Hell and Divine Goodness

A Philosophical-Theological Inquiry

James S. Spiegel

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532640957
  9781532640964
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532640971
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Within the Christian theological tradition there has always been a variety of perspectives on hell, usually distinguished according to their views about the duration of hell's torments for the damned. Traditionalists maintain that the suffering of the damned is everlasting. Universalists claim that eventually every person is redeemed and arrives in heaven. And conditional immortalists, also known as "conditionalists" or "annihilationists," reject both the concept of eternal torment as well as universal salvation, instead claiming that after a finite period of suffering the damned are annihilated. Conditionalism has enjoyed somewhat of a revival in scholarly circles in recent years, buoyed by the influential biblical defense of the view by Edward Fudge. However, there has yet to appear a book-length philosophical defense of conditionalism . . . until now. In Hell and Divine Goodness, James Spiegel assesses the three major alternative theories of hell, arriving at the conclusion that the conditionalist view is, all things considered, the most defensible position on the issue.

1

Biblical Considerations

As we saw in the introduction, the concept of hell as eternal conscious torment has been the preeminent view since St. Augustine. Yet the early church was deeply divided on the matter. In the first few centuries of Christian history, leading theologians and biblical scholars can be found on all sides of the debate. This probably explains why we find no early creedal statement specifying a particular view on the doctrine, except to affirm the reality of hell. Division in the early church over the issue is understandable considering the biblical arguments that can be mustered in defense of each of the three major views on hell. It is the purpose of this chapter to review the biblical texts most relevant to this debate. This is crucial for our purposes, most obviously because this book is a work in philosophical theology, and many of the passages discussed will be brought back into focus in later chapters. Furthermore, this review of biblical texts is also important because, as I hope will become evident, even careful biblical and systematic theology cannot adequately decide the debate over hell. Hence, this will underscore the need for philosophical inquiry to augment and enhance our understanding of the issues and perhaps lead us to a decisive conclusion on the subject.

The Traditional View

Let us begin with the principal texts supporting the traditional view of hell as eternal conscious torment. Biblical scholars such as Robert Peterson and Denny Burk routinely appeal to ten biblical passages that they claim support this view.7 One of these is Isaiah 66:22–24, which provides this eschatological message:

“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”8

Here Isaiah describes the final state of the righteous and the wicked. Note that the fate of the wicked is punitive, not redemptive. And it appears that the punishment is everlasting, given that “the worms that eat them will not die” and “the fire that burns them will not be quenched.” After all, maggots and fire would not continue to consume a body if that body has been annihilated (if conditionalism is true) or finally redeemed (if universalism is true). Thus, as Denny Burk puts it, “this scene seems to assume that God’s enemies have been given a body fit for an unending punishment.”9 But whether or not the punishment is corporal, traditionalists insist that what this passage indicates is an everlasting torment. As John Calvin remarks about this text, “the plain meaning . . . is that the wicked shall have a bad conscience as an executioner, to torment them without end, and that torment awaits them greater than all other torments.”10 But is this really a fair assumption? The reference to undying worms and unquenchable fire may just as well indicate that (1) their devouring and burning cannot be stopped and (2) what they are devouring and burning will be completely destroyed. Even universalism does not appear to be ruled out by this passage, as an omnipotent God has the power to eventually rescue the wicked from the otherwise irresistible destructive action of the worms and fire, perhaps after hundreds or thousands of years of torment.

Another key Old Testament passage is Daniel 12:1–2: “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” Like the Isaiah passage, here we have a vivid contrast between the fates of the righteous and the wicked, who will arise to “everlasting life” and “everlasting contempt,” respectively. The parallel use of the term “everlasting” suggests that, like the righteous, the damned will live forever, only in a condition of shame. But, as with the Isaiah passage, we must be careful not to read into the text what is not there. For contempt itself does not necessitate conscious experience. The Hebrew term here translated as “contempt”—the same term translated as “loathsome” in Isaiah 66:24—refers to that which is an object of abhorrence or aversion,11 and this does not imply consciousness on the part of what is abhorred. As John Stackhouse notes, “this text says literally nothing about whether the damned are conscious forever to be ashamed of their contemptible reputations. Their reputations live on in ignominy, so to speak, whether they are alive or dead. That’s all Daniel is saying.”12 Thus, to resist the traditionalist interpretation of this passage, the conditionalist need not challenge the claim that the fate of the wicked is everlasting. She need only reject the assumption that what lasts forever is their conscious torment.

Turning to the New Testament, we find Jesus using rather strong eschatological language in the Gospel texts. One of these passages is Matthew 18:8–9, where Jesus declares, “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” Here we find Jesus recycling a hyperbolic statement he makes in Matthew 5 regarding gouging out an eye or cutting off a hand that causes one to stumble. In both passages he concludes with a warning about hell, but here he reinforces the point by contrasting the fates of the repentant and unrepentant, where the latter are “thrown into the fire of hell.” The word rendered as “hell” here is historically significant. The Greek word (geenna) derives from the Hebrew term (ge hinnom), meaning “Valley of Hinnom,” which is where worshipers of Molech sacrificed children and where, according to the prophet Jeremiah, the wrath of God would be visited on these wicked idolaters, such that it would be known as the “Valley of Slaughter” (Jer 7:31–34). So, as with the Isaiah and Daniel passages, the fate of the wicked here seems punitive, rather than restorative. And the contrast between the “life” awaiting the righteous and the “eternal fire” that awaits the wicked suggests that both fates are everlasting. However, again, nothing in the texts explicitly indicates that the doomed last forever in the fire, much less that they suffer everlasting conscious torment. Nor does the text rule out the possibility of eventual redemption from the fiery fate.

Another popular traditionalist text appears later in the same Gospel—Matthew 25:31–46:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” . . .

Then he will say t...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Biblical Considerations
• Chapter 2: Hell and Divine Justice
• Chapter 3: Hell and the Problem of Evil
• Chapter 4: Hell, Immortality, and Salvation
• Chapter 5: Hell and Heavenly Bliss
• Conclusion
• Bibliography