a picture is worth a thousand screams

"if your right eye causes you to sin, poke it out and throw it away. it is better to lose one part of your body, than for your whole body to end up in hell." [matthew 5:29]

"see that hot girl/guy over there?"
"yeah."
"you just committed lust!"
"oh no! what can i do to stop this infernal [pun intended] lusting?"
"gouge out your eye."
"really?"
"sure, jesus told us to."
"and that will make me stop lusting."
"according to the bible."
"okay, well then i guess that is what i have to do....wait."
"what?"
"what about my imagination?"



does anyone really think that blind people don't lust?

does anyone really think that deaf people don't curse?

does anyone really think that cutting off a hand makes a thief less of a thief?

no, it just makes them a blind pervert, a deaf person with anger issues and a thief with a bit of a tougher time ahead.



so, why would jesus say this stuff, then?



because he is not smart? because the bible is outdated? because he was having a bad day? because the faith called christianity is full of crap?



or...and let's just really put our thinking caps on for this one...



could jesus have actually been using metaphor or hyperbole to explain something?



gasp!!



he would not!



the bible is literal and inerrant and to ascribe to jesus the linguistic art of metaphor would be akin to crucifying him a second time!



if you think that then you probably stopped reading this blog a long time ago.



last night we sat together, sang beautiful one, unfailing love, faithful one & imagine, watched some videos [we highly recommend rowan atkinson's 'a warm welcome'], and talked about hell as a metaphor.



following the persuasive essay by william crockett we explored the numerous ways in which word-pictures have been used throughout scripture [including by jesus himself!]



some of the passages we read were: luke 14:26; matthew 7:5; mark 6:23; and revelation 21



in these words we learned that people apparently walked around with large pieces of timber jutting from their faces [jesus told them to remove them, but not for medical reasons but so they could perform complex optical surgery on their friends...not such a great physician after all!], and anyone who believes in god can make any mountain range they choose do calisthenics [this one is exciting for me since i come from the rocky mountains...there is going to be some shocked people on my next trip home!], and had to be murderously enraged with their own family members before they could even begin to consider themselves worthy of being jesus' followers [that's not too good for business, eh dr. dobson?]



apologies for the sarcasm but not accepting the metaphorical usage in scripture makes the story of christ move from amazing into the absurd and irrelevant faster than anything else. it is necessary to see that seeing jesus as capable of using rabbinic hyperbole does nothing to negate the influence and truth of the scriptures.



so...can this be applied to the doctrine of hell?



dr. crockett thinks so:

"There is nothing wrong with using images to teach truth. After all, Jesus used the images of fire and darkness to warn the wicked of the consequences of sin. Difficulties arise only when we insist that the images reflect concrete reality."

"Unfortunately, some people confuse a high view of Scripture with taking every word of the Bible literally."

we can see the images jesus use to paint the picture of the afterlife [both heaven: a room with many mansions and hell: like the burning garbage dump outside a city] as earthly representations of spiritual truths. after all, jesus is using words and phrases that make sense to people trapped in time and on this planet during a certain stage of history. he must establish a frame of reference or else the words mean nothing to any of us. we are dealing with symbols to describe realities of which our minds and experiences cannot begin to grasp. to take these symbols literally is to miss the point entirely.

"[jesus' metaphors are] not to give the reader a literal picture of torment, but a symbolic one."

"fire in Jewish and early Christian writings is regularly used to create a mood of seriousness or reverence...When the writers use fire to describe judgment or hell, they use a convenient image that will demonstrate the burning wrath of God."

feel better? the next time we dine with our friends and they challenge us on the idea that a loving god could not send someone to burn for eternity we can counter with the argument that fire throughout the bible is often a metaphor and jesus frequently used earthly matters to explain deeper ideas. like when we say we've seen something 'a million times' or 'that apple didn't fall far from the tree' we all acknowledge that they can have literal meanings but most understand that they are being used metaphorically.



then your friend will become instantly relieved [maybe even offering to buy you lunch] and become a professed follower on the spot! and as soon as the excitement dies down they will ask



"so, if hell isn't all full of fire, what is it like then?"
[pause]
"i'll pay for lunch."



we are right back where we started! the only thing that changed was the mode in which the torture takes place...but the fact remains that this argument still sees god torturing those who turned from his offer of grace for eternity. the only difference is that the fire is simply a picture of something so far beyond our experience that we can't grasp it. great! so, in essence, we are talking about something so awful that the closest thing on earth we have to understand it is the image of being burned alive for eternity!



it might, very well, be worse.



anything to say on the topic dr. crockett?

"When it comes to the afterlife, only the dead know for sure."

great. thanks.



so, here is where we stand:

1. there are strong arguments to support the traditional view of hell as something constructed from images in our world to help us understand better and not literal teachings about the nature and appearance of hell


2. it is entirely possible that the world they are describing is vastly worse than anything we can imagine


3. god is sadistic and will torture people forever in some mysterious way that is worse than any conceivable system existant on earth today

i have not been this sad and confused since the end of the empire strikes back

• han is frozen


• luke is vader's son [and down one hand]


• lando is a traitor


• the rebellion's hope is fading fast

it is not fair to be left in the lurch like this



so, perhaps, we need to spend some time trying to define hell a little closer in ways that are both biblical and honest. not an easy task, to say the least. so let us roll up our sleeves and get down to business...



good thing we still have a couple more weeks in hell!