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Yesterday I went to my parents Sunday school class and they are reading this really neat book called "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture" by John Shelby Spong.
It brings a very interesting discussion in their class. While their class is talking about the contradiction of scriptures, the classes next door are utilizing them in the most fundamentalist way, well at least as fundamental as a Methodist can get I suppose.
Anyways, yesterday a woman in their class brought up that she doesn't believe that there is a hell. For me that put my belief in suspension. For the past few years I have come to this realization that I believe that no one is left out of the embrace of God. The most beautiful thing I believe about grace is that it is offered and given to everyone. Whether we accept it or not, it is freely given. So no one has to do anything, no one has to believe in any certain way, it is given to you with no commitments.
But then I started to think... wow I really believe that is a hell, or I guess I still do believe there is a hell, and it is a very real place. And how in the world does that fit in with my belief that everyone is spared from there? What then is the point of hell? Is hell a place that we experience on this earth? Is hell a place that we can choose to go to once we come to the gates of heaven, do we tell St. Peter, no I'd rather go there instead of here? Or is hell just where the 'devil' lives, is it where all sin, destruction, hopelessness, tragedy, and malice originate from? Is it a place where we could possibly go, or is it just a place where all of these terrible things we experience on earth that God could not possibly create because I believe He is a loving God, could come from?
I don't know, its something that I'm chewing on and know I will never come to answer, and I guess its not that big of an issue, but maybe it is. If this call of mine is real, I feel I need to come to some sort of conclusion on my beliefs on issues like these at some point.
I close with these words that are much more loftier and creative than my own...
“"Conversation"
God and I in space alone . . .
and nobody else in view . . .
"And where are all the people,
Oh Lord" I said,
"the earth below
and the sky overhead
and the dead that I once knew?"
"That was a dream," God smiled
and said: "The dream that seemed to
be true; there were no people
living or dead; there was no earth,
and no sky overhead,
there was only myself in you."
"Why do I feel no fear?" I asked,
"meeting you here in this way?
For I have sinned, I know full well
and is there heaven and is there hell,
and is this Judgement Day?"
"Nay, those were but dreams"
the Great God said, "dreams that have ceased to
be.
There are no such things as fear and sin;
there is no you . . . you never have been.
There is nothing at all but me."”
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox
On the Eve of a New Year
3 months ago