Edgework

16e. Heaven/Eternal Bliss: The fifth line of the six-line Greco-Roman narrative we are in the process of deconstructing has all those who believe that by suffering on the cross Jesus placated the wrath of God on their behalf, going to heaven after death. While some believe that their physical bodies are resurrected as spiritual bodies fit for heaven at the moment of death, most hold that while their bodies remain behind, the souls of deceased believers wing their way to their eternal home in heaven there to be forever with their Lord.

This is where platonic notions begin producing folkloric notions of spiritual existence much superior to life connected with human bodies. How wonderful it will be to leave materiality behind! Quiet music forms the backdrop to the many family reunions continually taking place “in the spirit.” And the souls of departed loved ones keep an eye out for beloved former earthlings crossing the Jordon to join them in their spiritual home. Beyond family gatherings, most of their time is taken up in a perpetual worship service praising God for bringing them here instead of letting them languish in hell.

Ironically, such “spiritual” existence does not diminish visions of heaven’s street being paved with gold nor of individual mansions of unimaginable opulence in which the blessed will reside. For true believers death is not real; just an opening door into eternal bliss where they will keep the coffee hot while they wait for loved ones to join them.

The Bible gives no license for such a sellout to platonic imagination. Jesus did promise the thief on the cross that after his death he would meet him in paradise. Paul was sure this would happen to him as well. Beyond that we enter the realm of mystery. At best, life immediately after death is a disembodied existence in which we are at rest and present with the Lord in an interim state while we await the resurrection.

In his book, Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright offers some helpful insight. He declares that the ultimate biblical hope of early Christians was to keep body and soul together; hence, the new heaven and the new earth inaugurated at the end of time is not a far-off spiritual place. In fact, the parousia is not about being whisked away but about Christ appearing to dwell with us who now have resurrected bodies. Our ultimate state will be to live with Christ in a world in which our life-long prayer, “They Kingdom come, they will be done; on earth as it is in heaven” will finally have been answered. The two verses used to promote a “rapture” theology (I Thessalonians 4:16-17) should be read as a non-literal expression of the many other biblical passages that speak of Christ reappearing to bring to fruition the cosmic redemption promised throughout scripture.

All this means that we have to leave a lot of what precisely happens after death to mystery, not to the kind of certainty many Christians demand.

16f. Hell/Eternal Damnation: Perhaps the most troubling line of the six-line narrative we are questioning is the last one in which all the ungodly spend eternity in conscious, eternal torment in hell. From a platonic perspective, this ultimate reality for 95 percent of the people who ever lived, such damnation makes perfect sense.

The perfect God, Theos, would prefer to destroy the reprobate but is unable to do so because these souls are incurably immortal. Brain McLaren picks up the story in, A New Kind Of Christianity:

Theos has no choice, really; this tainted universe and all it contains must be destroyed, which will leave the eternal essences of the unredeemed all undressed with no place to go. So they are banished to hell – the Greek Hades, intensified and decorated with plenty of borrowings from its Zoroastrian counterpart and seasoned liberally with imagery misappropriated from Jesus’s parables and sermons. And what is hell? It must be a state, since no story can ever exist in a universe purged of change and becoming. That’s why nobody can ever repent and leave it (44).

As I have often said, this version of ultimate reality terrorized me as a youngster and it continues to be the biggest impediment for thoughtful and sensitive people to embrace the Christian faith. Of course I cannot do justice to this topic here. But I recommend Brad Jersak’s book, Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem as the most thoroughly academic and yet accessible book on the subject I have come across.

I never cease to be amazed that for many sincere Christians, hell is the cornerstone of their faith. That is what salvation is all about; providing a way to escape this horrible destination where most people are headed. For them, the gospel declaration is three-fold: Everyone deserves to go to hell. There is a way of escape if you jump through the right hoops. However most people won’t do so and therefore will suffer consciously for all eternity.

I am aware that if you start with a platonic worldview, there are certain biblical passages that can be made to support such a perspective. But to do so is to leave off many passages that speak of a much broader and more holistic salvation; for example, “…We have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe” (I Timothy 4:10).

I realize that the hope of cosmic redemption needs further reflection such as I did in a series of essays a few years back. But I am not alone. There are an increasing number of Christian thinkers and writers who are moving away from the notion of conscious, eternal torment in hell. That is the way of the future and the only way to finally bury the six-line Greco-Roman narrative that has distorted our vision of a beautiful gospel for too long.