The sketchy lie of Christian theology is the doctrinal insistence on the hell scenario. In the eyes of the church, all peoples who live outside the bounds of their religion will be forever damned by God to reside in the fiery torment of hell. Over the centuries there have been additions and subtractions from this doctrinal premise but it has remained fundamentally the same for 2000 years in Christianity. The assumption of this theology is that Jesus preached hell so the church, speaking for Jesus, must warn the people of the eternal danger they may soon experience. The problem is that this assumption is a fraud without biblical support and is merely a top-down religious group think intended to support the power of the Church over the people. This group think has no scriptural integrity except one possibility.
The
preaching of Jesus consistently encouraged his hearers to activate their God
given spiritual potential but he never threated his listeners with the hell
scenario. The exception is the spiritual
thrashing he gives to the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees. These so-called religious leaders were
harassing him because the message of Jesus did not fit their narrative. Jesus said, God is my Father encourager, my
mother sustainer, my advocate, my defender and my provider just as he is your encourager,
sustainer, advocate, defender and provider.
Any of us can approach God one on one, there is no need to go through
the religious hierarchy from Jerusalem to approach God. This infuriated Jerusalem.
There are
two Greek words for hell that the writers of the Gospels credit Jesus as
using. One Greek word is HADES, meaning
the unseen state of being or ghostly world down in the depths. The other is GEHENNA, taken from the name of
a place outside Jerusalem with a ghastly history that became the community
dump. The word HADES was used by Jesus
in the Gospels of the New Testament only four times (Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke
10:15; 16:23). Gehenna was spoken by Jesus
only nine times (Matt. 5:22 & 29; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15 &23; Mark 9:43
& 45 &47; Luke 12:5). One might wonder how such a hellish doctrine
could be based on so few scriptural annotations but let’s look closely at these
scriptural passages.
Every usage of
these few hellish words by Jesus was in response to attacks by the teachers of
the Law and the Pharisees. The
religious law that was given to Moses was never the answer to the spiritual
need of the people, it was only a substitute, a temporary fix awaiting the
words of Jesus. Long before the time of
Jesus, the spiritual Law of Moses had degenerated into a sadistic legalism that
was intended to strip the people of all spiritual courage. And by doing so, this gave the religious
leaders the authority over the people that they craved. The Pharisees were a radical group of God
seekers who believed that the only way to approach God was by the strict
performance of every minutia of the Law of Moses that had been continually “improved”
by the religious leaders over the centuries.
These folk were legalists on steroids.
Jesus would
have none of it. An angry Jesus is
difficult to picture but he had his moments.
Turning the collection tables in the Temple was one such moment and turning
the doctrinal tables on the religious legalists was another. Consider the response of Jesus toward his
antagonists in Matthew 23. This sermon by
Jesus directed at the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, was devastating. Talk about an altar call! It is a seven-point warning or condemnation
of their religious practices and presumptions.
Seven times Jesus gives the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees a warning,
six times he calls them hypocrites, two times he calls them blind spiritual
guides, once blind men, once he calls them blind fools. This wasn’t just a name calling session, Jesus
goes on to tell them the facts, the why of their hypocrisy. The words of Jesus in verse 15 are especially
devastating, “You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then
you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are.” Ouch!
The hell
raising theologians are gleeful, see, it is in the scriptural record, Jesus was
a hell raiser as we are because he called us children of hell. In verse 33, Jesus concludes, “You snakes!
You brood of vipers!. How will you
escape being condemned to hell?” Jesus was, indeed, angry, we can all agree on
that, but are these threats a reason to accept the reality of hell? You be the judge, was Jesus just reacting to their
negativity or are the fires of hell for real?
While you
are thinking about the question, I’ll give you, my opinion. Most of us at one time or another have gotten
ourselves into a heated argument that is taken to a personal level by
condemning the offender to hell. The retort, “You go to hell”, is common language,
at least in my world. Another retort might
be, “when I go to hell, I’ll be riding on your coattail”. This is a perfectly human response, is it
not? Jesus was not condoning or in any
way acknowledging the facts of a possible hell scenario, he was slamming those
who would burden others with such a falsehood.
The proof is
in the pudding, Chapter 23 and verses 37,38 &39. Ever since Moses came down from the mountain
a second time with the religious tablets of the Ten Commandments, the people of
the exodus from Egypt have been at war fighting other peoples and themselves.
In the time of Jesus, the fight could be summed up in one word, Jerusalem. The religion of Moses fought and killed the many
purveyors (prophets) of authentic spirituality sent into their midst by
God. Jesus would only be the latest to
die. Because the teachers of the Law and
the Pharisees were passing on the long tradition of killing, Jesus holds them
responsible for all the blood, from beginning to end.
Matthew 23: 37,38 &39.
“Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how
often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers he
chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again
until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. (39)’”
Our
gathering God tells it like it is, we are a stubborn people who take
spirituality for granted while we do our own thing. We are not willing so we experience the desolation of our earthly
destiny but even the worst of the worst, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees will,
according to Jesus, before or after death, come to be blessed when they and we see aright and then will be willing to be sheltered under the gathering wings of our God.
G. Goslaw
Landers, CA
