WE LOOK AT another answer regarding the future: universalism. Universalism teaches us that everybody will be saved finally, that salvation is universal. Those who hold this doctrine feel that the love of God cannot fail. But it can fail. It failed in the case of Judas, for the will of man is free and can decide for or against the love of God. God cannot save a person against his will, for if He saved that person against his will he wouldn’t be saved. Kant said: “There is nothing good but a good will, and there is nothing bad but a bad will.” God cannot coerce a bad will, for it wouldn’t be a will after it was coerced. Man can continue to refuse to obey God, and he will therefore be lost. Universalism is wishful thinking, and contrary to the facts as we know them at work now.
Another answer is that those outside of Christ will burn in hell forever, literally. This literalism has been responsible for a great deal of heartache and questioning concerning the character of God. If universalism makes the love of God too loose, this literalism makes the love of God too rigid and vindictive. There is a view that is more consistent with the love of God and more consistent with the laws we see at work now.
This view would not do away with hell, but would put the responsibility for it where it belongs—on the person who persistently and continuously rebels against God. I don’t know where hell ends, but I certainly know where hell begins. Sin is hell begun. It is a state before it is a place. Anyone who is living in sin is living in hell now. You take that state of sin out with you into the next life, and you will get a place corresponding to the inner state. Hell is portable. God doesn’t give it to you; you choose it.
O God, when we sin we sin not only against Thee, but also against ourselves. We are trying to live life in a way it was never intended to be lived. So we sin against life—our life—when we sin against Thee. Forgive us that we hurt Thee and ourselves. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The good is good for us and the bad is bad for us.
