Solemn Warnings or merely Cautionary Statements

Adelphoi,

After reading a piece by Cardinal Dulles (whose writings I have been reading for 40 years) I wrote the following:

Solemn Warnings or merely Cautionary Statements

It is well known by those who read the Gospels that therein Jesus is presented as saying much about hell, more in fact than he says about heaven. In fact he presented only two possibilities of existence after the death of the body and the resurrection of the dead - everlasting bliss or everlasting happiness. Jesus describes the lot of the damned in a variety of pictures or metaphors - of everlasting fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth and so on. Likewise the apostles in their Letters also presume that there is a hell for those who do not die reconciled to and in spiritual union with God the Father through Jesus Christ. The Book of Revelation presents the eternal torments of Satan and his followers in vivid terms (21:8).

At times in the writings of St Paul there are statements which seem to present the hope that ultimately all creatures will be reconciled to God (Ephesians 1:10 & Colossians 1:19-20), but these need to be set in the context of the many texts which teach that there is a hell and sinners will be there eternally.

Is the message of Jesus, his apostles and evangelists, concerning hell and everlasting damnation to be seen as genuine solemn warnings (because there really is a hell) or merely cautionary statements (because there probably is not a hell)?

In the history of the Church, it has been the virtual unanimous doctrine that only those who are baptized, repentant of their sins, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and members of the Church of God, are candidates for the resurrection of the body, the glorious life of the age to come, and the beatific vision. This is presumed in The Book of Common Prayer (1549 etc) and in The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion with the Books of Homilies (1562) of the Anglican Communion of Churches. In the Athanasian Creed (omitted from the American BCP of 1789, 1891 & 1928) the opening declaration is most clear (and thus offensive to some): "Whosoever will be saved before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." Here in the strongest possible form the trusting in God and the believing of the Creed are set forth as absolutely necessary for everlasting salvation and happiness.

The view held by the Church for centuries that many of mankind would go to hell was based on the assumption that explicit Christian faith is absolutely necessary for salvation from sin and entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

In modern times we have had doctrines of universalism (all shall be saved despite their sins and rebellion) and annihilation (that all who reject Christ will not suffer everlastingly but will disappear from existence) widely circulated and both of them effectively but in differing ways take away the stark, powerful reality of the warnings of Jesus and his apostles.

In the Roman Catholic Church (despite the clarity of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - see 1022 & 1035) in the West there has been a move away by many from the older rigid doctrine that explicit Christian faith is necessary for eternal salvation to the newer teaching that where a person is sincerely searching for God, for truth, for beauty, for righteousness, he is (as it were) baptized into Christ by a baptism of desire and is thus a candidate for heaven. Then also some theologians (e.g., Jacques Maritain & Hans Urs von Balthasar & Richard Neuhaus of First Things) have taught that it is legitimate to hope (though one cannot be certain) that God will find a way ultimately to win the hearts of all (faithful church members, those baptized by desire and indeed all people) and thus all shall be saved. While this approach does not deny hell it effectively minimises the mention of its reality and power.

The real situation in most churches - catholic and protestant - seems to be that hell is conveniently ignored and forgotten in teaching and preaching, and at funeral services the emphasis is often upon the affirmation of the life of the (now) dead person and with this goes a vague hope that all shall be well for him wherever he is now.

Years ago I wrote a Book HEAVEN AND HELL (Thomas Nelson). Maybe I should write another one!

The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon