Heaven and Hell

I have been remiss in posting here lately. Not because I didn’t have any thoughts but I really have been overly busy with business in the church. But here is one that hopefully will get us thinking.

I teach a class at the community college centered on Christian Theology. One of the areas that we have discussed concerns the concepts of heaven and hell. Now I must tell you that the discussions were lively in the classroom with every student stating their idea of both heaven and hell. However, that is only a part of my post today.

This week I received an email from the Confessing Movement of the United Methodist Church. It never ceases to amaze me the stance on theologically significant issues that the Church (United Methodist) takes. In this article it mentioned the move in my denomination to cease using HELL in our confirmation and other significant church liturgy. I am appalled that many in the UMC seem to believe that HELL is simply a state of mind rather than a place. Well needless to say this article form the Confessing Movement made me search within for my own understanding of heaven and hell.

Heaven is beyond the words that I could write here. Nothing can adequately describe the beauty, the awesomeness, the glory or the wonder of heaven. I can only dream of what it must look, feel, and smell like. However, hell is a place that can be described.

As I pondered hell, one night I dreamed the following vision. Jesus was present of course, standing at what appeared to be a large oversized wooden gate. On the inside where Jesus stood, the gate was adorned with gold and many other fine jewels. On the outside, it was bleak without any hardware seen. Jesus stood at the gate with it open calling out to those on the outside. Many came to the door but only a few entered. As I watched the action I saw Jesus begin to close the door. The entire time Jesus is standing at the edge of the door looking out and calling to the people. People are doing their own thing and don’t even notice Jesus closing the door. As Jesus continues to close the door he stops and calls out one more time. Still no one responds. Jesus begins to weep as the door is closed. Immediately I can hear people knocking at the door. Jesus continues to cry as He and the one’s on the inside move further into heaven. I then find myself outside of the door or gate and see those who earlier were playing working or whatever, simply standing with a look of emptiness on their faces. There is no conversation between individuals. It is almost as if they do not recognize others are close by. No sound, No movement, just complete silence.

Awaking I immediately wrote down the above description. Pondering the dream, I have come to the conclusion that heaven is a place of great rejoicing, love, and beauty. However, I still can not fully describe heaven. Hell is a place of isolation, but it is a place. Here in lies the “kicker” for me, Hell is a place that God has prepared for the lost in His creation. Even as people rejected Him, God still loved and prepared a place. The people by their rejection chose this place. God didn’t send them there, rather they wanted to be there. Is hell real? YES Should it be preached about and taught in church? YES

Sadly, I believe by the heirarchy of the United Methodist Church sanctioning the removal of HELL from our liturgy and confirmation documents are condemning our denomination to HELL. Of course this is not the only theological term that has been castigated from our Methodist lingo. Others include repentance, sin, personal accountability and the list grows. We have become what our founder John Wesly feared. We are simply a group who has lost all power. Through denial, we have lost our power that is given through the Holy Spirit .

I am sure that many in the UMC would argue against this post but, I am simply stating what I believe to be true. If we continue to “waterdown” our theology, we will be guilty of apostacy.