The Edge of Heaven

Charlie Dunn

Discuss this article

Recently I sat down with a friend who believed a great many Christian truths. He believed it was impossible to live with a deterministic worldview, and he valued free will and the uniqueness of humanity. Though he saw the broken and materialistic state of our world, he recognized that man could find purpose and value in life when reconciled with his Creator. Yet there was one concept that he could not seem to accept: Hell. How could God be so unmerciful as to send people to Hell? Would God really send “good” people of other faiths to Hell? How could the God of love be so wrathful as to send people to eternal torture? His questions were thoughtful and provocative. Indeed these same questions challenge Christians and non-Christians alike. Men and women more learned than I have poured many hours into attempting to answer these questions. Even so, I will try to articulate my responses to them.

At the heart of the discussion about Hell is the concept of sin. Traditionally, society, both Christian and non-Christian, has equated sin with immoral actions such as lying, lusting, or stealing, actions for which perpetrators are condemned to hell. But to define sin in such a way is to merely address the symptoms of what sin truly is and not to diagnose the fundamental nature of sin or its roots.

Sin is not simply immoral actions, but rather these actions are manifest symptoms of the deeper issue, which truly defines sin: separation from God. Sin is a state of being, existing outside of God’s will and residing apart from Him. At the root of all sin is pride, which is essentially the idea that we can control our lives without God and that He is irrelevant to us. Sin is, whether consciously or not, shaking our fists at God and saying that we do not need Him. It is positing that we the created understand how to conduct and order our lives better than the Creator. Whether it is ourselves, or something in our lives, we worship whatever is most valuable to us, making it our god. And God, not being tyrannical or compulsory, does not force us to worship Him, but rather allows us to worship whatever and whomever we choose.

In C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce, Lewis questions whether or not many people in Hell would choose Heaven even if they could. Lewis illustrates a bus full of people from Hell who arrive at the edge of Heaven, where they are implored to abandon the things that have imprisoned them in Hell. Whether bound by addiction, resentment, self-pity, or hatred, the people cannot seem to let go of their problems despite their misery. They are unable to take responsibility for their actions, and thus they reject the prospect of Heaven before them. Lewis elsewhere discusses the concept that hearts separated from God can reach such a point of depravity, that they would not want to be in Heaven even if they could. He writes:

Hell … begins with a grumbling mood, and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps even criticizing it…. You can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine.¹

Though a daunting and frightening prospect, it is not unthinkable to imagine people holding onto things, despite the fact that giving them up would be for their greatest good. Lewis writes:

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.²

Christian thinker Tim Keller notes that according to Romans 1:21-25, we were made to live for God, but often we live for work, love, morality, and achievement, looking to them for worth and meaning. We become enslaved to these things, and the “guilt, anger, and fear” which they produce are “like fire that destroys us.”³ Hell is not simply God finding ways to punish people who do not obey Him. Rather, as Lewis describes it, people would rather have their perceived freedom than salvation. Those who arrive at the edge of Heaven in The Great Divorce, refuse to glorify God and submit to him for fear that in doing so they might lose their human greatness. Ironically, that is exactly what their choice has done. They have lost the very greatness for which they were created. “There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy – that is to reality…it has a hundred fine names – Achilles’ wrath and Corialanus’ grandeur, Revenge and Injured Merit and Self-Respect and Tragic Greatness and Proper Pride.”⁴ This past summer, I spent some time fishing with one of my uncles. It was a great time for me to leave behind my urban ways and experience the serenity of nature. While out on the lake, my uncle shared with me many of his life experiences, and we talked about the things that were most valuable to us. When the conversation focused on the Christian faith, my uncle brought up a heartfelt concern, which I have heard expressed by many other friends. While he considered following Jesus the best way for him, he could not believe that God would send a devout Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist to hell. After all, throughout his medical career he had known several very good men and women who espoused these faiths. To my uncle and to many others, to see God as accepting good people of all faiths into heaven is far more tolerant and inclusive.

In many of the world’s major religions, there seems to be the idea that if we are “good” enough people, we can merit the favor of God. According to former Muslim and now Christian lecturer Afshin Ziafat,⁵Muslims believe that people’s deeds are weighed, and if they are good enough, they might tip the scale, allowing them to be admitted into paradise. Essentially, the good people are able to find God but the bad do not. But what about us not so good people? The Gospel says that “the people who know they aren’t good can find God, and the people who think they are good do not.” ⁶It proclaims that no matter who you are or what you have done, you can still be reconciled to God through accepting the gift of Jesus Christ. This concept is illustrated in the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus is confronted by a man with leprosy. Scorned and repelled by his society, this leper was separated from all human contact. He knelt before Jesus and said “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Having heard his request, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.”⁷ In this amazing story we see the heart of the Gospel. Christ reached out and touched humanity while we were still in the depths of sin.

One of the greatest objections to the concept of Hell that I have encountered is this: if God is loving, how could He send people into eternal torture? How could He construct ways to make people suffer? To address these questions, it is beneficial to consider the Augustinian definition of evil. He states, “Evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name ‘evil’.” ⁸One might compare his analysis with light or heat, which empirically exist, and darkness and cold, which are merely the absence of light or heat. In the same way, God exists, but evil as an independent entity does not. Evil is fundamentally the absence of God. Thus what makes Hell such a torturous place is not a little devil poking people with a pitchfork, nor is it Homer Simpson’s Hell, a mountain of donuts that he is forced to consume. Hell is torturous because it is eternal separation from God, Who according to the Bible is the source of all joy, love, wisdom, and all things good.⁹Imagine a place devoid of everything in which we delight, everything that we value or cherish, and you will begin to glimpse the darkness of hell. Surely, Hell is a real place, which the Bible often describes with imagery of fire, ¹⁰yet what makes Hell so unbearable is the separation from all things good; separation from God.

In her book Hope Has Its Reasons, Becky Pippert describes how any loving person is often filled with wrath. She writes:

Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it…. Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference.¹¹

God as loving as He is, despite the fact that we shook our fists at Him, despite the fact that we found other things to worship and deemed Him irrelevant to our lives, refused to “indifferently” allow us to spend eternity separated from Him. Thus He sent His only son to earth to be born a man, to endure what we endure, and to experience what we experience. Being fully God and yet fully man, He lived a perfect life, and when His time had come, He took all of our sins upon Himself and died on a cross. Three days later, He was resurrected as He had predicted, now interceding with God on our behalf.

Jesus showed us what true love really means. John 15:15 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,”¹² and indeed that is the love that God sent to the world through Christ. Romans 3:23 states: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” ¹³We cannot attain salvation on our own merit; salvation is the amazing gift of God’s grace, and all we must do is accept it in faith. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” ¹⁴Perhaps the best answer I could have given my friend – certainly the best answer to my own doubts and questions – is that maybe we need to be asking a more poignant question. In light of God’s grace, rather than asking how God could send people to Hell, we might consider asking: why haven’t I accepted God’s great gift?

1. C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York: Harper Collins, 2001) 77.

2. Ibid., 75.

3. Tim Keller, “Preaching Hell in a Tolerant Age,” Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal 18 (1997): 42.

4. C.S. Lewis, 71-2.

5. Afshin Ziafat, Afshin Ziafat Ministries.

6. Tim Keller, 42.

7. Matthew 8:2-3. The NIV Study Bible, ed. Kenneth Barker et al. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).

8. Augustine, The City of God, tr. and ed. Marcus Dods (New York: Hafner, 1948) XI, Chap. 9.

9. Psalm 16:11, James 1:17. The NIV Study Bible.

10. James 3:6, Revelation 21:8. Ibid.

11. Becky Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001) 101.

12. John 15:15. The NIV Study Bible.

13. Romans 3:23. NIV.

14. Romans 6:23. NIV.

Discuss this article

DS on Sun May 06 03:49:22 +0000 2007

Great article. I think this takes a difficult concept, makes it personal and real, and it brings us back to the truth of the gospel in a coherent, intellectually true way.

Ashley on Mon May 07 20:17:20 +0000 2007

In the article you talk about evil briefly:

"In the same way, God exists, but evil as an independent entity does not. Evil is fundamentally the absence of God. Thus what makes Hell such a torturous place is not a little devil poking people with a pitchfork..."

You say evil is an independent entity does not exist. What is the devil then? And what is his connection to hell?

Charlie on Tue May 08 00:57:15 +0000 2007

That's a great question. I'll do my best to answer it through what I understand the Bible to say about the Devil and Hell. The Devil or Satan was created as one of God's angels. As part of God's creation, he was created as good. However, created with free will, due to his great pride and desire to ascend to the throne of God, [essentially the evil in which humanity finds itself - our pride turns us away from God and separates us from Him] he was cast from heaven to earth with the other angels who supported him. (See Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, and Revelation 12). In fact, in Luke 10, Jesus states that he saw "Satan fall like lighting from heaven." On earth he "masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corintians 11:14) and "prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." He is described as the tempter and the accuser who goes about the earth seeking to lead people away from God, and as the father of lies (John 8:44). Essentially, in his rebellion against God, he desires to see people separated from God and eternal life with Him (refer to the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3). He preys upon our own pride and selfish nature and tempts us into seeking fulfillment in places other than God. Yet his effort to separate humanity from God was unsuccessful, for in God's sovereign plan, Satan and death were conquered by Christ's death and resurrection. By dying on the cross, Christ atoned for humanity's unrighteousness and through his resurrection, death was defeated and we were "made alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions" (Ephesians 2:5). Those who put their faith in Christ are then assured that the devil shall have no power over them. (Luke 10:19-20). For "If God is for them who shall be against them" and "nothing in all creation will be able to separate them from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:31 and 8:35-39). At the end of the world, after Christ's return, the Bible teaches that Satan will be cast into Hell for eternity along with all of those who have refused to worship God and to put their faith in Christ (Revelation 20).

I am certainly not an expert on Hell, Satan, and his relation to God and to humanity. In fact, in light of our often materially focused worldview, it is easy to consider things of the spiritual realm a bit fantastic. However, what I do understand is rooted in the Bible, which I believe to be the inspired word of God, which is His Truth to us in all matters of faith and conduct. Certainly, there are questions left unanswered within it. There are things that God does not reveal directly to us, things that we may not even be able to understand. However, what God has shown us is His love manifest in Christ. He has shown us his grace, and he has offered us reconciliation to him through Christ. I don't know a great deal about heaven and hell, but I know God, what he has done for us, and the hope of eternal life he has given.

Sorry for the long response - I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions. I may not have answers, but I always love to discuss.

Isaiah on Wed May 09 19:01:43 +0000 2007

Great article, Charlie.

I've always imagined Hell as a very lonely prison, devoid of the love and light that God Himself is the source of. However, I've always struggled with the biblical descriptions of hell, which often makes it out to be a fiery lake of torture, fire, and brimstone.

How do you rectify the Biblical images of intense physical pain with your description of Hell as a location of intense emotional anguish?

"Imagine a place devoid of everything in which we delight, everything that we value or cherish, and you will begin to glimpse the darkness of hell"

Is it both/and or either/or? If heaven is far beyond our comprehension in its wonder and light, is hell conversely beyond our comprehension in its pain and misery?

-IB

Nate on Thu May 10 01:28:15 +0000 2007

Charlie,

Firstly, congratulations on Apologiaâ€™s launch. From what Iâ€™ve seen already, I think the publication will make an enormous contribution to campus intellectual and spiritual life.

To get right down to business, though, Iâ€™d like to pose a hypothetical and address it with what I interpreted to be the central thematic messages of this piece. I'd like to get your take on what I see as the inescapable implication of your general contention. Please do correct any inappropriate liberties I might have taken though with your wording or argument.

1) Should atheist/agnostics/deists Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who have donated tens of billions of dollars to world charities and committed more personal wealth to the amelioration of the human condition than any others in history, be admitted to heaven?

From what I can glean from your article, the answer is a resounding no. If sinners got to hell and sin is defined as â€œa state of being, existing outside of Godâ€™s will and residing apart from himâ€?, â€œthe idea that we can control our lives without Godâ€? then surely both men are headed to hell. Bill Gates has been quoted as referring to church attendance as a waste of time. Most importantly both men donâ€™t really acknowledge a personal god of any type as active in their lives, and by your considerations, it would seem, destined to hell.

2) On the other hand, should a pedophilic rapist and murder that acknowledges his sin and embraces Jesus Christ(â€œGodâ€™s great giftâ€?) in the last moments of life be accepted into heaven?

From what I can glean from your article, the answer would appear to be yes. Does the heinous criminal not fulfill the leper paradigm that you discuss in great detail? As you write yourself, â€œno matter who you are or what you have done, you can still be reconciled to God through accepting the gift of Jesus Christâ€?.

Whatâ€™s your perspective on a system of punishments and rewards that bestows the ultimate punishment(we can quibble over whether it involves flame or not) on the greatest altruists(in real terms) in history and supplies the greatest imaginable reward to the most monstrous criminals imaginable? Personally, I find something seems amiss.

Charlie on Fri May 11 01:46:31 +0000 2007

Hey Nate,

Thanks for taking the time to read through the Apologia and to respond to my article. Your question is thoughtful, and I would wager to say that you are not the only one to contemplate this matter. Though I am sure much more could be said on the topic, I will attempt to articulate my response.

To briefly address your first point. It is interesting that you should note the philanthropy of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. They certainly have given away a great deal of money. In light of Godâ€™s great gift to the world through Christ, we are certainly called to give and to give abundantly, remembering that the money is not ours to give in the first place. All of our resources are blessings from God, and as stewards of them, we are called to use them freely for the benefit of others.

The Bible is clear that it is not manâ€™s job to judge who will go to heaven and hell. Our perceptions may in fact be quite different than Godâ€™s. Christ often spoke of a paradigm shift, saying that he had come to call the sick, as it was not the healthy who needed a doctor but the sick (Matthew 9:12). He also said that the first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 10:31). That is to say, God does not see people with the same assumptions that we do. Rather, he sees our hearts and knows our inner secrets. Godâ€™s law is written on our hearts and through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 2 and 3). And indeed we are sinful in our very nature, in that we worship and serve created things rather than our creator. (Romans 1) As David writes in the Psalms, â€œThere is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks Godâ€¦there is no one who does good not even one.â€? These are certainly hard words. At least according to the Bible, there is no one who deserves to go to heaven. In fact, God could justly condemn all of us from his presence. For although we knew the law, we did not obey it. God does not judge on a sliding scale. His standard is righteousness, a standard that no one is able to meet. Therefore, should God choose to save anyone, it would have nothing to do with whether or not he deserved it, but it would entirely be based on God's mercy. That is the gospel of salvation by grace. That is to say, the one man who did live a perfect life, the only man who was deserving of Godâ€™s blessing, endured the very punishment that we deserved. He suffered death in our place and through his resurrection, we too may be given eternal life. That is, for those who put their trust in Christ, his righteousness will be credited to them. It is a salvation by grace through faith â€“ not from ourselves but a gift of God â€“ not by works so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Your second point about the pedophilic murderer is one that has been expressed from as early as Jesusâ€™ time of ministry. Jesus told a parable in which he started out, as in so many others stating, â€œthe kingdom of heaven is like.â€? He goes on to tell a story of a landowner who hired men to work his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them out. Later in the day he found more men and hired them to work in his field stating that he would pay them â€œwhatever is right.â€? Still later, he found others and hired them to work in the field. At the end of the day the owner gathered the workers together. He gave a denarius to each of the workers who came last. The ones who had been hired first, then expected to receive more for their work. But they also received a denarius. They grumbled stating that they had worked hard all-day and received only as much as the people who had just shown up. But the landowner answered, â€œFriends, I am not being unfair to you. Didnâ€™t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Donâ€™t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.â€? (Matthew 20:1-16).

So too does God distribute his mercy. In no way do we deserve it, but it is his to give freely to those who put their trust in Christ.

Richard on Tue May 15 02:24:33 +0000 2007

I think that God can judge the hearts of people as they truly are, that He sees into the inner heart.

While I can't judge the heart of Bill Gates, and certainly can't judge that his giving is not sincere, I can't help thinking of Jesus's parable of the rich man and the poor woman who gave money to the temple. Jesus said that the poor woman who gave only a penny really gave more because she gave all she had. While Bill Gates has certainly given a lot of money, it's money he can well afford to give away. Also, he didn't start giving until long after he was taking a lot of flak for not giving anything. God may be very pleased with his giving, or He may not.

Similarly, the pediophile may be really sincere in his heart turning from his sin and repenting before God, or he may be just trying to get into heaven without any true love for God. His prayer of salvation may be real or an empty show. Only God knows.

The Edge of Heaven

Charlie Dunn

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