Do I believe in hell?
Dear Friends,
Do I want to believe in hell? No, of course not. But can I believe in hell? Now, that’s a different question.
In preparing for our Toolbox sessions on ‘What happens when I die?’ I have been enormously helped by Francis Chan’s little book Erasing Hell. He points out that there are many things in the Bible, and not just hell, where we find ourselves thinking, “If I was God, I wouldn’t have done it like that.” But when we think like that, we should remember that the same applies to the cross. Which of us would even have thought of, let alone put into action, doing what God himself actually did: sending his Son to suffer the rejection of sinful human beings and, terrifyingly, the holy wrath of his own eternal Father? Truly, we have to say we wouldn’t have done it like that. But, thank God, God did. So, thank God, God is God – and not any of us.
“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Psalm 115:3, NIV). God does what he pleases and, by definition, what he does is right and good – and it is for our good if we believe that. We may not understand what he does, and we may not always like it, but it will only lead us to despair if we start to doubt that God is good, and that God is God. There are some things, many things, where we just have to let God be God and not try to tell him how to run his universe better – and hell is one of those things.
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.