{"id":317,"date":"2025-01-29T15:23:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/how-christian-is-the-doctrine-of-hell\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T15:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T15:23:30","slug":"how-christian-is-the-doctrine-of-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/how-christian-is-the-doctrine-of-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"How Christian is the Doctrine of Hell?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The traditional doctrine of hell appears to be a consequence of two assumptions, the first  of which is arguably unbiblical. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Geddes MacGregor: ". . . the doctrine of hell, with its attendant horrors, is intended as the logical development of the notion that, since man is intrinsically immortal, and some men turn out badly, they cannot enjoy the presence of God." (Reincarnation in Christianity<\/em>, Quest Books, 1978, 121)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

1) We are naturally, and intrinsically, immortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Some of us, by our evil behavior, have freely and forever excluded  ourselves from the divine presence. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

MacGregor: "Having permanently deprived themselves of the capacity to enjoy that presence [the presence of God] , they must forever endure the sense of its loss, the poena damni<\/em>, as the medieval theologians called it." (Ibid.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Therefore<\/span><\/p>\n

3) There must be some state or condition, some 'place,' for these immortal souls, and that 'place' is hell. They will remain there either for all eternity or else everlastingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to MacGregor, premise (1) is false because it has no foundation in biblical teaching. (Ibid.) St. Paul, says MacGregor, subscribes to conditional immortality<\/em>.  This is "immortality that is dependent on one's being 'raised up' to victory over death through the resurrection of Christ." (op. cit., 119)   It follows that the medieval doctrine of hell  is un-Christian.<\/span><\/p>\n

The choice we face is not between heaven and hell but between heaven and utter extinction which, for MacGregor, is worse<\/em> than everlasting torment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two issues: Would extinction of the  person be worse than everlasting torment? That is not my sense of things. I would prefer extinction, for Epicurean reasons. The other issue is whether the Pauline texts and the rest of the Bible support conditional immortality.  I have no fixed opinion on that question.  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The traditional doctrine of hell appears to be a consequence of two assumptions, the first  of which is arguably unbiblical. Geddes MacGregor: ". . . the doctrine of hell, with its attendant horrors, is intended as the logical development of the notion that, since man is intrinsically immortal, and some men turn out badly, they … Continue reading “How Christian is the Doctrine of Hell?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,38,166,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-doctrine","category-heaven-and-hell","category-new-testament","category-theology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}