I agree that most people’s understanding of hell is very simple. The real problem, as I see it, is a lack of real understanding or study of what the Bible says about it. “The Bible talks about hell” seems sufficient to many for supporting any wild claim anyone wishes to make about the topic. What the Bible actually says about hell never comes into the equation.

My article was not meant to provide answers, though I may post one that does at some point. Rather, I wanted to point out the difficulty, and the fact that study is sorely needed upon this topic. Until we are willing to come to grips with the Biblical record regarding hell, as well as the various Hebrew and Greek words used for it, we cannot really say we have reached a Godly understanding upon the topic.

Finally, many are more interested in holding true to “tradition” or “orthodoxy” in regards to this topic than they are in finding out the truth as God laid it out for us in His Word. It is time we leave all such dependence upon accepted doctrine in order to subject our ideas to the light of God’s Word. It is my desire that this article will encourage people to do just that.

So much Christian talk (and action – including printing, spending, traveling, etc.) is motivated by what I fear to be a quite simplistic (and ‘mechanical’?) under-standing of what ‘hell’ might be…

Personally, I’m not the least bit interested in making the Christian message easier to hear or stomach, but I still think we have lots of thinking to do about the ‘hell’ thing…

Cheers,

-d-