A few weeks ago I watched a documentary entitled "Hellbound". Before anything I would recommend everyone to watch it. It is an interesting documentary that looks at the concept of Hell in western culture today. Very fascinating and interesting perspectives were raised throughout the documentary. Now I do not want to ruin the documentary by talking about so if you want more information you can contact me however, the following blog entry will discuss the concept of hell and if hell does exist how can a loving God surely send his own creation to hell. Before anything I would like to clarify that in the Orthodox church there is no set doctrine or dogmas on hell!
Hell has had and still plays a major impact within the church. Many church fathers have written on the concept of hell and and many wide views exist today in our modern times about hell. Before we do get into the concepts of hell I will first mention a few points; the wrong way hell is quoted by many people today. First of hell is not the place you go to if you do not go to church one Sunday out of the entire year. Going to church or living out your theology and love with others should not be based on fear. If you truly are embodied in the body of Christ then the concept of fear should not be present within you. Unfortunately today many people would use hell as a scare tactic to make individuals come to church or to partake in different church service. However the question must be asked how can one truly love and live within the church if it based on fear? Christianity as a whole (referring to all types) then becomes just a "set of activities" that one does so that he or she can "check of his list" knowing what he did wont get him to go to hell but will think he or she is saved. This is the unfortunate part of society today. We think we get something done and we are in the clear. However, this is not the case. This explains why many people stop going to church. Church for them has ceased to be the most beautiful thing because church has turned into a set of activities. If church then, by that definition, a set of activities, many will say I can do many better activities at the luxury of my own home. Instead of going to liturgy I can watch it at home and check of my list of attending liturgy many would think. However, by trying to fill your heart and soul with things of this world that will return to the dust it will always leave us searching for the depth that is only found within the church. Hell should not be preached out of fear. If we truly represent the one body of Christ and are living out our liturgy and being Christ in the world then fear and hell should never cross our minds. If we recognize Christ in all of humanity then Christ will accept us because we do not live for the "I" and "Me" but we live in Him and for Him.
Having touched on that there are a few more points that one should contemplate some more and that is the theories around hell. I will speak of two approaches and realize that I am not doing any justice to these topics as I am only touching the surface with my weak writing. The first concept is the idea that the majority of Christians would fall under and that is there is a heaven and a hell. You live a good life you go to heaven and you live a bad life you go to hell and burn for eternity. The other side to that coin is the concept of universalism. Essentially that concept is summed up as the salvation of all humanity.
Live good you go to heaven and live bad you will go to hell. Christians have struggled a whole lot trying to explain how can a loving God send people who never knew him to hell. To this concept I would say that God as we understand Him out of our weakness is a merciful and loving God. This concept cannot be held in our minds because we simply do not know if people go to hell or not. Now I am not saying people such as Hitler and Stalin, two individuals society labels as being horrific people who did much bad than good, are not in hell. My point being is that if God is love and he truly loves his creation that we cannot say God sends you to hell. If hell is understood as a separation from God then we can translate that as being when one dies that will be "there hell" because they are being separated from the things they most love and lived for. Money, possessions, cars, clothes, shoes etc. if this is what the individual loves then death will truly be painful and this will lead into "hell" for that individual because they are being separated from the things they love most. However, if one rids the mind and soul of worldly possessions and truly lives in the body of Christ seeing Christ in all of humanity then when that person dies it wont be a painful death but rather it will become life. That is when that person will say "into thy hands do I commend thy spirit".
St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote before his death to the community in Rome: "I am writing to all the Churches and I enjoin all, that I am dying willingly for God's sake, if only you do not prevent it. I beg you, do not do me an untimely kindness. Allow me to be eaten by the beasts, which are my way of reaching to God. I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ".
Ignatius did not see his death as being death but rather life in Christ. To be made a perfect human in life Ignatius understood this as being made pure and holy in the body of Christ. Did Ignatius every think for one minute he was going to hell? He had short comings just like any human out of there has weakness but is there mention of hell? The idea of humanity then is the path that leads to the body of Christ. Christ is our example because Christ shows us what it is to be God in the way he dies as a human being. We sing that Christ trampled death by death. The one thing that we as humans are weak and vulnerable but Christ has bestowed life to us through death. Life then becomes the opposite of what we know and this explains many things the church does today. We enter the church through death to receive life (baptism). This then would lead into the next point; universalism.
Universalism in a nut shell speaks of the salvation of all humanity. Now before I get into this I would like to say that both these concepts of universalism and heaven and hell are not DOCTRINE or DOGMA! There are no canons that ascribe to the existence of hell and there is no writing preaching about people being in hell either. So if society has pushed on us these concepts of hell why not talk from the other side? Heaven!
Many people have preached about universalism. Origen and Gregory of Nyssa are two fathers who are labeled with this concept. Now the one thing we must understand about universalism that one can agree with it and another person might not and that is fine because its an opinion. Universalism says that no matter what kind of life one will chose to live out at the end we will all be molded in the hands of Christ becoming clay and being molded in the image of Christ. Universalism is not an easy concept to comprehend and like I said before I am only touching the surface. Now universalism is not living "the good life" (whatever definition one gives it) and thinks they will be saved. Actually this type of life goes back to death being painful because you will be separated from what you truly love. Universalism is accepting and seeing that we all fall short and in doing that we must be broken down and build back up in the image and likeness of God. This is personified when Paul the Apostle says my strengthen is manifested in weakness. Once we start seeing things "backwards" is when we start living in the one body of Christ. We are not given life and then we grow old entering death but rather we are given over to death and we enter into life. We are made new in Christ and this goes back to what Ignatius was saying before "...so that I might become the pure bread of Christ". Life and being the perfect human being is realized through the person of Christ.
By touching on these two points I hope that this shed some light to some misconceptions that are being preached on hell. Hell should not be based on fear for one going to church and being active in service! The most important concept is live which is brought to fruition in the one body of Christ. Living out ones liturgy in the world does not then rest in the "I" and the "ME" but in Christ. Seeing humanity in the light of Christ will reveal to us that Christ is all and in all and in doing so we will commit our lives to the love of Christ and not the fear of hell.
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