Hell on Christmas

What kind of person thinks about the troublesome doctrine of hell during the Christmas season? Hey, I can't control when the thoughts occur. After all, this is "preacher thoughts" and such thoughts are not inclined to follow the liturgical calendar. (For the record, I love Christmas and love to reflect on the birth of Immanuel during this time).

Actually, it was a conversation about Christmas that led to my thoughts on hell. I was watching a news commentator interview a president of some free thought organization that capitalized on the holiday season to spread their message of godlessness and the triumph of reason (we might ask them where does reason come from and how do we know it is indeed reasonable, but that's for another blog). What the woman found most objectionable about faith in the biblical god was--no surprise--the doctrine of hell. She viewed it as a terrifying means of indoctrinating children into staying in the faith.

Hey, I am sympathetic to her concern. I have sat across the table from Buddhists in Japan who could not consider becoming a Christian, because they thought it meant they accepted their deceased loved one was in eternal torment. At that point, it really doesn't matter if your doctrine of hell is eternal conscious torment or annihilation. Hell is the final and complete separation from God and all things good and holy. There is no way to sugarcoat it.

Postmoderns hate the doctrine of hell, because it represents the ultimate exclusion in a world of inclusion (that latter point may be debatable, but this is the way postmoderns see the world or at least how they think the world should be).

But let's be real honest for a moment. It is not possible to be a Christian who relies on the authority of Scripture for the understanding of his/her faith to reject the doctrine of hell. Many Christians claim not to believe in hell. Fair enough, but they have rejected biblical authority. There's simply no way around that.

Biblical Christians should remember that we cannot say with certainty who is consigned to hell, nor has that ever been our job. We can handle this topic of hell with much more humility and sensitivity than we have in the past.

Yet, I imagine if I asked the aforementioned free-thinking lady if she desired justice in this world, she would say yes. Now again there is a problem with reconciling the concept of justice with an atheistic worldview, but leaving that aside, most will agree that justice is desired and found severly lacking in our world.

So, you tell me; is it better for their to be a hell or for those responsible for enslaving 250,000 Haitan children to escape justice in this world and the next? There can be no justice, if injustice is not rectified in the world to come (because I don't see it happening in this world). So, if there is no hell, then there is no justice. But the Christian God is a just God. We may just need to do a better job of remembering and communicating that fundamental aspect of our theology.

Does God care what choice we make all the time?

I finally concluded a 5 and a 1/2 month job search this week. We are moving to Portales, NM where I will be the new pulpit minister at the 3rd and Kilgore Church of Christ (http://www.3kchurch.org/). Of course, we are both relieved and excited, but there were so many lessons learned through the thoroughly exhausting journey.

I applied to 23 churches over five months and, of course, in the end there was only one standing. Along the way I withdrew my candidacy from several, but many took care of that for me! I had two in-person interviews that did not result in an offer, and obviously one that did. I turned down three interviews at the end, because my search was concluded, but there was a touch of irony there. For over three months, I couldn't buy an interview and then in the last few weeks I had back-to-back to interviews and three invitations!

Because there were so many opportunities swirling around me at the end, I thought the decision would be rather complicated. My mother-in-law kept saying that the decision would become clear when it came time to decide. I love her, but I didn't believe her. I thought, how do you know God will make it clear? Is God under any obligation to make it clear? Could he present two (or more) totally acceptable, but not obviously clear choices and be pleased with either choice?

When the church in Portales made their offer it still was not very clear. But then an amazing thing happened ; less than 48 hours from the time of the offer, God made it crystal clear what we were to do. My mother-in-law was right!

Who can say that God always has to work one way or another? I don't know that he always has to get us to a specific location/situation. We are movable parts on a big playing field (the Kingdom), so God is not hamstrung, if someone chooses one place over another. However, in this case, God seemed to want us in Portales. I like the peace that comes with that kind of clarity!