Posted by
Michael Scotto on Thursday, July 31, 2008 12:58:11 PM
“I perceive thou
art a superstitious people.”
With that, the Apostle Paul described us gentiles. We are
indeed a “superstitious” (or “religious”) people. Many gentiles in that age carried
their religious superstitions into the Christian faith. Paul refers to these
gentiles as “weaker brethren.” Paul’s description is still apropos in the hour
in which we live. Men are still frightfully superstitious. And much of that superstition
permeates Christianity.
From Christmas to “the sanctuary” to “sacred songs” to
“robes” to “blessing of the animals” to “holy water” and onto myriads of other
traditions (some more egregious than others), superstition is all around us. I
cannot, in this space, launch into a full treatise on “hell,” but I would like to make
two quick points.
What the Hell is
Hell?
First, very few Christians have ever actually studied the
doctrine; they simply take the views they held as children or as non-Christians
and fold them into their Christian belief systems. In other words, they take
their superstitious traditions and carry them into the faith. How many other
doctrines are treated thusly? Ask a child, a non-Christian and an average
church member about “hell” and you’re likely to get very similar answers (the
same can be said of the “afterlife” but that is another matter for another
time).
Secondly, and more puzzling, is the odd set of
contradictory doctrines often taught about “hell” by preachers. And I am
talking about individuals contradicting themselves. One day you may hear that
“the powers of hell” are doing this or that. We are often referred to the verse
concerning “the gates of hell” not prevailing. Another day, from the same
pulpit, you will hear that “hell” was “created for the devil and his angels” as
a place of eventual punishment. Not a headquarters, but a prison.
Well, all those things have their place. The problem is
not with the verses (they all make sense in context) it is in approaching the
verses with a presupposition. When we take our “superstitions” to the Bible, it
makes it very difficult to see what is being taught.
Death is not Good
That might sound obvious, but too often death is
celebrated in Christianity. We hear talk of the deceased “walking with his Savior” or “he’s
partying in heaven.” But this robs from the glory of Christ’s resurrection.
Death is an enemy. It is the very thing Christ came to conquer. Paul’s
glorification of His and our resurrections ends with the statement “Death where
is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory?” The “gates of hell” cannot hold in
one who has professed faith in Christ!
We should never celebrate death. The Lord did not
celebrate Lazarus’ death. He made no statements about him being in glory or
about him in bliss. He wept. And when the Lord spoke with Lazarus’ sister,
Martha, he affirmed her faith: she would see him “in the resurrection.”
No talk of any other state. Men are mortal and only in resurrection do we “put
on immortality.” We groan in this flesh desiring a new house; a celestial body for a terrestrial body.
Looking Towards
Redemption
In Job’s time of crisis, he did not look forward to
seeing his Redeemer anytime before his resurrection. “Thou the worms devour me,
I know that in my flesh I’ll see my Redeemer on the day he stands on the
earth.” David cries that though he makes
his bed “in hell” God is still there with him. If the traditions of “hell” are
true, of what comfort would that be?
Again, not enough space… but the only comfort in death
(the grave) is resurrection. Christ came because men were under the curse of
death through sin. He spent three days in three days in the grave. He then
conquered the grave. In Him is found the antidote to death!
If men find glory before the resurrection and if
redemption is not the undoing of the curse of death and if immortality is known
before the immortal body is given, then the resurrection is reduced to an
afterthought, a postscript, an epilogue. Let’s glorify Christ in His
resurrection for in it he won our resurrection, our “undoing of death.” After
all, death is “the last enemy.”
I don’t refuse to fellowship with Christian who believe
in “bodiless souls” or in a place of torment called “hell,” but I will encourage
them look beyond tradition.