HELL IS NOT A LITERAL PLACE? - U. S. News & World Report for Jan. 31 quoted a Jesuit magazine with close ties to the Vatican as saying: "Hell is not a 'place' but a 'state,' a person's 'state of being,' in which a person suffers from the deprivation of God." Pope John Paul II told a Vatican audience that "rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitely separate themselves from God." He said hell is "not a punishment imposed externally by God" but is the natural consequence of the unrepentant sinner's choice to live apart from God. The USN&WR article said: "While Martin Luther and John Calvin regarded hell as a real place they believed its fiery torments were figurative." Billy Graham has questioned the fire of hell. Clark Pinnock asks, "How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness" as to inflict everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been?" He said a God who would do such a thing is "more nearly like Satan than like God." John Stott said in biblical imagery, fire's main function is to destroy and that while the fire of hell may be eternal and unquenchable, "it would be very odd if what is thrown into it proves indestructible." The Biblical hell is a literal place of everlasting fiery torment. [THE CALVARY CONTENDER VOL. XVII NO. 4 February 15, 2000]

back

Tell your friends about us and thank you for visiting Cephas Ministry Inc. (www.cephasministry.com)