What the HELL? Is it real and what does the Bible say about it?

This was the topic up for discussion at last week's Jesus on Tap. For those who don't know Jesus on Tap, it is a gathering of folks to discuss theology, faith, and the Bible over drinks. I guess it could be described as an alternative "Sunday School Class." It also has been my "Tornado Therapy." I started Jesus on Tap after the April Tornado. I had spent weeks doing hours of Tornado response work, and decided that I wanted to do something fun. And because I am in general a nerd, Christian Education seemed like fun. Topics have ranged from immigration, the Humanity of Jesus, paths to Salvation, and most recently the topic of Hell.

Now I have to admit that I had not previously spent much time contemplating Hell. I do remember as a kid attending a Baptist elementary school, being told stories of Hell and the Apocalypse. As an adult I dismissed worries of Hell by stating that it was a doctrine not necessary to Salvation. So when this topic was selected by the group, it meant I had some studying to do. And the weeks leading up to Jesus on Tap involved some interesting reading on the topic.

My exploration began with a book called The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner. I recommend this book, and felt that it provided an interesting discussion of the development of the ideas of Hell. I also looked to C.S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, and The Problem of Pain. And a discussion of Hell in this post-modern period would not be complete without looking at Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit, which gives us the image of "Hell is other people."

From these sources, I considered the progression of our idea of Hell. From early in the Christian Church, writers did a good job imagining the pains and punishment that would be found in Hell. From the Apocalypse of Peter, which dates to the mid-2nd Century, where Hell's punishments are structured according to sins and Hell is administered by God's just but stern angels; to the Apocalypse of Paul, also mid-2nd Century, which describes a Hell as full of fire and extreme cold. These early extra biblical sources foreshadow the detailed account of Hell in Dante's Inferno. By the 20th Century, the fires of Hell were tempered into C.S. Lewis' Hell as bureaucracy and as a Gray City. Jean Paul Sartre gives us the notion that Hell is other people eternally examining our shortcomings.

Whether it's hellfire or the scrutiny of others, the horrors of Hell have been with us and have been something to be avoided. The Gospel of Nicodemus, a Sixth Century writing, details the Harrowing of Hell by Jesus during the days between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. In this Harrowing, Jesus descends to Hell and removes from it those righteous Pagans and Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Hebrew Bible. This combination of the Harrowing with the notion of Purgatory, show the Church's reluctance to damn everyone to Hell. Some early Church leaders went so far as to say that no one would ultimately be damned to Hell, not even Lucifer. Origen (c. 185-254) proposed that everyone would choose to repent, even Lucifer. If Christ died for all, and if God is infinite, then everything will naturally return at the end of time to be part of him. This idea was called "Apocastastasi" from the Greek meaning restoration, and was declared heretical at the Synod of Constantinople in 543. To try to make sure that Origen's ideas were thoroughly stamped out, the Church excommunicated him posthumously a total of five times.

In spite of the Church's attempts to suppress Origen's thoughts, it has reappeared over and over again. Now it is called Universalism, and its most recent appearance is in Rob Bell's book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. 

While the Harrowing of Hell has the benefit of rescuing folks that we are uncomfortable with sending to Hell, universalism has the opposite effect. If everyone is eventually saved, if Lucifer himself will even find salvation, then what about Hitler or Stalin? In spite of the horrendous deeds done in life, and the apparent lack of repentance, will they even have a chance to find salvation.

C.S. Lewis allows for some sort of second chance in The Great Divorce. Souls are kept as ghosts in the Gray City until they choose to be removed of their sins or vices and choose to leave the City. It is unclear whether all souls must make this choice, or if some get a fast track to Heaven. In The Problem of Pain Lewis makes it clear that "forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness." Lewis goes on to say that there is at some point finality:

I believe that if a million chances were likely to do good, they would be given. But a master often knows, when boys and parents do not, that it is really useless to send a boy in for a certain examination again. Finality must come some time, and it does not require a very robust faith to believe that omniscience knows when.

Perhaps Lewis's most chilling image of Hell in The Problem of Pain is this: "I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside."

Does Lewis's image that the doors of hell are locked on the inside help us with the notion that there will be judgment and punishment? Does that make it easier?

If we adopt Universalism, and see that God will continue to reach out to us, as God has been doing since the beginning of Creation, and in the end all will find redemption, then what does that mean we are being saved from? If all will go to Heaven, then what is Salvation?

So I come to the end of this with more questions than I started. There are discussions of what we would describe as "Hell" in the New Testament. A place of outer darkness, a place of fire. Hell has been part of our faith from the beginning of the Church. And one question that I come back to repeatedly is if there is no Hell, can there be Salvation. If there is no Hell, what are we being saved from?

So I resign myself to the fact that there are many more questions to ask and things to explore, and that it may be more relevant to my belief as a Christian than I previous thought.