Subject: Is the request of Christ Granted? |
Bible Note: "How can anyone assert hell is empty?" one may ask. Scripture is full of declarations that people who commit particular sins will not go to heaven (e.g., I Cor. 6:9-10). Since some people unquestionably practice the sins mentioned until their dying day, how could hell be empty? Most fundamentally, the idea that we may hope that hell is empty is against the teaching of Scripture. Even if one were to write off all of Scripture's warnings about hell as purely hypothetical, Scripture directly asserts that many will not be saved. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus is asked, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" He replies by stating, "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (Luke 13:23-24). Given the question that prompts it, Jesus' answer cannot be interpreted to mean anything other than that many will not be saved. There is nothing conditional about the question or Jesus' answer. He does not say, "If someone does this then he will be damned" or "Anyone who does this will be damned." He says that there are many who fail to enter—and the context is salvation. The same is indicated elsewhere in the Gospels, such as when Jesus tells us that on the last day "many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers'" (Matt. 7:22-23). Again, none of this is hypothetical. Jesus says "many will" be cast away from him. Finally, although the Church does not teach that any particular individual is in hell, "I believe that Scripture indicates that Judas Iscariot is in hell". (I acknowledge that other orthodox commentators may disagree on this point.) Jesus says, "The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had .not been born" (Matt. 26:24). If Judas ended up in heaven rather than hell, it would be difficult to see how it would have been better for him not to have been born. Going through any amount of temporal pain and disgrace is not worth comparing to the joys of heaven (Rom, 8:18), and, if Judas went to heaven, matters still came out infinitely to his benefit. Only if Judas went to hell, it seems to me, would it have been better for him not to have been born. While most Christians know the goodness of God when they became Christians, the later discovery of the severity of God can come as a shock. God bless |