This blog will be moving to a new location on April 30th, 2011. My new site will be www.simplegodstuff.com. Hope to see you there.

Rob Bell, considered by the media to be the hippest evangelical pastor in the United States, has just set the blog-o-sphere on fire with his newest book “Love Wins.” I have not read the book, but I have read the lengthy review of it by “Christianity Today” and seen Bell defend it in a video interview on Townhall.com.

“Christianity Today” article: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/april/lovewins.html
Townhall video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-qgmJ7nzA

Bell seems to be hinting at (emerging church gurus only “hint” at things) universalism, the possibility of conversion after death, and annihilation for the damned after a period of punishment. Obviously, universalism is not compatible with annihilation since—if all people are ultimately going to be saved—God would not annihilate some people after they suffered in hell for a time. But, emerging church people like Bell claim to merely raise questions for the purpose of dialogue. Therefore, they can be “all over the board” with their ramblings. I find this disingenuous and craven, but that is a subject for another post.

I do not plan to do a lengthy defense of eternal damnation in the post. I am sure I will have that opportunity in the thread. Here I will offer a few scriptures and then state why the doctrine of eternal damnation is important.

“Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Rev 19:3 and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” 3 Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!”
Rev 20: 10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Mark 9: 43-44 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 44 where ‘ Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’ (This teaching is repeated three times by Jesus in Mark 9)
John 3: 36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Hebrews 2:1-3 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,”

One of the objections against eternal punishment is that it doesn’t seem to fit the crime. In other words, our sins are limited and temporal so why should we suffer for them eternally? This is a modernist argument that is based on subjectivism. The justice of punishment (or reward) is only seen in terms of “my” limited and subjective experience and not the object of our sin—which is God. Sin (the violation of God’s eternal law) is against the Person of an infinite, just and good God. David wrote: Psalm 51:4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight. Our sin carries with it infinite demerit and, therefore, needs the infinite merit of Christ to atone-for. Additionally, while sin is temporal (in time and limited), its guilt continues on forever until it is atoned-for. Again, this is because our sin is against an infinite eternal God.

Additionally, if God annihilates sinners (extinction) after a period of punishment in hell, then He must justly annihilate the righteous after a period of blessedness in heaven. This is because both the righteous and unrighteous have offended and sinned against an infinite God; however, the righteous have received the grace of God made possible through the infinite merits of Christ’s death while the unrighteous have rejected that grace. Therefore, justice (giving to each man his due) is perfect when God gives the reward of eternal life to the righteous and eternal punishment to the unrighteous.

Regarding universalism and repentance after death; they both threaten God’s moral order in this life. If, for instance, I can be saved after my death, why not “eat, drink and be merry” now and worry about salvation in the next life. It seems, though, that Jesus’ warnings about hell were given to combat such a mentality.

Mark 9: 43-44 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— 44 where ‘ Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’

“Really great things, when discussed by little men, can usually make such men grow big.” (Augustine, Contra Academicus I.ii.6)

Fred Sanders has written an excellent blog-post titled “Why Protestants Should Read Thomas Aquinas.” It can be found here:

http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2009/05/16/why-protestants-should-read-thomas-aquinas-4-big-thoughts/

One of the reasons that Sanders gives for Protestants to read Aquinas is that he wrestles with the really big thoughts of being and existence. For instance, Aquinas wrote articles on how God’s transcendence and immanence relate. Here is a succinct statement on the topic from Aquinas:

“God is above all things by the excellence of His nature; nevertheless, He is in all things as the cause of the being of all things;” (ST, I, Q. 8, A.1)

Aquinas, of course raises objections to his own insight. An intriguing objection is in regard to the demons. How can God be in the demons? Here is the objection:

“Objection 4. Further, the demons are beings. But God is not in the demons; for there is no fellowship between light and darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14). Therefore God is not in all things.”

Well, this seems like a powerful objection since it draws heavily upon a scriptural statement by St. Paul. If, as it seems from Scripture, that God is not in the demons, then He is not in all things. Therefore, He is not omnipresent. This, indeed, seems like a problem. Here is Aquinas’ answer to his own objection.

“Reply to Objection 4. In the demons there is their nature which is from God, and also the deformity of sin which is not from Him; therefore, it is not to be absolutely conceded that God is in the demons, except with the addition, "inasmuch as they are beings." But in things not deformed in their nature, we must say absolutely that God is.”

Aquinas solves the dilemma by noting that God is the Creator and sustainer of all nature including the natures given to the fallen angels. As far as their angelic natures, the demons are created and sustained by God. He is in their nature as One who causes being. However, God is not in the “deformity of sin” of the demons. The deformity of sin in the demons is from themselves. Consequently, when we speak of the demons we should properly say that God is in them “inasmuch as they are beings.”

Thomas Aquinas wrestled with big thoughts and as Augustine noted, we grow bigger when we think through these things with the intellectual giants.

Augustine has a fun section in “The Enchiridion.” He is pondering how to respond to the thinking of those who are radical skeptics and doubt that any kind of knowledge can be certain. First he says this.

“But I do not know whether we should speak with those who not only do not know that they will live eternally, but to do not know that they are alive now: indeed, they claim not to know what they cannot but know.”

So, Augustine wonders if it is worthwhile to share the gospel with people who doubt the knowledge of their own existence. These are the “Matrix” people who befuddle themselves and others by suggesting that we all might just be living a computer-generated reality. To this, Augustine responds that their claim of ignorance is hollow because they “cannot but know” that they truly exist.

Next, Augustine adds the following.

“Nor can anybody be ignorant that he is alive, since if he is not alive he is unable even to be ignorant of anything, since not only knowledge, but also ignorance, belongs to the living.”

Simply put, Augustine says that even ignorance belongs to those who are alive. If you are dead or non-existent, you neither know nor are you ignorant of anything. You have to exist to be ignorant. So, if you claim you don’t know if you are alive, that is proof you are alive. Non-existent things can’t be ignorant (or knowledgeable). In short, the claim of the radical skeptic is self-defeating. But, Augustine has more fun things to say.

“Clearly, by not acknowledging that they are alive they seem to be taking care to avoid error, but their error itself proves that they are alive, since nobody who is not alive can err. So, just as it is not only true but certain that we are alive, so many other things are true and certain, and to deny this is properly known, not as wisdom, but as insanity.”

Augustine shows that the radical skeptic, far from being wise, is actually insane. The skeptic may claim that his skepticism about existence is justified because we cannot be “sure” about things. Therefore, the skeptic avoids the error of affirming something one cannot know. But, Augustine shows that even when we err it is a proof that we exist because non-existent things cannot err. Ergo, the skeptic must be alive (exist) because he doesn’t want to err. Augustine concludes that all we can say is that the skeptic is crazy.

CBN reported on December 21st that David Campbell who co-authored “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” conducted two of the largest polls of religious believers to find out why Americans seem to be “remarkably” tolerant toward each others’ religions.

Campbell found out some interesting things. For one, he discovered that Americans are the most devout believers of any industrialized nation in the world. Remarkably Americans are even more devout than Iranian Muslims, many of which are radical.
On the other hand, compared to other countries, there is hardly any serious religious bigotry or persecution in America.

Campbell notes, "Americans over the last generation or so have come to connect with one another across religious lines. Almost every American has within their close circuit of friends, often in their family, often within their very household, someone of another faith. Which in turn breeds acceptance of other faiths, because these are the people you love."

The picture that develops from this shows that American Christians are at one and the same time the most devout in the industrialized world and the most tolerant toward other faiths. This seems to counter the stereotypical view of devout Christians sustained in popular culture and media. It seems that in their daily lives American Christians tend to live out the angelic song of “peace on earth, good will toward men.”