Hell to Pay?: The Blasphemous Absurdity of Damnationism
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Hell to Pay?: The Blasphemous Absurdity of Damnationism
For centuries the concept of Hell has been fundamental to the Christian faith; even today, otherwise sophisticated and caring people continue to accept without apparent qualms that countless millions of their fellow humans will be condemned to eternal torment with no hope of reprieve. This absurd and blasphemous doctrine, known as damnationism, is founded on simplistic literalist readings of the Bible, on unthinking tradition and on a pharisaic satisfaction in the punishment of the sins of others.
This provocative and challenging book examines in considerable detail the case for and against damnationism and its more compassionate alternative, annihilationism, and sets out for the general reader a broad-ranging and compelling case for the wider hope of universal redemption based on biblical, theological, philosophical and moral arguments. The author concludes that the only position compatible with the nature of God as envisaged by ethical monotheism is the confident expectation that all will indeed be reconciled as promised in numerous verses of Scripture and by the prophets of the Old and New Testaments. As long as a single soul remains excluded from the divine presence the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the climax of salvation history and God’s supreme act of atonement, must be seen as a failure making God appear either ineffectual or malevolent.
Universalism can trace its origins back to the very early days of the church and is the only doctrine that can provide any sort of convincing answer to basic questions about the fate of the unevangelised or those who die in infancy, about the existence of evil or about purpose of creation and it is the only theology that can hope to carry ethical and intellectual credibility in the twenty-first century.
‘Hell to Pay?’ should be essential reading for any conservative evangelical still wedded to fundamentally flawed assumptions about the true nature of the gospel and for anyone who has turned away from Christianity appalled at the horrific implications of what is euphemistically called ‘traditionalism’ but which in reality is a disastrous misreading of a gospel of pure grace.
Separate appendices provide further discussion of the related questions of Biblical Inerrancy and the Nature of Atonement – two other doctrines where conservative evangelicalism is seriously in error. A full bibliography is also provided. Proceeds from sales will be donated to the work of the Barnabas Fund.
Contents
Introduction
1. The First Pillar: Scripture
2. The Second Pillar: Morality
3. The Third Pillar: Atonement
4. The Fourth Pillar: Theodicy
Conclusion
Appendices Appendix 1: Universalist Professions Appendix 2: Conservative Evangelical Protestantism Appendix 3: Biblical Inerrancy Appendix 4: Theories of Atonement Appendix 5: Summary of the Case for Universalism
