If There is No Hell, Then Why Christ?

I have not read Rob Bell's Love Wins book yet, but I would like to join the fray by pointing out some obvious facts about Hell to my Facebook friends.

 

If you don't believe in Hell, you should read this anyway, because if Hell does not exist, you've got nothing to lose!

 

Anyone claiming that Hell does not exist is not taking into account the true fact that IF NOT FOR CHRIST, we would be fast strolling the highway down there already past the no-return point. Let's just consider that if Hell is supposedly a Christian myth -supposedly-, therefore non-Christians should not be afraid of it because for them it doesn't exist. Furthermore, if Hell does not exist, it should be a non-issue to them. A non-issue is something like a person who believes that Brazil is going to win the 2016 Soccer Cup. Believing it or not does not harm the person and has no impact whatsoever upon the real world - from a moral viewpoint of course. Thus such set of beliefs can be ascribed to harmless wishful thinking.

 

When Hell comes into perspective, it's not that simple. We are talking here about people's souls, and at least 99.99% of the population on Earth believe that they have a soul, with the exception of the hardcore Atheists, of course. People from all walks of life get jumpy and startled when a preacher comes by and speaks on, for, or against Hell. Christians, Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, all of them, even non-religious people, they all get jumpy when the word "Hell" is uttered. It seems that Hell is a serious issue for them, otherwise they would just NOT CARE.

Even then, it is not uncommon to hear people saying things like "Oh, your religion is so mean, why do you want to send people to such a bad place?" ˜Why do your religion hate people?" "You are so fanatic! Let's just be good to each other and tune into this wonderful music. All will be well in the end". Well, are you sure? Can you bet your soul's salvation on it? Can you bet mine? What makes you so sure that there is no Hell? What happens if I trust your word that there is no Hell? What if there is one? Can I come back and haunt you for misleading me?

There is the key point: going or not going to Hell is not an option to the unsaved. You may not believe it, but you are going there anyway, because if there is Right and Wrong in this world, then there is SIN, and if there is SIN, then there is DEATH, and then there is also HELL. Unless you are a total soulless bastard, you can't deny these facts: there is a morally objective truth standard that can be used to set right from wrong, and also there is the objective law of cause and consequence. If you do wrong, then surely there is a reaction to it, and although our actions are finite in time, its consequences are not - unless a Higher power stops payback right on its vengeful track.

Think of a stone cast into a lake, concentric water waves are formed which begin expanding and expanding until you can't see them because they are out of sight. The heavier the stone, more powerful are the waves. It is so with our soul: every deed - good or bad - we perform has consequences that we are powerless to foresee. And when we sin, the waves formed are not of the good type, it is a very bad one that grind down our soul into a perverse setting routine - like a scratched vinyl disc playing the same track until it makes a hole - which makes us go further down the road to hell, inch by inch, unaware of its perils until it is too late.

Ultimately we arrive at Eternity which is the crossroads where our life on this Earth will be judged, and we are shocked to find out that our final destination is not the Land of Beulah which we hoped to inherit, but it's actually a place even darker than the Land of Mordor - if you pardon me some LOTR referencing.

Thus Hell is where VENGEANCE lives on eternally, it is what we become once we gradually step away from love, truth, and our own humanity. Hell is where inhuman people live on eternally, people like you and me that abdicated an inch of love, truth, and humanity every day that passed, until they became so deformed and monstrous that not even God Himself could stand in the same room with them. Would you stand in the same room with Hitler? I bet you would not! If you - being imperfect and impure - can't, why God being perfect and pure would?

Consider this: of course you would reject Hell if it presented itself in such grim colors. But, as with all things human, the devil is in the details. And we humans don't pay attention to details until it is too late. The question is: can you truly know whether you are going to Hell or not? We could be already there for all we know about it! Just take a look around yourself and check the state the world is at.

When the Gospel is preached to the unsaved, it does not mean that there is no Hell until then, it does not mean that Hell will only come if the unsaved rejects it. The fact is that Hell is already here, my friends, and we would be living down there if not for the Great Love of God. Therefore, the issue is not about sending/not sending people to Hell, because we set ourselves upon that path when we started sinning, and the sad fact is that we can't stop sinning, thus we can't save ourselves from total destruction, by our own power we can't turn way from that path. If we could, we would not be here having this conversation.

 

Can you name someone - apart from Christ - that saved himself from certain death? Choosing Hell was an action of our own making, and God had no part of it. We did it ourselves. There is no one else to blame. Period.

But God, who created us, loved us first even when we could not love Him. He loved us so much that when He saw where our choices were leading to, He devised a plan to save every one of us. Then the question turns from why would someone proclaim that there is such a place, to proclaim that He loves us so much that He DOES NOT WANT US TO GO THERE!

Therefore what kind of love are we talking about? Is it the kind of love that cares, or a careless one? What kind of love would that be if God, being our Heavenly Father, would not warn His children of the perils of damnation? Would it be true love if He does not act to protect us from being lost forever? Is it true love when you let danger approach your beloved ones? "For God so loved the world (..)".

Thus, in this context, the Gospel is truly Good News, because it makes clear that we are in mortal danger, and it also makes clear that there is One that can save us and keep us forever secure! What love would be greater than that of a man dying for his friends? What love would be higher than that of a Father laying down His only begotten Son to rescue His beloved children, in order to protect them once and for all from Hell? Wouldn't you, as a father, keep your children away from harm, and EXECUTE ANY MEASURE necessary to establish the safe environment in order to make them grow happy, safe, and nurtured? What do you think God did? Wouldn't you warn your children of the mortal danger poised by yielding a knife? Wouldn't God warn His children of the mortal danger poised by SIN, which would surely lead us to Hell?

What kind of love is that, I ask, if such a loving father is careless about the dangers facing His children? Is it love at all? Is it? Because if Hell doesn't exist, therefore THERE IS NO DANGER AT ALL to our soul. Then why Christ died for us in the first place? Can any of the Hell deniers out there give a sincere answer to that? I pray they won't!

Hell is the sure place we are going unless there is a radical transformation in our lives, a feat that God alone can accomplish. If there is no Hell, then there is no need to be saved, because there is nothing to be saved from. It's that simple. Therefore, all the evil, all the suffering and misery in the world caused by our sins are just a matter of taste and opinion, or who is powerful enough to get his way. Such scenario would produce an accumulation of evil upon evil until we are crumbled onto the floor by its tremendous weight. You can choose to be the person you want to be -a Hitler, for instance- , you can act upon your most secret desires - by all means, be the Casanova you want to be and hurt all the women you get your hands on - BUT you better watch out for PAYBACK, because it is coming, baby, with its guns blazing and ready to shoot the crap out of you! Unless, of course, you have mercenaries to protect your back, and more mercenaries to protect you from the first you've hired - this paranoia could go on ad aeternum. Perhaps you can reach the end of your days living life the way you wanted, although by that time you will probably be living secluded in a fortress with thousands of people outside demanding your head on a plate. Or something much worse than that. X-rated stuff.

But consider this: wouldn't that be a nightmare, living out your days in fear, haunted by your past, knowing that some day somebody will appear to collect his or her dues and exact vengeance upon you? And when you are gone, you are gone forever?

Would not that be a LIVING HELL? Well, the Christian Hell is a room packed with all of them. The door is locked and the keys are lost away. Forever. Scaring, isn't it?

Boldly going where no Protestant has gone before

... or a former SDA, for that matter!

Last Sunday morning I went out shopping for a new cell phone. On the way back home, out of curiosity, I stopped by the Saint Benedict's Monastery church located at the Saint Benedict Plaza in Sao Paulo city. It is a centuries-old Catholic church maintained by the monks of the Saint Benedict Order. I had heard about their Gregorian choir and the tube organ located inside the cathedral and longed for the chance of hearing the tube being played.

It was the first time that I entered a Catholic building willing to stay for some time. When I entered it, my heart instantly felt at peace. I looked around contemplating the iconic figures of the saints of old, champions of Christendom. A sense of awe, wonder and respect came over me, and I felt like "wow, this is more than simply a symbol!".

Meanwhile at the altar the priest recitated Mass, his Gregorian-like voice echoing along the hallways, proclaiming the saving power of Christ's blood, the people responding in unison. Then the Gregorian choir chanted, and I felt God's presence flooding into me.

When the sermon was over, people turned to each other to bid "Good day", and one lady firmly grasped my hand. It was one of the rarest and sincere handshakes that I have ever got.

I took the subway back home, outrageously feeling more Protestant than ever!

Seventh-Day Adventism: Modern-day Ascetism?

The deep meaning of the Health and Dress Reform outlined by EGW leads one to conclude that if you purify the body, it helps to purify the soul. The soul by itself can't be purified if your body is impure. First you purify the body, then the soul can be purified.

That is one of the pillars of Ascetism, a spiritual discipline adopted by Roman Catholic Church in pre-medieval times and which caused the rise of monastic orders.

Ascetism also calls the follower to withdraw from the world, so he or she can properly achieve a state of perfection.

The important aspect of this philosophy is the restrictions placed upon what it is considered "worldly pleasures" such as eating certain types of food (actually most of them), wearing certain types of dress (restricting colors and fabric), and avoiding any sexual activity (even within a sanctioned marriage).

There are also restrictions placed upon possessions: the follower must abandon all his or her worldly possessions, givem them to the poor, or to the organization.


One thing is to make such claim, another thing is to claim that this is God's approved way of attaining justification.

Ascetism is a false way of attaining justification.

Back when I was a church member, I had seen it all.

Pastors when preaching at the pulpit would read from EGW's selected quotes, saying that God's message for today would require people to abandon the cities and move to the countryside, where it would be easier to escape when Persecution (yes, with capital P) arrived. They also reasoned that a quiet life in the farm fields would be free from the sins and temptations of the big cities.

Christ commanded us to GO OUT INTO the world, not to GO OUT FROM the world. So when a Christian says "Withdraw from the world", that is not what Christ wants.

I don't even need to quote again EGW's texts on the God's mandated sexual intercourse. She portrayed it as something to avoid and placed the duty upon the wife to restrain and discipline the "animal urges" of her husband. If she was unable to, she shouldn't allow herself to feel any pleasure from such sinful act.

Well there is that Bible passage where God commands the young man to enjoy the life with his wife. Oh, and there is the Song of Songs, where the woman actually gets actively engaged in such playful deeds.

So I guess that Ascetism's condemnation of sexual intercourse is not what Christ wants.

Let's talk about eating food and drinking.

Do I really need to? There are plenty of Bible passages where God actually commands "Man, eat and drink from your labor, eat your cattle, drink your vineyard". He wants us to live our lifes and get some good pleasure out of it, because, you know, we get older, and grouchy.

God doesn't prohibits us from eating, and drinking, and doing our marital duties as long as we do them with TEMPERANCE. The issue is when we misbehavior due to intemperance. And intemperance is triggered by something within. Christ said that which goes outside our mouth (coming from the inside of our hearts) is what contaminates us, not what goes inside the mouth (like eating or drinking certain types of food).

In other words: eat, but be not a glutton. Drink, but be not a drunkard. Also, mind your mouth, since the word is the deed, and the deed is the word.

So I guess that's another point missed by the Ascetics (and their modern followers, the SDAs).

My personal experience:

I had been a vegetarian until some time ago. I started to eat meat, and I find it tasteful. Sometimes I eat only meat (when it's barbecue time with friends), sometimes it doesn't see my table for several days. Some would think that a vegetarian would lose his self-control upon tasting meat (Yeah, IT IS good) but actually I really don't plan on how to do it. My mind and body doesn't crave for meat and I know that such is true for all other Christians. Well I do have a craving for "Rucula" (scientific name Eruca sativa) but you can't say that for an innocent bush!


What I am trying to say is... When Christ dwells in your soul, your harmonized actions are a mirror of His influence, it's not you trying to get into harmony with Him. And it happens naturally (from God's viewpoint). Blessed is the Lord!

On the Nature of Hurt and the Ideology Behind the Individual Action

I think that is particular to SDA reasoning the disregard they offer for the suffering of individuals due to the enforcement of EGW's writings.

To them, one is hurt because the fanatics misuse or misinterpret her writings. Hurting is merely an action without any ideology or motives.

Philosophically speaking, an action is an extension of thought. Thought is triggered by our ideologies, desires, systems, etc. embedded in our mind. Christ said that the thought of the sin is the same as doing it.

Then, how can one think of enforcing EGW without an idea (hers) behind it? When you reach at the motives level (the why) for one's action, there is a whole chain of elements behind it, particularly the specific idea which becomes thought, and then, action. You can't separate action from thought, my friends, and not from ideology, because doing so, you could put any motives behind the actions. And that would be intelectual dishonesty, wouldn't be?

God's Word, on the other hand, doesn't bring suffering or unhappiness to the saved. On the contrary. It brings joy, happiness, and it prevents them from knowing evil.

From the official statements from SDA and Reform Movement, it is clear that EGW's writings demand enforcement. She is God's prophetess, her writings are His will. Ipso facto, its enforcement should result in general happiness for all church members, because we are all saved and God's Word only bring us joy and happiness, also removes suffering because as closer we are to God, less suffering we feel.

But that, my friends, is not true because countless thousands of people have withdrawn from SDA due to the unbearable suffering from enforcing EGW doctrines.

That is my testimony. I affirm it. Several others do the same.

Don't we respect and value a testimony from a fellow Christian? Why then the SDAs are not taking this issue seriously? Because there is a clear connection between those hurt people and a system of oppression. Can't they see it?

If several thousand people come out from SDA and say "Hey, I was hurt", and also say "I was hurt due to EGW's enforcement", there is no way you can deny it, or disregard it as "bad human experience", or perhaps, "the work of Satan"...