This is not perfectly well thought out, and I know that the logic is at least a little flawed at the end. But it's my stream-of-consciousness attempt to deal with the theology of eternal damnation that I have grown up to believe was orthodox Christianity. Help me out here, friends!
I think I'm a heretic! I don't believe in hell anymore-- at least not the protestant interpretation. Either Calvinist or Arminian-- both make no sense.
Calvinist--
You were totally depraved from birth.
Hence, you had no choice but to sin.
Yet God is going to damn you for that very sin which you had no choice but to do.
??
My conclusion: This is not justice.
But a real Calvinist does not believe you are being punished for sin; they believe you are being punished for not being chosen. You had no control over this.
My conclusion: Being punished for mere existance is so abhorrent to me that I think I would kill myself before believing this. Particularly since we have no choice over our existance.
Plus, this would be a contradiction, since we know that life is inherently good. Everyone believes this, even people who are suicidal-- and it all stems from God. God is the author of life, the one who breathed life into Adam. Yes, life on Earth is fallen, but to say that life on Earth is more fallen than it is good is to forget that the goodness came before and is more powerful than the evil.
Arminian--
You always had a choice to do what was right, but in certain moments of your life, you chose what was wrong. Therefore, you will be eternally damned for the comparatively small number of choices made in finite time.
My conclusion: Even if you murdered every person in the world by hand with a pick-axe, finite sin does not match with infinite punishment.
With Calvinism, in order to hold up justice, either one must conclude that man is not totally powerless in his salvation, thus going against the very core of Calvinism, or one must conclude that God does not punish the unrighteous since it is not their fault, thus going against scripture.
With Arminianism, one must conclude that bad choices have infinite consequences in the eternal spiritual realm and thus merit infinite punishment, or one must conclude that hell is finite and limited.
Thinking too much... But I refuse to believe in the unfair and unloving God of Protestantism. There must be another way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Well of course you're a heretic! ;)
You should read the Brian McLaren book "The Last Word: and the word after that" when he explores the concept of hell across cultures, times, and denominations.
You should also read the latest NT Wright book "Surprised by Hope" (there's a great chapter about Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell). In a nutshell he's not a universalist (i.e. everyone is "saved") but he's also loathe to define hell in black and white/eternal conscious torment terms.
Post a Comment