Hell: A Postlude

I've been doing some more thinking since I finished the last monster post on Sheol and hell and I wanted to put some of these thoughts down. This may be a slightly touchy topic, but I've decided to talk about it anyway.


As fundamentalist Christians, whenever we hear that someone has passed away, the first question that pops into our heads is, "was he/she a Christian?" I'm sure many of you are familiar with that question and that it is the same question which has popped into your heads as well. Of course the underlying concern is whether or not this person went to heaven or hell. If the answer that we receive is that he or she was not a Christian, we are suddenly more sad than we had been before, as we believe that this person is doomed.


This issue underlies a certain doctrine that is very much entrenched in fundamentalist Christianity. I call it (and so do many others), "the lostness of humanity." What this means is that everybody is going to hell unless they are saved through Jesus Christ. There is even a lovely hymn by A.B. Simpson which says, "10,000 souls a day are marching to their doom" (although I'm not sure that's the exact number). As fundamentalists, often our first and foremost concern when we think of the lostness of humanity is that all humans are destined to a life of torture and torment unless we do something about it. We are forever preoccupied with the hereafter. However, if we look at Jesus example, its seems he was more concerned with the present. He was constantly helping those around him. More time is given in the gospels showing how Jesus lived and interacted with those around him. I think that we as Christians very often give first priority to counting souls that are going to heaven rather than to helping people in this life with their needs right now. I would rather define the lostness of humanity as being here in the present. When you look at the way we treat eachother, the environment, and other living things on this planet in the here and now, then we see just how truly lost we are.

Moving back to the previous thought, when we think about that person who passed away who wasn't a Christian, instead of focusing on whether or not they went to a place of torment which is likely based on foreign religions and may or may not exist, I would rather focus on the life they lived and how they impacted myself and others in their sphere of influence. Instead of becoming more depressed over an issue which can't even be proved, I would rather remember all of the good things about that person. There is no such thing as a wasted life. Although it sounds harsh, it seems that Christians very often feel that if a person passes away who wasn't a Christian, it is a waste. It doesn't matter how they impacted the world while they were alive; if they weren't a Christian, it doesn't even matter. For example, I highly doubt that many fundamentalist Christians would be very upset if Oprah Winfrey died. Yet, if we look honestly at all of the good things that she does for others, I would hardly call her life a waste, nor her death nothing short of a tremendous loss.

Instead of worrying about who is going to hell and being preoccupied with the afterlife, I would say it is time to shift some weight into the present. What can we do for people right now? Obvious stuff. We should be helping to feed the people who are hungry, both here in our country and in foreign countries. We should try being real friends with people who don't believe the same as we do (and not as evangelistic projects; people are not projects). We should stand by those minority groups whose rights are threatened (dare I say it...for example, the gay community). This is the gospel that Jesus lived out and set as an example for us. He was always going and helping those, who in the culture of the time, were considered to be taboo - the outcasts, the minorities. Let's stop using the afterlife as an excuse for ignoring the present.