?

Anyway, with the firestorm release of David Bentley Hart’s That All Shall Be Saved (to reviews ranging from succulent to truculent), it seems the church is finally ready to have the conversation in earnest.

Namely, how should we talk about hell?

On a recent three-week tour of New Zealand and Australia, the topic of hell and the question of ultimate redemption came up at every single stop. Whether I was with Baptists, the Vineyard, Methodists, Anglicans, Brethren or YWAMers, I was grilled on two topics everywhere I went. One of those two themes was hell; the other I’ll save for another time.

“Let’s talk about hell,” they urged.

“Let’s talk about hell better,” I replied. 

Previously, my conversation partners and I have described three main interpretations of the Bible’s hell texts: infernalism (eternal conscious torment), conditionalism (or annihilation) and universalism (hopeful or convinced). We’ve covered that territory ad nauseam. 

This time, I want to talk about:

• how the Bible talks about hell, and
• how we should talk about it today.

Not so much what hell is but more about how to talk about it.