An Exercise in Refuting False Doctrine
In our final study on the doctrine of Hell, we will complete our brief survey of Old Testament themes and conclude with an assessment of all we lose when we “reframe” or outright “eliminate” the doctrine of Hell. Recall that we are studying the Old Testament due to claims that this portion of the Bible contradicts the New Testament concerning beliefs about Hell and the afterlife. Rather than allow such broad claims to go unchallenged, it is up to the Saints to search the Scriptures for themselves. This same approach should be taken for whatever claim is made against Hell. It demonstrates that we have either one of two standards. We either believe what the Bible says or we believe what we want to believe.
So when people ask me if I believe in hell, I usually answer them, “I don’t have to.” The Bible isn’t clear on it, the early Church didn’t see it as essential, and I’m in the company of a history full of Christians who didn’t believe in hell. And I’m pretty happy about that because, of course, I don’t want to.
Shelby Bennett
We began our survey of the Old Testament by promising to ask four questions. We have already asked the first two. “Where are the Images of Hell in the Old Testament?” “How is “Sheol” Used in the Old Testament?“
Does God treat the Righteous and the Wicked Differently?
One of the more powerful laments of the saints in the Old Testament came in the form of a question. Abraham asked, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23). David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Habbakuk and other saints all asked their variant of this question. Will God not make a distinction between the righteous and wicked? Watching both kinds of man die, believers are left time and again with the question, “Is there any difference?”
This question emerges as a massive theme in the Old Testament, and while we do not have the space to commit to a full study, a single Psalm will suffice for now. The point which must be made is that the Saints trust God to make a differentiation between the righteous and the wicked. This distinction is the underlying basis for the way the Saints think of Sheol and beyond. Consider first of all, Psalm 11 In the Lord I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”? 2 For look! The wicked bend their bow, They make ready their arrow on the string, That they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. 3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do? 4 The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. 5 The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright. The question of God’s distinguishing between the righteous and the wicked is latent at the first, and answered at the last.
Is Life after Death Known in the Old Testament?
It is an interesting phenomenon that false teachers today echo the sentiments of earlier critics of Jesus, the Sadducees. The old joke is that they got their name from denying the resurrection. That’s why they’re so sad, you see. If there is continued existence after death in the Old Testament, then God’s differentiation between the righteous and the wicked persists even there.
Basic Proofs
We should begin by pointing to the same text that Jesus did when refuting the Sadducees. Exodus 3:6 Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.; Jesus rightly points out the present tense expression, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead is He? He is the God of the living! Using that same kind of hermeneutic, how then do we read, Psalm 139:7-8 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. What can we derive from this? Sheol is not non-existence. God is present in death as well as life.
Hopes of the Righteous
We first begin to discern the hopes of the righteous for life after death in Genesis 49:29. Then he charged them and said to them: “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, Jacob desires to be buried with his fathers, and gathered to his people. God is the God of living, not the dead. Will not the LORD keep His people even in death and beyond? Psalm 49:13-15 This is the way of those who are foolish, And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; Death shall feed on them; The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling. 15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me. Selah David certainly entrusted himself to God both in his life and in the future. What he wrote in Psalm 16 ultimately revealed the truth of Christ’s resurrection, but his own hope of resurrection is bound up in that reality. Psalm 16:9-11 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Warnings to the Wicked
Alright, so the righteous have hope for life after death. Are there warnings to the wicked of what lies beyond for them? Amos 9:1-2a is an excellent example of just such a warning. I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said: “Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered. 2 “Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them. So we see that death is no refuge for the wicked, God’s judgment will still find them there. Suicide to escape the justice system will still meet with God’s justice.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we should give some thought to what happens if we “reframe, mute, eliminate” the doctrine of Hell? Is this Jenga block a viable option to reposition, or will the tower fall?
Several parts of Scripture become unintelligible.
How many warnings in the Old and New Testaments would lose meaning if there was no conscious eternal torment of the wicked? We would be left with a toxic hermeneutic, interpreting clear passages in an obfuscating manner. This acid cannot be contained but will spill over to other uncomfortable passages, eating out the heart of each one.
The Character of God is lessened.
Denying the doctrine of hell is usually accompanied with a sense of man’s superior mercy and justice. By claiming that “God would never…” over and against the clear testimony of Scripture, man makes his own sensibilities the standard for God’s actions. Not only are we disparaging God’s goodness and righteousness, but also His holiness. We are nowhere nearly as merciful, just and holy as God. How dare we protest against God, the clay defame the Potter?
The peril of sinful man is removed.
God promised death as the wages of sin, and clarified that this death is more than physical, more than relational, more than moral, more than spiritual. It is indeed, eternal. What becomes of such hopeful, essential preaching as, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life?” The relational, moral and spiritual death has already occured for each person. The only future states of death are physical and eternal. If we’re not warning people away from physical death, “Believe on Jesus and you’ll never attend your own funeral,” than what are we warning them away from? The loss of Hell means the removal of sinners’ peril.
The doctrine of the atonement is changed.
Once we have denied at some level the holiness and justice of God by “reframing Hell,” removing the peril of sinful man, we must by necessity “reframe the atonement.” What happened upon the cross? If there is no eternal wrath of God abiding upon sinners, than what did Christ propitiate? What did Christ bear on the Cross? What cost was paid? The answers to these questions change with the loss of Hell in the Bible’s story. Rather than speak about Christ dying upon the cross, propitiating the wrath of God our sins deserve, deniers of Hell are left speaking about other reasons He died and rose again. These ignore the penal substitutionary atonement clearly foreshadowed in the Old Testament and declared in the New.
The hope for justice is denied.
The sins of men which have brutalized this world are never fully dealt with in this life. The “justice systems” of men are systemically unjust. Like pagan education systems which do not educate and pagan health systems which do not bring health, so pagan justice systems do not bring justice. This becomes more and more apparent. Desires to topple statues and raise the dead for vigilante justice grow more insistent. The Nuremberg Trials did not achieve justice for the atrocities of the Holocaust. Where must we look for justice? To God! How does the Bible say He accomplishes this justice? Remember that the sins of men which torment and terrorize the peoples of the earth are against God FIRST. God flooded the earth for the human violence filling up His creation.
The promise of eternal life is destabilized.
The promises of eternal life are very often paired with the warnings about eternal death. One cannot “demythologize” the metaphorical language of Hell without having to do the same to the metaphorical language of Heaven. If Hell is not “eternal conscious punishment” it just kind of sounds that way to some people, than why is Heaven “eternal conscious blessed rest?”
The preaching of the Gospel is altered.
Although those who deny Hell may stubbornly insist they wholeheartedly believe the Gospel, and insist they are orthodox, remember they have changed the definitions of several Biblical terms. This kind of witchcraft is enchantment, a redefining of existing terms. Tim Mackey still uses terms like “Gospel, Hell, Heaven, Sin, Salvation, Justice, Atonement, etc…” but the definitions have all changed. What kind of gospel is it wherein the character of God, the peril of sinners, the nature of the atonement, the hope of justice and the promise of eternal life are all “reframed.” To borrow an illustration from Rosaria Butterfield, “Tim wants us to think we’re all looking at the same tree from different angles, but in fact we’re not even in the same forest.”
