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Prhess of fOr tu

_ ag

The Meaning of Hell October 13, 1963

There aren't too many ways for a minister to know/what is a good — or

what is a not so good sermon.\certainty there are differnt ways of ssking the

eine Ree oD

question and different categories for answering.\Did the congregation like it?
= ir

oe

Did if deal with an essential subject? Was it basdd on |seripture? |For ne, wader else
a sermon 1s remebered em=emeet is some indication that i# at leats spoke to a

certain need or question in the minds of many of the eqngregation.\ this stilt
ore aa TS =

doesn't make it a good sermon: but it does indicate that what was sald was
iT

important enough to be remembered. | About this time lagt year | preached a sermon

ed

on fhe meaning of hell: and it was a sermon that | have heard mentioned and quoted
——

wven a year afterward. [mas week one of thé citcles of the Woman's association

in a Bible study, found itself involved in a discussion of hell.: and it occurred

——_ oy

ro me that since you remembered the last sermon on the Subject, and sisnce it is

ee

stgll a question _of some importance in your minds, 1 might try it again| } thought

at first that | would just give Jast year's.sermon: but like anyone else my thinking

changes in a year: and having read the last sermon | decided to give it a fresh
iD,

start.

There seesm fo be alot o§ general questioning about the meaning of hell. —

eee ed

in all corners of the chureh \ Ang because it fs such a bothersome question it is
ee

=e

almost universally ovoided. (it's like a bad tooth: most of the time we aren't even
24)
aware of ut. But every so often it makes its presence eloquently known: and wish
ne

that if would go onay. out if won't go away — try as we might to avegid tha

begin my sermon today by saying it shouldn't go away: we shouldn't avegd it. A

concept of hell is essential in the Christian Faith: its certainly important
Ss,

enough to be talked about and understood.

In the same breath, however, let me amend thet statement fo say Hell jis not
generally understood: in fact the pepular conception of lhell is such a gross
id

abuse that | to o wish it would go away \ The problem is that intelligent Christians,

in rejecting an unfortunate and untrue image, have rejected the whole concept.

2/

What we have then today, are two clearly defined schools or categories of thought
teen |

about hel! — into which most Christian Fett .[one talks boout little elise, clinging

to the fiery pit with a passionate zeal | the other implicitly says there is no

i

hell and there is no use even thinking about it or discussing it \soth are extreme

and both are wrong,

The popular image of hell, the one passed down from generation 60 generation

and guarded against any inroads of intelligent reason, is well know to us att. \ien
= ry ees

oe

is the place where sinners, or those unsaved persons, go agter death. {tt is a
etl

place: a place in the bowels of the earth: its envirgnment is usually described

———

in terms of flames: and over it presides a horrid creature with horns, tale and

————

three pronged pithh fork, \Nesdless to say, hell, in popular terms is not pleasant.

it is a place of torture and torment: and of course heil is a place without hope:
cece kal ee ae

it is eternal.

—s

Because thés conception of hell is at the center of the whole problemz: because

it is this hell that people accept of reject, | wish to spend some time examining

it: especially the implications if must have to ovr total faith.

os

Firstly this popular image of hell makes the Christian Faith little more fhan

'
a Life Insurance, or rather a Fire Insurance poticy.\ tse, in fact, is precisely

ST

the gpproach taken by many Christians -~ in the past and in the present. |1t is

an approach fhat depends on fear | The most persuasive human emtion is fear. \sudden

icc: )

fear ignites a chain of physiological reactions that enable men fo do the impossible.

Knowing and exploiting human fear, hell-—fire and brimstone preachers have

gottena lot of mileage out of this doctrine of nett Ai tn proper lighting,

aA

music and tone of voice the evangelist eets forth, in vivid detail, the horrors

roe, ee) a

of nett. it was said of Billy Sunday, that when he !aunched into a graphic descriptior

Vee\
of hell, his enraptured listeners could felltm the flames licking about théir chajrs.

RTS

And it fs at this point, when the flames can be imagined, when fear takws over,

that a man is prompted to acf.\ Down to the altar he marches: he is saved and nedd

end

fear no jonger.\ out | know of no occassion where Jesus Christ frightened a man

eel —
once

pee liaise

into following pin. | know of no place for this kind of irrational fear in the

Christian Fat tna know of no way a man motivated by fear can even begin to
a

understand fhe Love of God as if has been revealed in Jesus Christ.

Secondly the popular image of hell must be seen in naked contrast to the God
\S
we call ratner \ believe that Ged created because it was his nature to love. We

rt

Pn” .
believe that God so loved man thatthe sufferred and died 4e—Jeers=-Germret on his

Sonn eel

behalf.J And in the same breath ! cannot bring myself to say that God condemns the

vast majority of his creatures to eternal torment. \We all know the experience of

disciplining and being disciplined: | all know the experince of punishing and

being punished. [ve gall God our Father: that is, te Father-child relationship is
——

the best human analogy to describe the Godpan relationship. bathers know, and |
a
speak from a little experience, that judging, disciplining and punishing #8 really

part of loving: that love without judgment is not really love at att. [ang yet we

all know the pain involved in punishing: we all know the longing for redemption and

resumption of normal relationships once punishment had been administered. |We know

nothing of devising fiendish tortures for our disobediant children: we know nothing

of permanently banishing them from our home because in their imaturity they have

temporarily stopped lovng us. To believe that God, then is capable of punishing

without mercy: to say that he is capable of rejecting his creatures forever: is to

Se}

say that he is something quite different from a rather. much better word would

be a tyrant: and this kind of God [| do not find in Jesus Chrisf.

a

Thirdly the popular image of hell, makes the prime prerequisite for the Christian

a strong desire to save his own skin. Jesus saidi('He who would find his life shall

lose it )and yet if hell is what we are told it is all we really need is the
®
selfish motive of self preservat on.\ 14 was Martin Luther who remarked that a person
deli al ene y
oe
who becomes a Christian to win salvation, will never eally be a Christian.

——

The man of true faith, the trie Chri tian,on the other hand, is he w¢é who would

sacrifice even salvation) !t is this note of self sacrifice, of self-giving, one'ss
abies

ee Oo ewe,

deséres, hopes, and wishes that has always marked conversion to Christianity: and

not a mad scramble to assure one's place in heaven.

a

Fiantlay the popular image of hel! is unbiptica!.|1 will return to the Bible's

understanding of hell: but for now you might be wondering about rhe source of this

erroneous popular image. \I1 if is that contradictory, where did it come euay®

eg Pm

lt has a source, a very concrete source, and that is the Rennasaince.|The Middle
[SSS me =a,

Ages saw the rebirth of the human imagination. \ror 1000 years men produced no art,

a]

music or literature of any signi ticence. \més period is appropriately called the

— Sy

Dark Ages.\sut suddenly came the Rennaisance. arid 1000 years of frustrated, a

captive human imagination mamvmamithdn overflowed in an onslaught of exaggerated w

———=

and elaborate detait. [me human mind had been_dead for 1000 years. and with its

reawakening if ran wite. \ two men in particular focused their imaginative genius
eel heen tea tT

ob the doctrine of het! \ang in their works these two meh created froms and images

————

that are still accepted as religious truth. Lin Michaeangelo's famous work The Last

Judgment, you can see God sitting on a high throne, seperarting the sould of men:

and you can actually see them tumbling into a huge lake of Fire.\mnis was the midieal
conception and to it mMichaeangelo devoted all the genius of his rich imagination,
Ls
The second man was John Milton, a great and magnificent literary figure. His greatest
nl

work is Paradise Lost, which descrides in vivid detail, the sufferring of those

in hell. line engraviags in his book portray Satan and his assistants as beasts with

tails and pitchforks: and it is believed that this particular personification of

enn ce)

Satan is entirely hi tons. Now both of these are great works of art and literature.

They are to be taken seriously by all students of culture. But they arethe works

of the human imaginattion: no more: no fess.

Actually therea are two Biblical words that are translated iy Hell in English.
eminem |
Ww < ry iH .
When the word Hel! appears innthe Old Testament it comes from the Hebrew Sheol

Like the Greek conception Hades, Sheol merely means the place of departed Spirits.

ee |

There are no implications of wickedness or torment or p nishment:|Sheol was just

where the Hebrews believed everybody went after aeatn. \Ine Hebrews thought Sheol

Seite a
oR

was a shadowy place, without life as we know it. Itw was a sad thought for the early

Jews, because in their primitive cosmology they couldn't imagine the God of the heavens

a

reigning under the earth, |But gradually with their deepening theological awareness

leceeaal

they realized that there could be no place: nat eben Sheol, thatb was not ruled

by the Sovereing creator. [une we affirm in the Apostles Creed that Jesus was dead

and buried and descended into hell: we don't mean that he was wicked and had to be

punished. te simply wish to affirm that he tasted death to it fullest extent: he

truly died on the cross: in the terminology of the first century, he went to Sheol.

alan)

The second Biblical word for hell is even more intereting. \1t is the word that
appears throughout the N,T. and whenever Jesyss Referred to Helt.|it's the word
—— —-

that is translated hell in the passage: (14 your right hand causes you to sin, cut

it off and throw if away: for if is better to lose one of your members than your

Ty

whole body go inte Hel.) The word Jesus used here was Behenne,| It is the name
of a place, in the Valley of Hinnom , just outside Jerusalem. \This valley had earned
= — ay Te _—,

a very bad name among the Jews.\I was the sight of pagan worship and human sacri fice
_———- CS TT

in times past. \The Jews thought the valley was cursed and so they very appropriateely

used Gehhena as the city dump. \evevry thing that was useless was thrown there to be
— aya “ee

ONO
burned in the fire: and from the rotting garbage nednthe burning trash came the

—

quite true statment tnai{ there the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. ")

And so the word that we have taken out of context and loaded with midieval symbolism,

7

origiannly referred to the city aump 1 don't think Jesus had any intention of

describing an eternal pit of formant and fire: He was memrly using a very contemporary

and graphic illustration to point out the depths of degradation a life of sin

ee a

could produce. Wot ice again that Gehenna was not a place of punishment after death
lt was a simbol of what life can be, in the present tense.

In light of the Biblical doctrine of hell, what does it mean for us today?

—— oem

What can we spy about ee leeRrAns Jesus' useage, hell is where life is wasted,

&

It is a state of uselessness here and now. Perhaps we all know of someone,

brilliantly talented and gifted, who is throwing his life away. Wie at have seen

such a person and said, (‘What a waste."JOne of th4 most depressing books | ever

read was Theodore Drieser's Sisiter Garrie. In it the reader watches a prosperous

man waste away doing nothing: nothing but sitting in a ¢hair reading a newspaper:
= LT

aie

;
1
\

and|gradual ly the paper is gone: and there is nothing left at at. [This is hell: ¢

ee tS

this is the hell of the city dump. er in Jesus's terms is life without meaning:

+ a eS ET

eS

life without meaningful relationships with other peopte.\in his terms hel! is

quite real: and quite present.\ 1 think we all have tasted just enought of it to

understand it and to dread tyt. Se

——s

Asa aplace after death there is not much we can say about thi1.| te mystery of

ee een ic eiehic aerated eal
*

death is not one which we can fully understand.|We cannot understand, or even thik

in terms of eternéty: and so to attempt to visualize what life after deathb, in

any form will be like, is useless folly.
Silene

eee

We do believe kk,however, thatb in love God has given man freedom. [his freedom
es,

——————_—

to choose makes us responsible creatures: and just as surely as God loves us: he

will hold us respohsible for the way we have lived: for the way we have spent our
vives. i he truly Idves us, he will punish us. If he is a just God, we will be

held accountable for our lives,\"e has given iis the freedon to chose: to chose to

oe

reject him if we please. fie are free to reject him : to disobey him and live apart
le el ? oe,

from him : and if this is our choise we have no reason to believe that we will not
ee Se

be punished.

Certainly there is a hell: a separatedneds from God: a state frelly chosen by
——a «| a —— ns
man apart from the will and love of the creator| But even there God's fove will n@&
die.\Even in punishment God will still be the God of Love. \the Psalmist said:
init

"If | make my bed is Sheol, thou art there.) We needn't believe that God's efforts

fo redeem us ~ to reconcile us to himself, — will cease wilth death. \Ne
— g € fv
Hell, then, plays a essential role in the Christian Faith. It is a tap
ao remide F a

on the shoulder: a reminder that it does matter how we live: that life is to be

taken seriously says, in the words of Halford Luckoek: (choose wisely. Ahead
of you is a Holy Cety: Sut just outside there is the lohely vally cabin 6f
1 OR Ee

Gehenna caléed Hell, )

i,

Amen

0 God our heavenly father: help us to grow in ge lay and in faith: help us
to realize thy fatherhood: the care and concern for us: Help us to lowert the
barriers of pride that obstruct thy redeeming love. Help us Lord to be thine own.