There Is No Hell (Jesus, ritual, moral, punishment, rejecting)

[Green Gaia]

There Is No Hell By the Rev. Forrest Church

When we project an appetite for vengeance on God, we pervert the divine image.

The difference between Universalists and Unitarians (the old joke has it) is that Universalists believe that God is too good to damn them, whereas Unitarians believe that they’re too good to be damned. I am a Universalist.

For all my many failings, the day I wake up dead I won’t be in a cattle car on the fast train to Satan’s fiery pit. Nor will you. And neither will Old Scratch himself. If he actually exists, the devil too will be saved. In the good news of universalism, God is a loving God who will not rest until the entire creation is redeemed. All creatures will be saved. There is no hell.

It’s easy to understand why hell was invented (if quite late in the biblical record). Eternal damnation solves the sticky part of the problem of evil: Why do good things happen to bad people? Reserving a corner of hell for all who escape well-deserved punishment here on earth balances the moral ledger sheet. Justice is done. Otherwise, not only is life unfair; the afterlife becomes unfair as well.

The problem is, when we project our retributive logic onto a cosmic screen, we pervert the divine image. We predicate hell on the irreverent presumption that God’s appetite for vengeance—an all-voracious version of our own nagging hunger—must be satisfied. "She’ll get hers in hell," we say. That balances our ledger, but it turns God into a jailer.

The idea of purgatory makes perfectly good sense. I can imagine the utility of corrective punishment. But eternal hellfire demeans everything I believe about God. More important, it eviscerates the heart of Jesus’ gospel.

Jesus was anything but a biblical literalist. He teaches by parable, not by citing chapter and verse, and gets into holy mischief by repeatedly breaking the letter of scripture. Love is the sum and substance of all the law and the prophets, he teaches. He enjoins us to forgive and love our enemies. "Your enemy be damned," is no part of his gospel.

"Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect," Jesus instructs his disciples. That perfection can be summed up in three words, each an expression of divine love: justice, mercy and forgiveness. Standing alone, justice might allow for the creation of hell, but mercy and forgiveness render it morally impossible. We can sift a spoonful of evidence for hell from the scriptures, even as we can ladle out dozens of arguments for slavery. Neither, however, meets the requirements of the biblical Spirit, whose imperative is love.

If we, mere humans, can forgive unforgettable damage, can't God? Click here to read more.

[robtex]

Great article Amy.

Originally Posted by Maize

There Is No Hell By the Rev. Forrest Church
That balances our ledger, but it turns God into a jailer.

On that comment two oberservations I have had are:

1) UU congregations and online groups from my personal experiences are geneally an optimistic bunch. The idea of a place where nobody has a chance to fix themselves spritualty just doesn't seem to fit too well.

2) Without a notion of absolute morality an absolute eternal punishment is more difficult to reconcile. The ledger in Christianity however, isn't about right and wrong but acceptance and non-accpetance to many. UU's by the nature of their organization are apt to accept other beliefs and systems as diverse as hinduism, taoism, Islam and humanism making damnation by rejecting belief a mute point.

Originally Posted by Maize

Jesus was anything but a biblical literalist. He teaches by parable,

I think one of the biggest things I learned from Master Vigil on here is the importance of metaphores in religion. Many of the parables from Noah's Ark to Jesus walking on water can hold parabolic signifgance but to me, lose much of their validity and most if not all of their signifgance once they are seen as literal.

If one accepts Hell as a literal geographical place it becomes silly to think the earth is actually hollow with the damned living in it. However, with various metaphoric interpretations of hell being suggest on RF as "seperation from God", "commission of evil" ect ect it gains a philosophical signifigance and even if the premise is rejected, the idea is examable in the realm of man's relationship with each other and the word he/she lives in.

[Davidium]

Maize,

Thank you for posting that article by Rev. Church. I had not seen it.

I use one of his books in my "New to UU?" class that I facilitate, and I simply love his work. I had not seen that article... so thank you.

Yours in Faith,

David

[mtatum4496]

Thank you for posting the article by Rev. Church. He is one of my favorite UU ministers and authors.

One of the things that drew me to UUism three years ago was the Universalist understanding of universal reconciliation. My previous faith saw hell in very different terms than does normative Christianity, in that it understood hell as a temporary state where all persons would have the opportunity to be exposed to truth before entering their final estate.

For me, being a believer in universal reconciliation means I can love, enjoy, and respect people from all cultures and walks of life, and seek to bond over whatever truths we both recognize and share - understanding we all will have more to learn the rest of our lives and into the eternities.

[michel]

A great piece, Maize.

If he actually exists, the devil too will be saved. In the good news of universalism, God is a loving God who will not rest until the entire creation is redeemed. All creatures will be saved. There is no hell.

That is my view; unfortunaly is a very hard message to get across. Again, thank you for posting that (I always knew there was more than a bit of UU in me) ....and so did you.

[1nharmony]

Originally Posted by robtex

If one accepts Hell as a literal geographical place it becomes silly to think the earth is actually hollow with the damned living in it. However, with various metaphoric interpretations of hell being suggest on RF as "seperation from God", "commission of evil" ect ect it gains a philosophical signifigance and even if the premise is rejected, the idea is examable in the realm of man's relationship with each other and the word he/she lives in.

I have also read that "hell" is not so much a physical place of pain and suffering as it is a condition of the spirit apart from God. I simply cannot reconcile the thought of eternal damnation (for something as simple as non-belief) as part of God's "plan". That would put God in the same camp as the extremist-Islamic terrorists who go about killing "infidels".