I can't think of anything better you could do than to listen to all of the free sermons by Tim Keller that Redeemer Presbyterian Church has put up.
Hell: Isn't the God of Christianity an angry Judge?
Stream or download the mp3.
Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others . . . but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God 'sending us' to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.- CS Lewis, The Great Divorce, ch 9
'Hell is just a freely-chosen identity based on something else beside God going on forever.'
'There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God 'Thy will be done' and those to whom God says in the end 'thy will be done'.'
His discussion of Miroslav Wolf is amazing and typical Keller: he performs judo on the typically liberal mindset of peace without justice. There is no basis for non-violence unless you believe that God will ultimately be just. If you've seen your family raped and killed (eg, the Balkans), you want justice and not liberal non-violent blather from the comfort of their suburban existence.
Fear of hell won't keep us out of it.
Naked miracles won't convince us. Sometimes we think a miracle would convince us to believe in God. Wrong. The Bible is full of miracles, OT and NT, followed by people who did not believe and love and obey. In some ways, Jesus had to come because miracles do not work. Only love will draw us to God from ourselves and an eternity of Hell.
Jesus talks about Hell more than anyone else in the Bible. Why? Because He took it. 'He descended into Hell.'
2 comments:
I will check this out. You always recommend spiritual material with depth and honesty.
Speaking of depth and honesty, have you read "The Call to Joy and Pain", by Ajith Fernando?
It is an excellent discussion of suffering and Christianity....the best devotional book I've read all year.
let me know what you think.
i'll look up the Fernando book...
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