"A belief does not merit unconditional reverence just because it is old or because its proponents claim a divine authority for it that they cannot prove; neither should it be immune to being challenged in terms commensurate to the scandal it poses. and the belief that a God of infinite intellect, justice, love, and power would condemn rational beings to a state of endless suffering, or would allow them to condemn themselves on account of their own delusion, pain, and anger, is probably worse than merely scandalous." -David Bentley Hart, from That All Shall Be Saved.
What would you say if I told you Hell was a lie? I’m not talking about some new-age theory that burns the Bible and moves on without it, but rather that from a historic understanding and a holistic interpretation based on good hermeneutics, the idea of eternal conscious torment (ECT, aka Eternal Damnation) is an objective falsehood. Now, if anyone personally doesn’t believe in the authority and authenticity of Scripture as I do (please don’t read that as “inerrant”), then that’s fine. All those who claim Christ is Lord are my co-inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven—for if they are not against us, then they are with us, (Mark 9:40).
If you are of another belief—be it another religion, atheism, or anything else—I welcome you and hope that you will add your own unique perspective to the conversation, because I think that’s how we grow as people and as a society. For those of us who do argue from a Scriptural standpoint, we must address some common falsehoods that have been propagated within the Church (mostly the Protestant, since the Catholic actually allows for hopeful universalism).
The Falsehoods:
Jesus said some would go to “eternal punishment,” (Matt 25:46).
The words in the Greek are “aiōnion kolasin,” and aiōnion (base form: aiōnios) does not mean “eternal.” It is the adjective form of aion, which means “an age” and therefore means something like, “age-like; age-enduring; of or pertaining to a long, unknown period of time.” It is even translated as “ages past” in Romans 16:25. Just as aion is incorrectly translated as “forever” in Luke 1:33. Likewise, this verse is actually quoting Daniel 12:2, which is typically translated as “everlasting,” because it uses the Hebrew word olam, which also does not mean temporally eternal.
Jesus said people would go to “Hell.”
The word “Hell” is not in the Bible. Words like Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna have had the more modern term “Hell” forced on them. The idea of Gehenna as an afterlife of punishment came from the Pharisee, was similar to purgatory, and lasted one year. The word actually refers to the Hebrew Ben-Hinnom, a valley that is significant in Jeremiah chapters 19 & 32, where God details the punishment of iniquity, which is earthly destruction and captivity by Babylon. Jesus did the same by referring to the term while speaking of the coming destruction by Rome, which took place in 70AD.
Christians have always believed in ECT.
Except for quoting Jesus’ teachings in three of the four gospels—which include no further explanation whatsoever, with John not mentioning it at all—none of the apostles of Christ or the early Church, or even the Didache mention the idea. Neither Peter nor Paul mention it while detailing the gospel exactly in the book of Acts, nor does the Nicene Creed, established much later.
On the contrary, Apostolic Fathers such as Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and especially Gregory of Nyssa all explicitly taught ultimate reconciliation, or apokatastasis in the Greek. Tertullian of Carthage was the only one in the early Church to explicitly teach the idea of ECT and he was, to be blunt, a complete psychopath.
Similarly, Origen was not denounced until the violent warlord Emperor Justinian demanded a council do so, after imprisoning several priests who refused to follow his orders. Augustine was a student of Tertullian, but admitted that he didn’t well understand the Greek and derided the “orthodox” teaching of the rest of the Church as “mercy-hearted.” It is no wonder that a man like Justinian took the words of someone who used “mercy-hearted” as an insult, rather than the prevailing idea of the unfailing Love, mercy and grace leading all to repentance and purification.
In this series, we will be discussing all of these points and more at length, looking at exactly what Scripture really says and what it doesn’t say. We will look at the history of Christian universalism within the Church and the very obvious gatekeeping that has prevented the conversation and swept these issues under the rug time and again; the truth does not fear the light. We will explore the victorious gospel that coexists in harmony with all of Scripture, rather than add or remove from it in order to fit a preconceived bias.
I hope that you will join me with a critical mind and an open heart, because I know that the God I worship is a God who grants wisdom to those who ask with a humble heart. I know that he is with us, he is for us, and he will carry out his perfect will, which is complete redemption of all humankind. Because I know that our perfect Father is Love and that love never fails.