Surprised by Hell

Every theological system has difficult texts to explain and ultimate restoration is no different. We have already considered several exclusionary passages, but there are more challenges to consider. Blasphemy Jesus gives a warning in the Gospels that seems to shut the door on any hope of future forgiveness: And so I tell you, every kind … Read more

Theological solutions often include a combination of ideas while emphasizing particular concepts. This is not easy to do because it involves holding multiple ideas in mind simultaneously while recognizing their interrelatedness and placing them in an appropriate order. If there is one guy who excelled at this task, it was the apostle Paul. So what … Read more

Have you ever heard something about someone that you knew couldn’t be true? If someone told me that they saw my wife doing daredevil stunts in our car, I wouldn’t believe it. From all the years we’ve known each other, that wouldn’t make any sense.[i] Likewise, the traditional view of hell presents a divine character … Read more

To some extent my ignorance of other views of postmortem judgment makes sense. Since the time of Augustine, eternal conscious torment has been the dominate view of the Catholic Church. And John Calvin gave this view his stamp of approval for the Protestant world.[i] A Third View After I began thinking about annihilationism, I found … Read more

A friend who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy invited me to attend a service at his church. I knew that Eastern Orthodoxy, along with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, comprised the three main branches of Christianity. I also knew that Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism separated in AD 1054 due in part to different views of the … Read more