Paradox of Love in Justice - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1
Slide2

Paradox of Love in JusticeSlide3

A Familiar Question

How could a loving God send people to hell?

This raises a pair of constraining questions:

How loving is God?

What is hell like? Slide4

How loving is God?

A small sampling:

John 3:16–– “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life

.”

Luke

15:20b––But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and

embraced

him and kissed him.

Romans 8:32––He

who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things

?Slide5

What is hell like?

Daniel 12:2––Many

of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting

contempt

.

Isaiah 66:24––“Then they will go forth and

look

on

the corpses of the

men who

have

trans-

gressed

against Me

. For

their worm will not

die and

their fire will not be quenched

; and

they will be an abhorrence to all

mankind.”

2

Thess

1:9––These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His powerSlide6

What is hell like (to Jesus)?

Eternal fire (Matt 18:8)

Weeping,

gnashing

of teeth (Matt 13:42)

Eternal punishment (Matt 25:46)

Worm does not die, fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48; cf. Isaiah 66:24)

Jesus’ word for ‘hell’ (

g

ehennah

—11 times!) is extremely evocative:

This originally denoted a valley lying to the south of Jerusalem

… the valley of the son of Hinnom...

C

hild sacrifices were offered in this valley...Josiah had it desecrated. (2 Kings 23:10) According to Jer. 7:32; 19:6f, it will be the place of God’s judgment.

(H.

Bietenhard

, NIDNTT)Slide7

Returning to the Question

How could a loving God send people to hell?

How loving is God?

Answer: Generous, fatherly;

indeed

, God

is

love (I

Jn

4:8).

What is hell like?

Answer: Terrible––Scripture's portrait is vivid and disturbing.

Indeed

!

How could he?Slide8

Putting Culture in Check

In the hard work of interpretation, we must strive in the following ways:

To account for

their

cultural context

To account for

our

cultural context

In an effort to water down Scripture, liberal scholars attempt to place the burden on (1).

Bultmann

writes:

“It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries and at the same to believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles.”

(

New Testament & Mythology, 5)

Elsewhere, he writes:

“These mythological conceptions of heaven and hell are no longer acceptable for modern men

since for scientific

thinking to speak of ‘above’ and ‘below’ in the universe has lost all meaning

…”

(Jesus Christ &

Mythology, 20)Slide9

Putting Culture in Check

Gehenna

, the Valley of

Hinnom

, was an actual valley on the south and west side of the city of Jerusalem.

Gehenna

, in Jesus’ day, was the city dump.

People tossed their waste into this valley. There was a fire there, burning constantly to consume the trash. Wild animals fought over scraps of food along the edges of the heap. When they fought their teeth would make a gnashing sound.

Gehenna

was the place of gnashing of teeth, where the fire never went out

…

So the next time someone asks you if you believe in an actual hell, you can always say, “Yes, I do believe that my garbage goes somewhere.”

And that’s it

...

Those are all the mentions of “hell” in the Bible. (

Love Wins,

68)

Consider these:

Matt 25:41––“the

eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his

angels”

Matt 25:46––These

will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life

.Slide10

Putting Culture in Check

Before pressing deeper into the actual theology, I want to propose that we follow (2): to account for

our

cultural context.

The key(s) to unlocking the paradox:

Our culture has completely given up on the concept of

sin

.

Our culture has an clumsy concept of

justice.

Slide11

Sin, a Check on Culture

Psychiatrist, Karl Menninger writes:

“The very word ‘sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and life style. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared––the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin anymore? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin?

…” (Menninger, 14)Slide12

Sin, a Check on Culture

“Much behavior that would be classed

a priori

as sinful had long since passed into the control of law. What was considered and so treated was understandably sinful. And now, increasingly, some

crime

was being view as

symptomatic.

Sins had become crimes and now crimes were becoming illnesses; in other words whereas the police and judges had taken over from the clergy, the doctors and psychologists were now taking over from the police and judges.”

(Menninger,

45)

To summarize:

We understand and can operationalize concepts like crime (violation of national legal code) and illness (measurable deviation from statistical mean).

Sin––heart-level, willful rebellion

for which we’re

responsible

––is gone.Slide13

Justice, a Check on Culture

Relatedly, our notion of

justice

has shifted from,

Punitive justice

legal failures must be answered with parallel consequences (Cf. balance)

to,

Restorative justice

criminals are fundamentally good (or perhaps morally neutral); they must be educated, reformed and returned to society.

Most of us still hold

punitive justice

in our bosom, especially when it involves us or someone we love.Slide14

Hell, Sin and Justice

How do

sin

and

punitive justice

help with our paradox?

For starters, the scriptural portrait of hell starts to come into focus

Sin

If we’re not merely victims of our own psychology

nor

violators of a social contract, then we must give an account of our actions to

God

Justice

Rejection of God (original sin) results in God rejecting us (Cf. Romans 1:18-23)

What about love? Slide15

What about love?

Love is not at odds with justice but motivates it. (Cf. Fighting children)

Our anxiety only emerges when

we realize that

all of us

have done wrong.

Rather

than

contradicting

God’s love, His justice puts His love is sharp

relief:

I Peter 1:18,19 “

…

you

were not

redeemed

with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,

the blood of Christ

. Slide16

Remaining Puzzles

Shouldn’t we account

some

for the culture of the text? Sure, our culture doesn’t like hell, but shouldn’t

something

to be said against ancient & primitive

hyperviolence

?

Scripture uses images and metaphors for a lot of things (e.g. body of Christ.) Fire, worms are most likely meant to

provide visceral imagery.

God is not pro-violence (Cf. I

Chron

28:3, Genesis 33 & 49:5-7; Ezekiel 18:32)

Justice

is in the very marrow of

scripture:

The Curses of Adam

The Law, esp. the sacrificial

system

The Cross!Slide17

Remaining Puzzles

I’m pretty weirded out by glib “fire and brimstone” preaching. It’s both self-righteous and ineffective.

I couldn’t agree more! None of this is to argue that we need to

scare

people into heaven.

Sinners

in the Hands of an Angry

God

:

Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-42)

: :

Evangelism in 21

st

C America

:

Paul’s Sermon at Mars Hill (Acts 17:22ff).Slide18

Some

Practicals

How should we respond to this practically?

Gratitude

Once sin and justice are given proper place, Christ’s sacrifice is that much more precious

Witness

We should share our master’s heart for those who still haven’t come home

Apologetics

Expect to meet people asking the “familiar question”

False teachers can quickly pull the wool over unsuspecting Christians’ eyes (cf. Bell’s “word study”)Slide19

Further Reading