The essay that elicited the most persuasion was by William Crockett, who highlighted the metophorical view of hell. As he points out, this view does not involve a reduced reliance in the Bible, but simply endeavors to deduce verses sensibly.
Crockett considers the significant question of what Christ’s contemporaries would have contemplated of the verses, given cultural dynamics. Christ’s sayings should be interpreted within the context of the Biblical world, not purely analyzed through the contemporary Western ethos.
Likewise, Crockett contends that it is almost unattainable to take the images of hell entirely literally, since it seems incongruous that Hell should concurrently be a place of fire and of darkness, and since Satan and other imps are said to endure the fire in Hell, even though they lack material bodies, which give physical pain importance. Therefore, Crockett capably supports the metaphorical view.
Walvoord’s essay essentially concerns itself with the issue of whether or not hell implies eternal conscious reality. Although he provides a respectable rationale for the eternality of hell, his arguments are actually coherent with the metaphorical view. Peculiarly, he criticizes Crockett’s analysis for undermining Biblical authority but since it is a subject of interpretation and not of dependability, his comments are lost. Walvoord was not at his best in imparting the literal view. He does better in critiquing the views of his theological opponents.
For Hayes, he spent the majority of his essay justifying the idea that the Bible teaches the prospect of atonement made for the dead that they might be freed from sin. Matthew 12:31-32 speaks of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as a sin that will not be forgiven, “either in this age or in the age to come.” This entails some sins might be pardoned in the age to come, disputes Hayes. Another chief text, 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, addresses the likelihood of being saved “as one escaping through the flames”.
The dilemma with Hayes’ view is that the belief of a purgatory is outlandish to Protestant thinking. The Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone will not permit it. The Protestant doctrine of “Sola Scriptura” makes Protestants distrustful of any dogma that is has progressively developed through the ages, only later receiving certified recognition and theological embellishment.
I can’t help but concur with Pinnock’s contention that the uncritical approval of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has led many to disregard the palpable meaning of many Scriptures. Thus we do well not to detach the doctrine of hell from other critical doctrines concerning the nature of man and the intermediate state.
All the authors recognize a multiplicity of opinion among Jewish and early Christian writers on the theme of hell. This diversity means it is not sincere to maintain to interpret Scripture against the milieu of any supposed standardized view of hell in Jesus day, nor to declare any view as proper because “tradition” stands behind it.
While the manifold perspectives arrangement of Four Views on Hell offers an opportune occasion for readers to become familiar with a range of perspectives, the book would have benefited significantly if the individual authors were given a chance to counter back to their critic’s responses.
Stay tuned for the conclusion, coming soon…
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Dan will speak in four sessions on various issues such as the emerging church, emerging worship, the future of worship in the church, etc.
I must say that Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church, absolutely changed my life. It set me on a course of deconstruction and reconstruction in my ecclesiology and Emerging Worship did the same for my worship philosophy. It is an unbelievable honor to have him come.
If you remember, last year Sally Morgenthaler and Shaun Groves were with us. It was a time of great challenge and encouragement.
My vision for Abandoned remains focused on the emerging worship conversation and educating, encouraging, and spurring on MBU Worship Arts students, as well as the local church worship community. The mission for the event is:
1) Simply put, Romans 12:1. We are ‘abandoned to worship as life’ because we have been commanded to offer our bodies of living sacrifices. Living - as in all of the time. That means our spiritual act of worship, or our spiritual lifestyle, never ceases. It’s not a something we clock in to do when we go to church and then clock out. Because of the cross the ‘temple’ of worship is now our own hearts. We don’t go to church, we are the church. And that means worship can and should happen everywhere, including the church.
2) ‘Worship as life’ eludes to the idea that as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, it impacts the people around us. This is the missional aspect of worship. In other words, as we personally worship God, we have a conversation, a connection, an intimate exchange of love between Father and child. After we’ve experienced this love in a time of worship, how could we not share the love we have been so freely given with others? Why wouldn’t we want those around us to experience what we have? If not, our worship has terminated on ourselves. We have to remember our salvation doesn’t end at the point we receive God’s free gift of grace. We have been saved to continue to redeem the world. So our worship should propel us outside the four walls of the church.
Soon, I will have an announcement regarding the artist[s] that will be here to close the day out on that Saturday evening. Be looking for more information regarding the seminar in the months ahead!
My favorite band that isn’t named U2 or Coldplay, The Stills, have released a new track - which may be from the forthcoming third studio album - called “Snake Charming the Masses.” The video associated with the song is the definition of minimalism. And in light of the discussion on hell, the conventialists will like the fire.
The second video below is a live version of “Snake Charming…” and the third is a live version of another new tune called “Eastern Europe” - the audio’s not the great but you’ll get the gist.
John Walvoord advocates the conventional view, which embraces that Hell is literally a place of smoke and fire, where nonbelievers undergo physical and emotional agony throughout eternity. Verse upon verse is utilized to establish that the vengeance of God is more than sheer physical death. Words such as “olam” and “neash,” generally translated “ever”, are in some contexts limited as to duration in time (e.g. Ex. 27:21), but says Walvoord, “such termination is never once mentioned in either the Old or New Testament as relating to the punishment of the wicked… there is no intimation that this punishment should not be taken literally and continue eternally.”
William Crockett asserts that the Biblical representation of hell as fire is metaphor, symbolizing separation from God. While Crockett concurs with Walvoord that hell is a place of everlasting cognizant chastisement, he advocates that New Testament portrayals of both heaven and hell are fundamentally figurative and not an exact depiction of the worlds to come. He contends that ancient teachers used hyperbole to underscore the overwhelming dreadfulness of the judgment of God.
Zachary Hayes gives the purgatorial view of customary Roman Catholicism: that eternal fate is set irreversibly at the instant of death; that the majority of people are not corrupt enough to be relegated to a perpetual hell, nor are they good enough for heaven; therefore, some sort of “purification” process needs to take place between death and access into heaven. Roman Catholic theology affixes to this theory the likelihood of being aided in the cleansing method by those alive on earth.
Finally, Clark Pinnock offers the conditionalist view, oftentimes known as annihilationism, in which nonbelievers are eradicated entirely out of existence or after some period of conscious punishment. He acknowledges that this controversial view is extremely rare amongst early Christians, but rightly claims that tradition is not infallible, and thus the arguments for eternal conscious punishment must be considered on their own rights. Pinnock claims the innocent acceptance of the concept of the immortality of the soul, which is placed behind the conventional understanding of hell, direct traditionalists to ignore the literal meaning of many Scriptures. Pinnock then provides a good account of those key Scriptures that shore up the conditionalist view.
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This comes from the blog of Rick McKinley, lead pastor of Imago Dei in Portland. It’s a little old, but I think it shows an amazing pastoral heart in regards to this new movement. I resonate with much of what he says. Check it…
It seems everywhere I go and speak these days people ask me the same question. It is, in some form or another, a version of this: Are you part of the emerging church? If they ask it another way it may be are you Emerging or Emergent? The letter “T” has become very important to them.
My common reply is; We seem to get put in the camp of Emerging, so I suppose we are.
Then the questions move to what the Emerging church believes about this or that. To which I reply the same things Baptists believe about it.
They scratch their head, think about what I have said and then ask, Which Baptist?
The majority of modern Christianity accepts the dogma of hell, but what exactly constitutes this place of torment has been debated throughout the history of the Church…
As a part of the Zondervan Counterpoints series, Four Views on Hell takes four authors - John Walvoord, William Crockett, Friar Zachary Hayes, and Clark Pinnock – and asks them to present their views and counterviews on hell. What follows is four, essentially evangelical, analyses on hell – the hellliteral, metaphorical, conditional, and purgatorialin doctrines – and the author’s interaction with each other on the issue. And though the authors display an admirable attempt to illustrate their observations, only one view exhibits a sound argument and sensible scrutiny when laid beside the others.
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I really need to get back in the swing of these…
1. For some reason I resonate with the guilty pleasure of this too.
2. The blogosphere has been abuzz by the announcement that CCM will no longer be a print mag. I thought the best reaction to this came from David Sessions of PatrolMag.com, but Charlie Peacock raised him by talking about the future of CCM. Wowsers. Makes me want to go back and read At the Crossroads again.
3. Alan Hirsch prophetically speaks life into what has become a church program in malaise: small groups.
4. Plant churches or make disciples? Challenging thoughts from Bob Roberts. Check Aaron Snow’s challenge in the comments section. Deep stuff.
5. Keller once again - albeit inadvertently - covers the balanced, middle ground via Christianity Today’s Colin Hansen in regards to Dever’s recent talk at T4G in the challenge of making the gospel ‘public’ rather than staying focused on its core message. Hansen rightly highlights that protecting the gospel can turn into neglecting the implications of the gospel… as though calling certain things “implications” makes those things optional. [HT: Kevin Larson]
May 7, 2008 
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