All You Want to Know About Hell
by Steve Gregg
a review by Stuart Brogden
From the not-so-fine folks at
Westboro Baptist Church to Rob Bell, it seems that nearly everyone has an
opinion about Hell and who will end up there. Steve Gregg's book promises to
tell us everything we want to know about the subject, claiming to present
“three Christian views of God's final solution to the problem of sin”. This leads the reader to expect a biblical
defense and analysis of this topic. These three views are listed as the
Traditional, Conditional, and Restorational views. I hope to show you how this
works out so you can determine if this book will strengthen your faith in the
biblical God.
The forward, ostensibly written
by Gregg, reveals his bias early on as he asks the reader to conduct a thought
experiment – If the Bible said nothing about hell, which of the three views
would you expect God to choose based on what the Bible says about God; and
then, “Based upon your character, which would you wish for Him to
choose?” We will see this orientation repeated within this book – looking at
creator God or some doctrine from a humanistic perspective rather than a
biblical one. This is a recipe for trouble. The Introduction is a walk through
various man-centered views about innocence and goodness and punishment,
accompanied by the assertion that none of these three views about hell “denies
any major affirmation of the gospel” (page 4). Prior to providing a summary of
the three views, Gregg says, “I have come to believe that none of these
positions can justly be called “heretical.” All are held by evangelicals who
accept the authority of Scripture.” Gregg includes Roman Catholics, Christian
liberals, and neo-orthodox within his overly broad category of “evangelicals”
and he has a rather liberal view of “accepting the authority of Scripture.”
This causes some of the author's confusion on this topic. After describing
these three views, he tells us his
intention is not to promote any one view.
The overviews provided in the Introduction include myriad proof-texts
for each – a particularly unsatisfactory method of supporting a doctrinal
position, as lack of context allows virtually any Scripture to be claimed by
virtually anyone for virtually any argument. And a common thread throughout the
book is one of questioning the traditional view.
One thing about our author which
is very good – he is not blinded by what he was taught and does seek to prompt
the reader to think about what he reads in Scripture. This is a good
thing, one that I believe most folks pay little heed to. A case in point – many
English Bibles carelessly use the word “hell” for the grave and for hell. The
Apostles' Creed doesn't help in this particular case. We must be careful how we
read.
Gregg starts off chapter 1 (page
17) saying, “Atheists find the doctrine (of hell) to be a strong deterrent to
their belief in the God of Christianity.” Perhaps he meant to say that atheist claim
this to be so, they hate God and will do what they can to judge the Judge of
all creation. The truth about atheists is that they are dead in sin and unable
to believe in Christ – unless the Spirit of God raise them up and give them
faith. In his supposedly even-handed review of the Calvinistic view, Gregg
actually ridicules it by describing this view of God as “a bipolar entity” who
is “about equally divided between extreme love and extreme hatred”, and declare
this not to reflect the biblical God (page 23). An honest reading of just about
any book in the Bible shows the Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of all flesh as
One Who saves whom He wishes and destroys whom He wishes. Romans 9 is a prime
example of this dynamic picture of the only true God. Throughout this chapter
our author portrays hell as the product of human thought, pulls Scripture out
of context to make a point, and claims the Roman Catholic Church's political
campaigns known as the Crusades demonstrates how hellish Christians can be.
Here's that humanistic view – anyone who claims to be a Christian is to be
accepted as one. Then, when some professing Christians do hellish things, we
can drag the Bible through the mud with them. While any Christian is capable of
doing pretty much any wicked thing, every true Christian is indwelt by the Holy
Spirit and not be at peace with sin. The decades-long Crusades do not represent
Christians who got lazy and lapsed into sin. It was a deliberate series of acts
that cannot be reconciled to Christianity, organized by a cult that has done
more to kill Christians and keep the Bible locked up than the Muslims ever
have.
In the last few pages of this
chapter, titled, “Why Hell?”, Gregg (pg 47) claims “a punishment that never
reaches an end can only guarantee that justice will never finally prevail.
Unless the sinner's sin actually deserves infinite punishment, such
punishment must be inherently unjust.” In the next paragraph, Gregg notes that
these points he just made “are the reasonings of mere men – but what other
reasoning is at our disposal?” Yet on
page 40, we were told the “approach that evaluates a teaching merely from the
standpoint of human reactions to it is inferior, in that it is man-centered. To
be authentic, Christian theology must be God-centered.” To this, all God's
children say a hearty AMEN! But, as I noted at the beginning, a humanist view
pervades this book. He brings this chapter to a close observing that eternal
punishment to satisfy God's wrath is a “harder sell” than a hell that serves a
redemptive purpose, then he quotes the liberal, Clark Pinnock: “The traditional
view of the nature of hell does not cohere well with the character of God
disclosed in the gospel.” If the character was only disclosed to us in “the
gospel” (one cannot help but wonder if Mr. Pinnock knows the biblical gospel),
then one might listen. But that's not the case. The Christian accepts the Word
of God as His wisdom revealed to us and we submit our minds to that, crying out
to the Holy Spirit for understanding. We do not lean on our own understanding!
Elsewhere Gregg acknowledges the notion that a creature sinning against an infinite
Creator is viewed, by some, as justifying infinite punishment. He also mentions
in his argument for the traditional view the reality that unredeemed sinners in
hell do not stop sinning; therefore, their punishment doesn't stop. Both of
these aspects are worthy of consideration before one embraces a position
promoted by a “Christian liberal.”
Gregg spills a lot of ink telling
us that hell is not mentioned very much in Scripture and that hell was not a
“front-burner” issue for the Savior or His apostles. “They must have found
something other than terror to motivate them to obedience and service.” Our
author laments gospel preaching that is basically a warning to escape the
coming judgment of God – rightfully so, as that is not faithful preaching. The
gospel is fundamentally about the redemption of sinners by grace alone through
faith alone in Christ alone – to be with Him forever on the new earth. Gregg is
right (pg 61) to point out that repentance accompanies faith and should not be
ignored in gospel preaching. Two pages later, he tells us of devout Christian
man who testified that “he could not become a Christian (that is, he could not
love God) until he actually came to disbelieve in the traditional doctrine of
hell.” This is not the way a person is saved – this is the story of a man
seeking a god made in his image because he does not like the God Who is. He
quotes Pinnock again, propping up the notion that people must be convinced to
save themselves, and then says “We must not allow pragmatism to drive our
message. Our message must be the truth. Any deviation from what the Bible
really teaches may produce undesirable and unforeseen consequences.” And yet he
keeps on bringing up ideas and suggestions that God will not punish unrepentant
sinners for eternity – sounding to me more like the serpent in the garden than
a Christian theologian. And then he ends the chapter reminding us, “God
alone is enough for those who seek and find Him.” AMEN!
Gregg's personal bias shows forth
in the chapter discussing Lazarus and the rich man, as he asserts (page 70)
that the scene of demons emerging from the pit in Rev 9, 11, and 20 “is not
properly identified with what we commonly think of as hell.” Two pages later we
read, “Hades itself is destined to be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14),
so it obviously is not the same thing as the lake of fire.” Each of these
scenes presents the abyss where demons come from and go back to – what I
commonly think of as hell. I also see Revelation as a picture book of
progressive parallel series of re-tellings of the church age, culminating with
the return of Christ, the judgment of the people of earth, and the
establishment of the new earth where He will reign with all the redeemed for
eternity. Since John's Apocalypse is apocalyptic literature, we need to see the
word pictures as such and not take them literally. This helps one not fall into the problems
that hound Gregg.
Chapter 5 is a word study on
Gehenna and Aionios, and our author seems to be stuck in his literal
interpretative mode, seeing this word refer to various places where people and
trash were burnt, etc. and having trouble seeing that as a metaphor for the place
where unrepentant sinners will be punished for eternity. Having previously told
us, rightly, that a doctrine does not need to be repeated multiple times to be
valid, Gregg now turns the other cheek and notes that Jesus spoke about hell
very little. He sums up this teaching thusly (page 89): “We are told almost
nothing about it (hell) in these places (the gospel accounts), except that
bodies (footnote Matt 5:29,30; 18:9; Mark 9:43,45,47) can be thrown into
“everlasting” and “unquenchable” fire there (footnote Matt 18:8; Mark
9:43,45,48), resulting in a fate worse than mere mutilation or martyrdom,
involving the destruction of soul and body (footnote Matt 10:28).” He then
laments that this does not seem to be enough detail or discussion about
something as important as eternal punishment. If one has a biblical
understanding of redemptive history, sees the curses in Deut 29 for anyone who
fails to keep the law, grasps the picture of atonement, partially comprehends
the holiness of God and His righteous hatred of sin, see how Christians are
redeemed and rescued from the wrath of God by the Lamb of God – those few
passages Gregg cited are more than adequate to show what will happen to all
whose name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The temporal references
to punishment and fire are shadows of the eternal things they represent just as
sure as the Levitical sacrifices were (Heb 8:5). It does the child of God no
good at all to discount the seriousness of sin, making hell little more than a
rehabilitation camp, and denigrating the perfection of Christ in the flesh and
His atoning sacrifice for the elect.
In discussing the Greek word,
aionios, Gregg again gets bogged down in literal, temporal uses and the
definition that fits those circumstances – and then imposes that definition on
the eternal, spiritual circumstances. This is done with the apparent aim of
trying to show that eternal destruction means something less, something more
bearable, something redemptive; something unbiblical. He rightly warns about
the improper use of concordances, but (page 101) uses a footnote to tell us why
we should not think of this Greek word as meaning eternal – because in 20 out
of more than 320 uses it points to something in the past, but “rarely if ever
to a limitless past.” More than 300 times the word indicates indefinite
continuance, 20 times it points to the past. When it points to the past, it
normally doesn't mean limitless. So when this word points to the future and, in
more than 300 instances, indicates indefinite continuance, we should think it
doesn't mean endless. It's just not as explicit as Gregg would like it, not
clear enough for those without spiritual eyes to see and believe.
Lastly, we'll take a look at his
defense of the traditional view – that hell is the eternal punishment of fallen
angels and unrepentant sinners. He appears to have no problem with the idea
that the soul of man is eternal. That's his first point in defending this view.
Next up is the nature of hell – fire can be figurative or literal, some think
hell is simply being ignored by God (page 139). As noted above, we see both in
what we are saved from and what demons and unredeemed are destined to suffer,
those in hell are not separated from God, they are separated from everything
except His wrath. And His wrath they will suffer under for an indefinite
continuance – eternity. His 3rd point is that repentance will be
unavailable in hell. How could there be, considering the judgment that
determines destiny happens when man dies? Repentance is a gift from God to His
redeemed – not something extended to those in hell. This is one reason
unlimited atonement is wrong thinking – the blood of Jesus would not have been
shed for anyone not predestined by God the Father and sealed by God the Spirit.
The three holy persons of the Trinity are unified – why would they be at odds
with one another in this greatest exchange? The 4th point is the
right perspective that the saints' joy in heaven (or the new earth) will not be
affected or mitigated by knowledge of the damnation of the lost. Our joy will
based on being with God, not on being forgetful of His justice on the wicked.
There but by the grace of God go you and I.
In his cross-examination of this
position, Gregg argues for temporal interpretations of passages such as Matt
3:10 & 12, insisting they are not eschatalogical. But the student of God's
Word will know that many prophecies in the Old and New Testaments have a “near”
and a “far” application – such as the famous citation in Matt 2:15, claiming
Hosea's prophecy for Jesus, that most certainly was written as a remembrance of
the faithfulness of God in redeeming Israel from Egypt. And the same story of
John the Baptist cited in Mark 3:10 is found in Luke 3, where verse 15 makes it
clear that the winnowing John speaks of is eschatalogical. When Gregg
discussed “the wages of sin”, he sides with liberals who think God would have
spoken clearly to the ancient people if He intended them to know they might
face eternal punishment (page 143). But the Bible tells us that, when Adam ate
from the forbidden tree, his eyes were opened and he knew good and evil. From
that point on, all human flesh knew right from wrong (Roman 2:12 – 15), just as
Cain knew murder was wrong without ever being told. Do we believe the Word of
God or a liberal that questions it? When the author ponders “the worm that does
not die”, he argues that this is used to describe corpses – and corpses are not
what traditionalists say are in hell. So Is 66:24 can't be talking about hell.
He skips right over Psalm 22:6 and Job 25:6 where man is called a worm – so we
take our meaning from context and know that when the Bible refers to worms, it
can mean men who are not corpses.
Once again, in his argument
starting on page 178, Gregg acknowledges Revelation to be apocalyptic
literature (page 179) and applies that to the “torment” described in Rev
14:10-11, but not so the “fire and brimstone”. He asserts (page 179) “However,
“fire and brimstone” were previously seen in Revelation in connection with
temporal judgment that are not associated with the lake of fire (Rev 9:17-18).
He then quotes William Fudge, who was educated by the Church of Christ (at
Abilene Christian College) and denies that man's soul is immortal; because such
a thing would require the traditional view of hell. The quote from Fudge: “It
is not at all clear that Revelation 14:9-11 is even speaking about final
punishment.” Let's look at this passage and see. Here's the cited text:
Revelation 14:9-11 And a third angel
followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and
his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath,
which is mixed full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with
fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb,
and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest
day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or anyone who
receives the mark of his name. Many
people who see John's Apocalypse in the idealist view see seven parallel and
progressive retellings of the age between Christ's two advents, with the end of
this age being told several times – including the end of chapter 14. Read the
balance of this chapter and it becomes clear we're reading the end of the age
and doom that awaits all who worship not the God of heaven and earth.
He continues to claim the
temporal judgments, such as what God poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah, mean
that references to them and the use of similar terms (like fire and brimstone)
must not be eternal. But we do see how temporal things are signs and types of
eternal things (such as in Hebrews 9:1-10). And since we know that the soul of
man lives forever (Gregg has pointed us to some of these, such as Dan 12:2-3),
and since unrepentant sinners have sinned against the perfect, absolutely holy
God, and they will not stop sinning once in hell, their torment will be
eternal. And one last comment on this book, because it is as the preacher said
in Ecclesiastes 12:12, there is no end to the making of many books, and much
study wearies the body. Gregg quotes
another liberal, as John Stott ended up, in observing that Rev 14:11 says “it
is the smoke (evidence that the fire has done its work) which 'rises forever
and ever'” - in making the assertion that people are not punished “forever and
ever”. It's only the smoke of their “light and momentary” torment that produces
smoke which “rises forever and ever”. Every camper knows that the only way
smoke will continue to rise is if the fire continues to have fuel. Without
fuel, the smoke will dissipate and slowly stop – it will not continue forever
and ever. And since the Lord Jesus described hell (Mark 9:44, 46, & 48) as
the unquenchable fire, where Their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched. How much more clear can it be? Living man is described as a worm;
in hell, the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And the smoke of
that fire which is not quenched as it burns those who dieing do not die, rise
forever and ever – as they never repent but keep on cursing God throughout
eternity. This is the biblical truth of hell that soft-headed liberals
cannot face.
Holy God redeems some and saves
us “from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:10). Those for whom He did not shed His
blood He will reject, telling them ‘I
never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’ On Judgment Day, those whose names are not
written in the Lamb's Book of Life (which were written before the foundation of
the world – see Rev 13:8) will look for a place to hide from the Lamb of God –
but there will be no place to hide, no deed done in darkness that will not be
revealed. Just as Satan and his demons are thrown into the lake of fire, where
they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev 14:10), so will all
those who were not predestined to eternal life be cast into the lake of fire.
The Bible calls this “the second death” (Rev 14:14). Revelation 20:15 tells
us And anyone not found written in
the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Contrary to the question
Gregg would to plant in our minds, in this one passage of God's holy Word we
see that those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life are
thrown into the lake of fire, the same place Satan and his demon are thrown,
where they all will be tormented forever – and the smoke of their torment will
go up forever and ever. This is the second death that all men deserve. This is
the wrath of God from which we who are in Christ Jesus are shielded (Romans
8:1). This is the doom that awaits all who do not believe and will not repent.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is all
about Him. It is a reminder that all men have rebelled against Holy God and all
deserve His wrath. But the Lord Jesus has gone before us – the Law-giver became
the Law-keeper on the account of the Law-breakers. He has surrendered His
perfect life as an atonement for people of every nation, tribe, and tongue –
all those whose names were written in the Lamb's Books of Life before He
founded the world. We have a surety that cannot be taken from us – there is,
therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And since there
is no other name on earth or in heaven by which man must be saved, all those
who do not place their faith and trust in Him, who do not repent daily and seek
to honor Him will suffer the just reward for the sin they carry in their flesh
as children of Adam and the sin they commit in their bodies because they are
slaves to it. There is a penalty to pay and if Christ has not paid your debt,
you will suffer for eternity racking up a bill that will never be marked, “PAID
IN FULL!” Therefore, believe on Jesus, repent and seek Him while is it yet
today!
Hell is not part of the gospel.
The Bible does not give us a lot of details on hell, just as does not give a
lot of details on heaven or the new earth, which will the eternal home for
Christians. That doesn't mean these issued are unimportant, but it means they
are not of first priority. “What I must do to be saved?” That is the question
which must be answered. That is why the gospel is of first importance. We
should not argue secondary issued with those who are “outside the camp”. They
need to believe in Jesus, not figure out hell. We who are in Christ are to
never stop growing in faith and knowledge of Him. All else is secondary. Think
on heavenly things – that is where we are seated with Christ at this moment!