It has been pondered and anguished over by both great theologians and average people for centuries. Today, it’s one of the most common questions I hear when I tell other people on campus that I am a Christian.
I know I’m not a great theologian, and I have already told you I don’t have all the answers, but since this is such a great question and it came up in my comments, I felt I should give you my thoughts on it.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my answer to this question, as I believe all Christians (and non-Christians) should. Its answer will determine what I believe about the character of God. If I truly came to the conclusion that the God of Christianity was a cruel or unjust, I would not follow him. In fact, I think I would try to stop others from following him too.
But I am following him, and let me tell you why.
I believe that God is good in the fullness of the word. He is the definition of goodness and everything good is of him. As the definition of goodness, he cannot be with anything “un-good.” The Bible uses the analogies of light and darkness, order and chaos; they cannot mix because their definitions are in inherently opposition to one another.
Now, you’ve probably all heard the story of Adam and Eve, the snake and the forbidden fruit from Genesis chapters 1-3. While I don’t believe that this is a historical account (in the modern sense) of the fall of man, I believe that it shows us that mankind chose to have part in evil. The “forbidden fruit” is from the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil.” The word “knowledge” here means intimacy and experience with something. At this moment, humanity lost its innocence and became mixed beings, with knowledge of both good and evil.
And this evil, like a disease spread into all creation. In my Discipleship Class, we talked about the concept of "total depravity," a theological doctrine that states that there is evil in all things. This concept is often defined wrongly. It does not mean, as some would say, that every person is as affected by and filled with as much evil as they possibly could be. We need only look around to see that that is not true. Not only are we not all murderers, but we see people helping the homeless and holding doors for one another.
What "total depravity" means is that every area of a person's life is affected by evil. There is no perfect aspect of any person's life. We need only look around to see that that is true. Peopel's relationships, self image, priorities are all imperfect, all broken. Try to live one week without being unkind, ungrateful, impatient, or selfish, and you will see that is utterly impossible. We are undeniably flawed.
Since the fall of man left us all flawed, riddled with evil, we are doomed to be separated from the Good God both in this world, and for eternity. Separation from God for eternity is what we humans have named Hell. And I don’t believe Hell is a literal lake of fire, but I believe the human writers of the Bible were trying to use human words to describe the agony of an eternity separated from all things good.
But God loved mankind too much to leave the world condemned! He designed a rescue plan, at great cost to himself, to ransom humanity back from the separation they chose. Since it was their choice to leave, it has to be their choice to come back. But he holds out an open hand to anyone who will reach for it.
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
So, it's not God who sends people to hell. It is God who offers to save them from it.
I've really enjoyed reading these Becky! It's crazy to me how many people are Christians without ever asking big questions like this. I feel like people who automatically accept everything they've been raised with without some level of deep thought really are missing a very critical step in making their faith their own.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with what you said here though!
For discussions sake, here are some questions that I had after reading this though: Did humanity as a whole choose sin? Do we all get the same kind of choice Adam and Eve did? Are we born into sin because of their choice? Are we choosing hell as individuals, or simply paying the consequences of another individual's actions?
I really just realized I could continue with questions on and on...so I'll go ahead and stop there.
That is a lot of questions, but they seem to all be focused around one point. "Did/how did that one choice affect all the rest of humanity's destiny."
DeleteWhile I'm not exactly sure how, it seems like sin once let into the world by that one choice tainted everything. I would read Dad's post. He says some great things and quotes some great verses.
Like dad says, even if you ignore the whole "where sin came from" thing, I think it's pretty easy to observe the broken sinful condition of every human. From the earliest ages, a child is selfish, tells lies, etc. Therefore, we are not paying the price for someone else's actions. We have enough sin of our own. But we are also not necessarily choosing hell, that is just where we are all naturally headed because of our sinful condition.
Interesting comments, Daniel. Great post, Becky!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it may not be thought of as definitively convincing for seekers who may not view the Bible as God's unerring word, for Christians, at least, the question is dealt with, quite clearly, in Romans 5. (A book that we'll be studying next year, in Quizzing.)
Romans 5:12-17 says:
"12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.
Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. 15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.
17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ."
Besides, even if you just jump right over the whole concept of "original sin," I don't think that anyone can really quibble about the general "flawed nature" of us all. Another section in Romans says this:
"“No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good,not a single one.” and I think that our general observations, of ourselves and of those around us, pretty much bears that out.
Becky, I like your comment that we sort of "choose" our destination - choosing it by either willingly and personally bowing our knees to the great creator of all, or by actively (or passively) shaking our fist at him in defiance of who he is...
Thanks Dad! And that's a great passage. Perfect fit to some of the things Daniel brought up.
DeleteI appreciate the way you're using a comment from a previous post as a way to jumpstart another post and continue the discussion. Very interactive and open.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what you meant by saying that you do not believe that the story of Adam and Eve is a historical account. Do you believe that there actually was a garden of Eden and the first man and women, Adam and Eve, or not?
ReplyDeleteGreat question! I talk about this in my next blog post. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!
DeleteWhen I think of Hell - I think about "perishing". There is a TON of writing in the Old Testament about God giving the Israelites directions, which they would quickly ignore, and then many of them would "perish".
ReplyDeleteYet God did not want them to choose this path.
I think your statement - "So, it's not God who sends people to hell. It is God who offers to save them from it." is very profound.
Reminds me of the verse - 2 Peter 3:9
2 Peter 3:9
New International Version (NIV)
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
love this Amplified version of that -
The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.
maybe you could give us some thoughts on what that rather odd word- "repentance" means?
signing off-
your Mom
Great verses mom, I love your insight. Thanks for sharing!
DeleteI think that, creation-LENGTH aside, once one "mythologizes" the genealogies so clearly and specifically set out and described in multiple areas of the scripture, both in the New Testament AND the Old, the years, the ages, the fathers and sons and daughters and all...
ReplyDelete...well, to my way of thinking, its a small but significant step towards mythologizing it all. There may be much left UN-said in the Bible, but if the Kings, Israel's history, it's interactions with the Lord "Jehovah" and all can't be trusted, they how can we even pretend to believe the miracles, the truth involved in the stories of the hand of an infinite creator God reaching through his creation to momentarily alter or suspend the "laws" that we, the creation, have deduced from imperfectly observing, hypothesizing and concluding with our limited senses, and all that.
"Ah, the flood was just an analogy..."
"You don't REALLY think that the Red Sea parted..."
"There was no real MOSES! He was just an archtype of a pre-civilized leader of that time."
"I know that it said that Cain killed Able, but really, how can we KNOW something like that? And the stories of Hagar, of Ruth and Boaz, of Lot and the town of Sodom..."
"HOW could someone stop the sun from its travels 'across' the sky?"
"So, really, how could someone who DIED come alive again?"
Is one story really any more "believable" than another? Where does faith come in, and does faith mean not thinking or asking hard questions?
Just because we can't fathom the "hows" of creation, does it mean that it wasn't performed by a "God" - the "THE GOD" that we worship and who we believe loves us?
I know that this is a much more general comment, not so much specifically aimed at THIS post, but just bringing up some good questions that EVERY believer and not-yet-believer has to wrestle with. The same kind of good, healthy thought process is involved with grappling with matters such as heaven and hell, and what they are?
Of course, my FIRM belief is that the more and more we little, limited humans learn about our universe, the more that knowledge will point us TO God, rather than to a conclusion that we're all just a matter of change and randomness... I'm NOT a scientist, but I'm not afraid of science, and I don't think that God is, either.