Entry 318 - Fundamental Christians Gospel on Eternal Hell

9/30/20

Let’s just imagine for a second if the Fundamental, Protestant Christian narrative of life and all that jazz was completely true. It wouldn’t be better; it would actually be a more sad, depressing plan than the other ones out there. Let me explain.

First off, by fundamental Christianity, the thought process is that by default, everyone is going to hell for eternity unless they accept the gospel. Some go even further and say you must accept the gospel and follow the rules the church determines are necessary for salvation (e.g., Catholics). But nonetheless, those who are not Christian—who either didn’t have the chance to accept the gospel or didn’t—will be in hell for eternity. Calvinists say it is fair because God predestined them to hell and predestined some to heaven, and it wasn’t our choice but His sovereign will. Then we have the Arminian way of thinking that it is up to us where we end up, but nonetheless, most go to hell and only a few are saved.

Just think for a second if their doctrine and interpretation of Jesus' gospel were true... How is that gospel in any way successful? Victorious? A winner when most people lose??? When most people are thrown in hell for eternity without a second chance? That doesn’t sound like the good news! It sounds like good news for a select group of people and horrible news for the vast majority! If anything, it’s rarely successful because only a minority benefit from it! And if God’s desire is for all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth, and yet most men are not saved and don’t, wouldn’t that be a fail? Is God not strong enough to carry out His will to save all men and have them come to the full knowledge of the truth? Or is His will truly bent on the small Europeans bringing the good news, or else everyone burns in hell who doesn’t hear it? It just doesn’t add up.

Now, in many religions, hell is said to be on this earth, which is ironic because each day, if we get stuck in the dualistic mindset, we could say we experience many hellish and heavenly moments throughout our lives. So is hell really an eternal abode with eternal torment with no benefit at all except for you to burn before God all the days of your life? Or could hell serve a purpose much greater than having no purpose except to punish?  

What if Earth is seen as a type of hell? The fact that we can experience pain, anguish, death? That there are plants, animals, and insects that are constantly being born and dying, going through processes. Where does a fox go when it dies? Does it go to fox heaven? Or, if it lived a good life, does it become a better animal in its next? Where does the ant go once it dies? Does it just cease to exist, or if it valiantly served her baby mama queen ant well, will she be rewarded with a bigger reincarnation? Who knows the answers? Do the foxes have books that they give their young, telling them if they live a good life they will go to heaven for eternity, or if they live a bad life and reject the gospel they will go to hell for eternity? If not, how do they live without a book to regulate their behavior and to teach them right from wrong? Are they not doomed without the Bible? The story of those who have gone before? Will they not perish without some sort of book outside of them?

What about humans? If they don’t live a “good” life or “believe the gospel,” are they subject to an afterlife of eternal torment because of a finite amount of mistakes made? Is one life enough to grant them complete rejection in God’s eyes? Do they really deserve to never be saved for their lack of seeing through delusion or breaking the preconditioned programming they grew up with? Or possibly, would they return to “hell” and get another chance at life? Maybe hell isn’t so much about an eternal abode as it is a place to learn and grow. Maybe hell isn’t so much a place as it is a journey, a road of sorts to the Supreme place with the Supreme God.

Maybe some go through hell more times than others, but no one is admitted to hell for eternity for their lack of seeing through delusion. Maybe there are people who make it back to the Supreme God and escape the cyclical and dualistic nature of life. Maybe while they were alive, they lived heaven as a reality, and when their physical body died, they kept living that reality with God. Maybe hell and heaven need to be seen less as places and more as mindsets that determine our reality. Maybe what you call hell is what I call heaven. We could be in the exact same place, experiencing the exact same scenario, and maybe you are deeply hurt by it, but for me, I took it as a learning experience and grew from it. Maybe hell is less about what’s outside of us and more about what is within us. Maybe we need to look deeper within ourselves and dissolve the hell before we can see the reality of heaven. Who knows.