Eternity: Part 1

Rob Bell and His Conception of Hell, Chapter 3 of Love Wins: Part 1

It is intriguing that Bell dealt with Heaven before dealing with Hell. When we are considering the Good News (the gospel) it makes more sense to consider it in context. What is the context? The context is the Bad News. Otherwise, the Good News is good compared to what?

To deal with the Bad News, we of course first have to deal with Beginnings, because the Bad News comes to us from the Beginning and the decisions of our Ultimate Parents, Adam and Eve. Yes, if you are wondering, Adam and Eve were real, not just mythical. Jesus treated them so, as did Paul, as did Luke, as did Moses and the other writers of the Bible. A few examples follow:

"Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jered, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech …." (1 Chron. 1:1-3, NET)

The very first word in the book of 1 Chronicles, in the Hebrew, is the name of Adam, beginning a set of genealogies taking up the first eight chapters of the book. Since the other genealogies are factual, there is no reason to believe that the beginning genealogy is meant to be other than factual as well. (This of course does not eliminate the possibility that the author of Chronicles could not have been wrong. But that is a different question.)

"At Adam they broke the covenant; Oh how they were unfaithful to me!" (Hos. 6:7, NET)

In context, this passage is talking about the faithlessness of the covenant people and judgment that was going to fall upon them because of their lack of repentance. There is some debate about how the first words of this verse should be translated. Some, like the NET, choose "At Adam." Many others choose to translate this, "Like Adam." And of course, others debate whether "Adam" is best translated "man," since it is not only a name. However, in context, translation as a name is best. Thus, Hosea treats Adam as a real, living, breathing, human being. And, note how in this passage, we see a breaking of the covenant at Adam. This is true, no matter which way we translate the verse. Since the verse is either emphasizing the breaking of the Covenant in Adams time, or a (then) current breaking of the covenant like the breaking of the covenant in Adams time.

Romans 5:12-18 is too long to quote here. Adam is named once in the Greek text, but implied throughout the text. Here, Adam is compared and contrasted with Jesus, the Second Adam. Paul is not in any way saying that Jesus is myth, and for Jesus to undo what Adam started, Adam must not be a myth either.

These last two passages all deal point back to the same passages in Genesis.

"The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard in Eden to care for it and to maintain it. Then the Lord God commanded the man, 'You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.' " (Gen 2:15-17, NET)

Here, we see the establishment of several things. One is work. Work is not part of the Curse, rather, hard work is. It was always God's intention for humans to be active and productive. Next, we see only one prohibition laid upon Adam along with a warning of consequences to come if it were not heeded.

This, of course, sets up what is to come next. In Genesis 3, we see Adam and Eve both violate the prohibition that God had established. This set in motion a series of events which are still felt to this day.

This brings up the concept of Sin. What is Sin? The Greek word hamartia, ἁμαρτία, which is used in the New Testament is an archery term implying that a target was missed. This came to be used as a technical term in the New Testament, still meaning "missing the mark," but in a very specific sense. In this case, God sets the mark and there are consequences for missing it.

Now would be a good time to change to a different analogy, since it seems cruel to punish someone for not being able to hit a target with an arrow. In the course of creating the world, God set several physical laws in place; one such is the law of gravity. Now, the moral law established in Genesis 2:17 will be compared thus: "Do not jump off the cliff. If you do jump off the cliff, you will most certainly die." And, if Paul had used this analogy, he would have said, "When Adam jumped, we all jumped with him." Just as this analogy is physical, there was a physical consequence to what Adam and Eve did. Because of them, Sin and Death entered the world. We are subject to sickness, disease, injury, and ultimately death, but, there was another aspect of death as well. We are not merely physical beings, but we also have a soul or spirit. This part of us does not cease when our physical body dies, but it can also experience a kind of death. Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from the source of life, which is God Himself. When Adam and Eve sinned, they broke relationship with God and suffered spiritual death.

Here is another analogy. Adam's actions caused a spiritual cancer in him. Unfortunately, every one of his descendents is prone to this kind of cancer. It isn't a matter of if, but rather of when.

In a very real way, Adam started a rebellion against God, and every one of us has inherited this rebellious nature. (If you don't believe me, spend time around two and three year olds. You will see rebellion in action.) This rebellious nature and the curse upon creation are the responsibility of Adam. Because of his actions, we are all subject to both physical and spiritual death. However, it is because of our own sin that we are subject to spiritual death. But it just takes jumping off the cliff once. Once you have sinned, you are a sinner and spiritually dead. And, if you should die physically while spiritually dead, you are spiritually dead forever. There is no biblical passage, when taken in context, that teaches otherwise. ( I know that Bell throws out a lot of Scripture. I will try to deal with some of them. But he throws them out without context and interprets them as he sees fit.) The Bible uses several word pictures to describe this. But metaphors are not to be taken literally. Whatever this final state of judgment, it will be horrible.

Now, this is the Bad News. In the context of the Bad News, we can now understand how good the Good News is. THERE IS A WAY OUT!

Yes, we have all sinned. But that does not mean that we have to remain spiritually dead!

Going back to the cancer analogy, the Great Physician has the cure! You will definitely die if you don't get the cure. But there is enough for everyone!

"For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God." (John 3:16-18, NET)

This is the Good News! It contains a restatement of the Bad News, of course. The one doesn't make sense without the other. In fact, the passage contrasts the two.

Bad News VERSUS Good News

Perish (Eternal Death) VERSUS Eternal Life

Condemned VERSUS Saved

Unbelief VERSUS Belief

Notice how it says that the one who does not believe is already condemned. Once you have jumped off the cliff, the events are set in motion. Once you have the cancer, it is only a matter of time. If you don't take the way out, the course to eternal death is set.

And, just as the Bad News is horrible beyond anything we can imagine, the Good News is good beyond our comprehension.

A Lesser Son of the King
Copyright RL