Tower and Town, April 2015

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Rocking The Boat - Part 3: Hell Fire

One of the archetypal images that has come down through the Christian tradition is the idea of a Day of Judgement followed by the casting into everlasting torment of those deemed not fit for heaven. Christian art is full of this - just think of Michelangelo's Last Judgement on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, or Dante's Inferno. The idea is still very much alive today, and not just within Christianity.

But it has problems. I would like to outline just three.

First, if God knew exactly what to expect when He created humankind, having thought it all through beforehand as part of the design phase, and if part of that plan included an expectation, before He had even created them, that He would end up consigning considerable percentages of His Creation to everlasting torment, then I'm not sure that is a God I want to worship. Better, surely, never to have created in the first place, or at the very least to have decided to snuff them out. Keeping them gratuitously alive in eternal torment is sadism, pure and simple.

Second, what else does such a scenario say about the character of God? As I see it, it says He's a quitter. It would appear that He budgets a mere three-score years and ten during which time He deigns to try and woo us to worship Him, but then tires of the effort and drops us in the bin. This from someone who has all eternity to pursue us, to reach out to us, to wait for us to turn again as the father of the prodigal son waited. After a trifling 70 years He gives up! I just don't see it: isn't there a story about a shepherd who refuses to rest until all 100 of his sheep are safely in the fold?

Third, the whole idea seems disproportionate. You hear a lot from Christians about God being a god of justice; that we have free will and that punishment is our just deserts. To which my answer has to be: how much sin can you commit in three-score years and ten? Is there anything just in handing down infinite punishment in response to a finite amount of sin?

The heart of the Christian story is that God took human form, immersed Himself in human affairs and subjected himself to the worst humans could do to Him - crucifixion on a Roman cross - in order to show that He would NEVER give up on us, even if we killed him. I have no idea what happens beyond the grave, but one thing I am sure of: if God is remotely godlike, He's not going to give up on me that easily.

Hugh de Saram