Hell? No!

Sermon at North Hill, March 26, 2011.

The other day outside Safeway I met a couple kids selling Girl Scout cookies. I wasn't interested in their cookies, but I gave them a couple of dollars as a contribution. I don't receive any direct benefit from the Girl Scouts. My kids were never members of the Girl Scouts. I don't know if any of my neighbors are members of the Girl Scouts. But I believe the organization does good work. So I gave them a couple of dollars. I'm rich enough but a couple of dollars won't break my bank, and I figure a couple of dollars will encourage them.

Every year I give money to an organization that supports a website, blueletterBible.org. I use the web site regularly in my Bible research for my sermons. So, I figure I owe them some money for the service they provide me. I wouldn't have to give them anything. Their website is free to any user. But I received personal benefit and by contributing I hope to make this Bible study resource available to others as well.

Every year I also give money to the Washington trails Association (WTA). What do I get from my contribution? I receive a magazine four times a year. I also enjoy access to their website which provides hundreds of reports on trails all across Washington. In addition to any direct personal benefit I receive when I give money to the WTA, I am voicing my support for trails and hiking and outdoor recreation. WTA sponsors work parties that volunteer thousands of hours every year doing trail maintenance. My money helps with that. The organization also lobbies for policies supportive of outdoor recreation. My dollars through this organization help to spread the influence of my values through the larger community. Every dollar I give to the Washington trails Association is a vote for the outdoor culture that I think is conducive to a healthy society.

I don't need the WTA in order to go hiking myself. I don't need the WTA to tell me where the trails are or what to put in my pack. I can buy my own bird book or wildflower book or tree identification book. But I cannot by myself build and maintain the trails. By myself I cannot create a culture hiking and camping and other kinds of outdoor recreation. That can only be done cooperatively. So I give my money as a way of participating in that cooperative effort.

The people here at North Hill contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Seventh-day Adventist church every year. Why? What do we get out of these contributions?

We get direct benefits. Church is where we meet our friends. We experience the uplifting joy of shared music. We count on sermons to challenge our thinking, to inspire us, to renew our confidence in God. Sometimes, when we are in trouble, church comes through with concrete, down to earth assistance. Many of us have experienced the benefit of Adventist education for ourselves or for our children.

But I am not sure these kinds of direct, somewhat measurable, benefits justify the amount of money that some of us put into church. There's something else going on. And today I want to encourage all of you to join in that secret, extra something that fuels our giving.

When we contribute to church, we are helping to support a culture, a society that has a special understanding of the world and a distinctive way of living. Our gifts of money play a direct role in giving life to our deepest convictions and our most precious practices.

Sometimes, people talk about church in terms of "what I get out of it." That's not a completely illegitimate question. But it is somewhat immature. I don't get anything out of giving to the Girl Scouts. That is I'm not going to go on a Girl Scout camp out. My kids are too old to enroll and Girl Scout programs. There is no direct simple benefit to me. But as a wise old man, I realize that there is a value to society as a whole and having programs like the Girl Scouts. So when the girls are out front of the grocery store collecting, I give. I give because I believe in girls. I give because I appreciate the hundreds and thousands of hours of volunteer service given by the parents and other adults who participate in the Girl Scouts. I give because the Girl Scout program is serving people in places I can't go.

It's the same with the Washington trails Association. I do not receive $100 of personal benefit from the organization. But I do believe the goals of the organization. I believe that the organization is helping to bring to the larger society values that I hold dear.

So with the church. When I give to church, I am giving to an organization that bring some benefits to me personally. But even more importantly, when I give to the church my money is helping to create a community, a society that embodies the ideals that I hold dear.

The church multiplies the effects of my money. When my money is added to the money given by tens of thousands of other people the cumulative effect of our giving makes a large difference in the world.

What is the job of the church? To provide good music? To be a place where people can make good friends. To provide interesting and inspiring preaching?

The church should do all of these things. But they are not the central mission of the church. They are tools the church uses to accomplish the mission the Jesus outlined. Jesus described his mission in the mission of the church in several different places. One of the most famous is found at the end of the book of Matthew. Jesus told his disciples, "go into all the world and make disciples of all people. Baptize them and teach them to obey everything I commanded you."

At the heart of the mission of the church is this call to teach people the truth as it was seen by Jesus. Jesus spent much of his time during his three years of public ministry healing people. He worked miracles to see people. He raised the dead. And he taught. And taught and taught and taught. Jesus made it very clear that ideas and beliefs are important.

Just as he spent a lot of time teaching people, so the church is called to pass on those ideas, to pass on those beliefs and convictions.

When we give money to the church we are helping to spread the beliefs of Jesus. We are giving life to the convictions and doctrines Jesus taught. And going beyond that, we are giving life to doctrines and insights that have arisen among Christians as the result of two millennia of reflection on the mission and message of Jesus.

Of course, the church does not perfectly embody the character and teachings of Jesus. There is no large group of people that is flawless. (There is no small group of people that is flawless either.) Still, if I want the ideas, the beliefs, the teachings of Jesus to touch the lives of my neighbors, my children, my grandchildren and people around the world, then giving money to the church is one powerful way to pursue that objective.

There are about 2 billion Christians in the world. So so we have lots of company as we work to spread the values of Jesus. Our respect for the Bible, our beliefs that God was present in the person of Jesus Christ and that Jesus is coming again to inaugurate a bright new future – these beliefs we share with 2 billion other people.

Adventists treasure some convictions that are not so widely shared, even in the Christian community. Over the next couple of months I want to examine some of these special beliefs, the special heritage of Seventh-day Adventist Christians.

A quick list of some Adventist treasures:

Jesus. Jesus above Paul. Jesus above Moses. Jesus above Mohammed. Jesus above Buddha. (Notice, I am not saying that everything everyone else says is false. Just because something was taught by Mohammed or Buddha does not make it false. On the other hand I am saying we look to Jesus above all others. Not only do we subordinate non-Christian spiritual authorities to Jesus. We subordinate even the apostles to Jesus. So when we read something in Paul that appears to contradict the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus hold preeminence.)

God is love. Of course, all Christians agree with this. Adventists have developed a distinctive way of using this conviction as a theological lens.

Sabbath. We are Sabbath keepers. We are Sabbath promoters.

Soteriology. We are saved by God not by a formula—not even by the formulas of John 3:16 or Romans 10:10. While the classic evangelical formulas can be very helpful for people seeking a connection with God, God's saving action is not constrained by those formulas.

Human value and human nature. We understand a single human being to have a value comparable to the value of God himself. This is one of the meanings of the crucifixion. We also understand that humans are capable of sin. So while we value human beings, and thus are pro-life in the largest sense of the word, we also distrust human beings and believe that all human authority should be constrained by other authority. So we oppose monarchy and dictatorship. We oppose popery and bibliolatry. We oppose war and the American system of capital punishment (which is far more likely to execute poor people and brown and black people than rich people or white people even taking into account differences in crime rates).

Divine Judgment. There is no formula that can predict the eternal destiny of any human being. Observing a person's outward behavior, whether that behavior is words, actions or facial expressions, cannot provide a sufficient basis for making a conclusive determination of their eternal fate. The Bible doctrine of judgment insists that God will examine the entirety of a person's life. This flatly contradicts two key opinions held by many Christians: 1. All people who have not fulfilled the formulas spelled out in John 3:16 or Romans 10:10 are automatically damned. 2. The only consideration in the judgment is a person's profession of faith or lack thereof. The Adventist position insists, 1. God is judge. There is no automatic salvation or automatic damnation. 2. A person's whole life matters. You cannot reduce a person to a single formulaic statement.

Law-keeping is the key to good living.
Miracles are no substitute for obedience. Grace is no substitute for wisdom. God gives laws as a guide for healthy, happy living. As a church, we unabashedly advocate lawful living. That's what God wants for us. That's what we want for our children. It's good.

No eternal torment. We find it inconceivable that a God of love would supernaturally keep billions of people alive for billions of years for the sole purpose of torturing them. We point to multiple passages of Scripture which explicitly and vividly describe an end to the existence of sin, suffering and sinners.

Health.
Salvation is not only a blissful future in another world. It is also well being here. Just as Jesus devoted much of his time and energy to healing people's physical bodies and addressing their physical needs so we believe it is the mission of today's church to attend to people's overall well-being. Him and him Margie We believe it is an essential part of the mission of the church to teach people habits that support physical, mental, and social health.

Money.
In this area, there is no uniquely Adventist perspective. I place it here because money management is so integrally linked with spiritual, social, and family health. Our use of money powerfully affect our well-being and powerfully expresses our real convictions.



Today, my focus is hell. It is, as someone blurted out during my sermon on Sabbath, a hot topic. :-)

Rob Bell, an evangelical pastor in Michigan, has written a book titled Love Wins. Bell questions the classic evangelical doctrine about eternal torment in the formulaic damnation of people outside formal Christianity. There has been a fierce outcry against him. Big names in the evangelical community have a damned Bell because he has softened damnation.

While Bell does not understand hell in the same way that Seventh-day Adventists do, his book represents a wonderful step forward for the evangelical community, and for Christianity as a whole.

What do Adventist believe about hell?

In Matthew 13 Jesus twice refers to the fate of the wicked as being similar to something that is thrown into a blazing furnace. Things thrown into a furnace burn up. They cease to exist. This imagery of hell as a furnace connects the traditional picture of hell as a fiery place. However, the furnace imagery flatly contradicts the notion of perpetual torment. Even soggy, wet wood eventually burns up. The fire consumes it. And this is what Adventist and many other Christians believe happens in hell. The wicked cease to exist.

Perhaps the best way to put the difference between what Adventists believe the Bible teaches about hell and the traditional view is this: Adventists believe hell is an event. It is something that happens at the end of time. Traditional views describe hell as an eternal place. It will endure as long as heaven and God himself.

There are two major criticisms of the traditional view. First, how could a God of love torture anyone for billions of years? Second, how could any person, no matter how wicked, do enough evil in a limited life span available to humans to justify torturing them for literally all eternity? The doctrine of eternal torment obviates any real meaning for either love or justice. Both words and the concepts they express become meaningless if eternal torment is true.
Those who try to defend the idea everlasting hell insist they do so only because it is the clear teaching of Scripture. They cite passages that do appear to support the idea and insist that the counter passages regarding hell and all the Bible's teachings about God's love must be reinterpreted to agree with their understanding of the few verses that appear to support eternal torment.

Our rebuttal is simply this: there are multiple passages in the Bible that clearly teach the extinction of evil and evil people. There is a superabundance of affirmation in the Bible of love is supreme characteristic of God. We insist that the few passages that appear to support eternal torment must be reinterpreted in the light of the counter passages regarding hell in the over arching theme in the Bible of God's love.

The Bible basis for rejecting eternal torment

Following is a collection of Bible verses that I copied from Bibleinfo.com. These passages form the basis of the classic Adventist teaching regarding hell. To repeat what I said earlier: we understand hell as an event at the end of time. It is not a place that exists now or will exist after Jesus has fully established his kingdom (Revelation 21).

The wicked have not yet been rewarded. Revelation 22:12, NKJV. ‘“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
Those who do not believe in Christ perish. The opposite of everlasting life and existence is death, or cease to exist. John 3:16, NKJV. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Does God burn sinners into the ceaseless ages? The wicked do not burn forever. Psalm 37:20, NIV. "But the wicked will perish: The Lord's enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish—vanish like smoke."
The unchanging sinners will be burned up and nothing will remain, just ashes. Malachi 4:1,3 NIV. "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty. Not a root or a branch will be left to them…Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty.”
Hell is not a place in the center of the earth; it is an event on face of the earth. Revelation 20:9, NKJV. “They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.”
“Eternal fire” refers to the results that are eternal, not fire that is eternally burning. Sodom and Gomorrah suffered eternal fire but they are not burning today. Jude 7, NIV. "In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." 2 Peter 2:6, NKJV. “and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.”
The fire will be unquenchable, but when there is nothing left to burn it will go out. Matthew 3:12. "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering the wheat into His barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

God does not enjoy seeing anybody destroyed, and has done everything possible so that nobody would have to be. Ezekiel 33:11: “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?”

But there is coming a time when God will rid the world of sin, of wickedness, fear, death, sorrow, and pain. Revelation 21:4: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”




For most of us who have been Adventists for a long time this is common sense doctrine. We do not realize how rare and special this belief is.

When I give my money to the Seventh-day Adventist church I am voting with my dollars for a better picture of God. I am voting against the picture of God painted by the Westboro Baptist Church people. I am voting against the picture of God taught by Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Dallas. (He argues contra Bell, that every human who does not have a “conscious faith” in Jesus will be “eternally conscious” in the torments of hell fire. So every human who is born with mental defects that prevent them from developing the requisite mental and verbal skills for understanding and testifying to the truth of Jesus' vicarious death for their sins is automatically destined for an eternity of torment in the fires of hell. When I give to the Adventist Church I am voting against the view of God taught by John Piper a famous conservative Protestant theologian, who is so offended by Bell's questions about hell that he has publicly written Bell off as a Christian preacher.

Like every other human institution – like Greenpeace, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, the Libertarian Party, ADRA, the Sierra Club, World Vision, 3ABN – the church is a confounding mix of ideals and human frailties. However, this one conviction, this one doctrine – no eternal torment – is worth half my life savings.

The world needs to know that embracing Jesus does not require us to embrace a diabolical view of God. To believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself does not require us to believe that everyone who does not perfectly understand that is automatically consigned to billions of years of indescribable torture.

Christianity properly understood is the good news about a God of love. It is the good news that God's great goal is restoration, redemption, healing, reconciliation. It is the incredible news that suffering, even the suffering of the most wicked people, will come to an end. The destiny of every human being and the destiny of the universe is ultimately peace.

That's good news. It's worth putting money into.