Other Matters…

I think it’s important within this discussion to consider the nature of both sheol and hades (and thirdly, the lake of fire) including respective inhabitants. Furthermore, “hell” should be investigated as a destiny specifically for those who reject the presented testimony of Jesus as the Messiah or all those who do not accept Jesus as the Missiah, including those who have not heard the testimony, or of some other criteria.

I think Thomas Oden breaks down intermediate states (here we’re relating to sheol)rather succinctly throughout in his “Classic Christianity,” though all of Part V is a helpful read. Thus I point here for a very introductory starting place.

Concerning the nature of “hell,” Zondervan (surprisingly, I know) publishes a good discussion on matter. Specifically, William Crocket gives an excellent perspective on the metaphorical view, as does Clark Pinnock on the annihilationist view as well as providing an exemplary background to the hellenistic influence on Western Christianity, specifically in how such influence misinforms us in regards to the inherent immortality of the soul (or in fact, lack thereof). Besides these two, Zachery Hayes also adds to the discussion by providing an insightful philosphical case for the RCC’s view of Purgatory, and John Walvoord unsurprisingly mails in an embarrassing grouping of words that fills some pages yet is absent of any intellectual or serious thought. *Just my thoughts.

Discussing inhabitants gets tricky. Keller quotes Lewis, himself an inclusivist, a position quite reasonable to argue within the Biblical text and shared by many great Christian thinkers and expositors. Then we run into interpretive issues such particulars of Rev. 21-22 and wonder if things might be a little more complex than Randy Alcorn or Thomas Constable would leave us to believe. Circling back to Mike’s argument (purposeful or not) on a redemptive fire, we find resonance with many universalist thinkers besides Mr. Netzer and find ourselves considering Biblical imagery of fire and purification (to be clear and rather obvious, inclusivism and universalism are not the same as pluralism, which is itself historically not a distinctively Christian position).

Regardless, we must all understand that these issues are (as is eschatology in general) difficult if not impossible to understand fully.

As for non-violence, I’m just going to merely point those interested to the standard Christian writing on this topic: Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You.” Read it.

I liked your 2nd question. It’ll be challenging to keep discussion on point after that one. Here’s a more difficult question: when do you go to war? Is legalizing abortion a reason for war? If there were Jewish death camps in your town would you just pray? or would you take up arms to stop it? Very very difficult question. In America we fought a war over slavery, in Britian, William Wilberforce fought against it in parliament for decades; with the same conclusion.

These are difficult questions. I’ll side with Keller who encourages us to dive into these difficult questions and doubts, so that we will have an answer for the skeptic both inside and outside of ourselves. (page xvii in the introduction, I think.)