Expert: Eric Christy - 4/13/2005

Question
Eric,

I'd like to commend you on your research. I'd truly be interested in viewing your conclusions to-date re: the doctrine of eternal hell (I also find that it is not Biblical. I can't find it upheld in Scripture).

Until your reply, I remain,

In Christ, always,

Carlos

Answer
Greetings Carlos,

Thank you for contacting me about this all-important doctrinal issue regarding heaven and hell.  For many years, I struggled with the doctrine of eternal hell (EH).  While the New testament (specifically from what Jesus taught) teaches that EH is the case for the unsaved, I never found a just rationale for it.  I never found solid moral backing for having hell be eternal.  So, while I admit the Bible teaches EH, it does not provide requisite moral foundation for such a hideous doctrine.  This fact led me to consider other possible alternatives.

I teach that the Bible teaches EH, (because it does) but then I go on to say that the Bible does not provide the moral foundation for EH which it does not.  So, I am honest with the Bible.  It teaches EH, but doesn't provide the expected moral backing so that we who claim to follow Christ can defend this hideous doctrine to non-believers.  Because of the lack of moral foundation for this most hideous of Bible doctrines, I began to question its legitimacy.  Who says everything in the Bible is God's Word?  Who?  What, are the errors His Word too?

Perhaps God let false doctrine enter the Bible for a reason.  That reason being to require humans to determine what is sound doctrine, ie what constitutes God's Word, and what is not.  This of course sounds like heresy, and I know that.  I am not trying to be heretical, but honest.  Honest toward whatever the truth is about God.  Whatever the truth is, is what I want, and I don't care what it ends up being.  I am not convinced everything in the Bible is the truth.  There are real errors, here and there, and I can prove that.  I do, however, believe that most of the Bible is God's Word...minus the errors.

Since there are errors in what we consider to be God's Word (the Bible), we must ask ourselves why God allowed them.  If we assume God wanted an error-free text, then He is unable to keep out errors and we must re-evaluate our notion of His omniscience and omnipotence accordingly.  On the other hand, if He was full aware that leaving it to man to produce copy after copy after copy, etc, would guarantee errors here and there, then we didn't disappoint Him.  We came through!

It is my position that God allowed the errors for good reason.  That being so we could haggle over what is true about God and thereby engage our minds in the process of what it means to be spiritual and holy.  The only other alternative would be that God wanted to keep the Bible inerrant, but just couldn't pull it off.  That is a position I choose not to take, though of course is possible.

Back to hell: If the Bible bothered to justify it morally, I would justify it too.  But since neither man, nor God, can justify it, why should I?  What therefore God cannot (or will not) do, neither shall I.  EH is taught (especially via Jesus and Paul) but it is not morally justified as being the right moral choice on God's part.  That lack of justification for the doctrine Jesus and Paul taught on EH is a real surprise, seeing that it is the power behind the gospel message.  If there were no threat of EH, then there would also be no need for a savior.  The doctrine of EH, therefore, needs moral justification as being the correct thing for God to have done to deal with the unsaved souls.  But that justification is lacking.  That lack gives the critics the ability to justly challenge that central doctrine on the grounds it is not properly justified and hence is suspect to being man's word, not God's.  I cannot argue against them on this matter.  If God bothered to justify EH, then I too would justify it and teach it as God's means of dealing with the lost.  But since it is not justified, I do not justify it either.  I do teach that the Bible teaches EH (which it does) but I then go on to teach that it is not justified in scripture and leave it to the student to make up their own mind on the matter.

Hope to hear your thoughts, Carlos.

Sincerely,

Eric