Heaven and hell are controversial topics that most avoid talking about in polite company. We’re all a bit like Snoopy, my favorite cartoon character, who fancies himself a writer but is never able to get past the “stormy night” opening to the great novel he plans to author. His words serve as a good introduction to the tale of a man in a storm who stood waving his arms in the middle of a highway, warning motorists that a bridge was out ahead. If they did not turn around they were doomed. A few turned around. Most swerved to avoid the fool in the road and kept going. Some blared their horns. Some waved a not very polite salute in return. All who ignored the warning on that dark and stormy night met a predictable end as they drove off the bridge and fell into the canyon below.
Silly as it may seem, if this was real life a lot of people would blame God for the deaths. Some would blame the man in the road. If you’re a Christian who believes the Bible – all of it – you know how it feels to be that man (or woman). To believe in both heaven and hell as real places and dare to share that belief with others often attracts condemnation for arrogance or insensitivity or narrow-mindedness. Although telling the truth is not in itself a hateful act, our tolerant, inclusive, non-judgmental PC world is simply not okay with voicing opinions or beliefs that express objective standards of right and wrong, good and bad, punishment and reward.
Conservative commentator Evan Sayet observes that in a leftist world those who are intolerant of “wrong” will not be tolerated (including God?). In this paradigm, rational and moral thought is bigotry. But a complex world demands rational thought leading to decisive action that is essential for survival, and the essence of the rational thought process of adults is to discriminate, to consciously choose the better of available options. The alternative to rationality and objectivity is to adopt the mentality of a five-year-old. The Apostle Paul offers good advice on that score: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
Refusing to consider the possibility of hell is childish. It does not take much rational, adult thought to establish that the possibility is real. If there is a Creator God (another possibility open to rational debate), then those who reject His presence and control in their lives can expect to spend eternity in a place where God is not. By their choice they would find themselves in a place where all the wonderful, positive attributes of God are missing – no love, no light, no goodness or kindness or joy or gentleness or patience or self-control, leaving only the things that exist apart from God – eternal pain and hate and anger and sorrow and unsatisfied lust and mortifying regret.
That sounds like hell to me. Who would want that? The answer is, those who don’t want the existence of a righteous Creator God to be true. They choose instead to believe that all life comes from non-life; that our earliest ancestor was a rock floating in space, because the possibility of a Creator brings with it a recognition that we humans are not in charge and surrender to God is the only sensible option—a dilemma that means giving up self-directed wills and self-chosen paths. Such an alternative is simply not acceptable!
Some deniers who cannot swallow the notion of a rock as great grandfather find a neat way around the surrender obstacle by practicing religion with all its external rites, rituals, regulations and feel-good activities, as a sort of insurance policy against hell. However, the focus remains on self, where the ego feels it belongs, and that attitude never fools God.
Another possibility is the simplest – a Creator who wants a relationship with us, not by our efforts but by His love and power, superintending the smallest details of our existence and leading us in His paths of righteousness. We are required only to turn from our own ways, admit our gross shortcomings and inability to do anything more to earn God’s favor, and accept with gratitude the undeserved gift of His glorious eternal life.