Those who do not want to believe in Hell, believe Hell should be for the really bad people. To many Hell is really not a place. And to many they believe we all go to heaven of some sort anyway. The other half of those people believe we no not exist after death anyway.
There is a reason why so many don't want to believe in HELL. Its offense to believe in it.
In the hands of Pastor Keller, the sin of “living life for yourself” becomes even more of an offense than the characteristic sin of the damned that Christ portrays it as:
There is a reason why so many don't want to believe in HELL. Its offense to believe in it.
In the hands of Pastor Keller, the sin of “living life for yourself” becomes even more of an offense than the characteristic sin of the damned that Christ portrays it as:
“The idea of hell is implausible to people because they see it as unfair that infinite punishment would be meted out for comparably minor, finite false steps (like not embracing Christianity.) Also, almost no one knows anyone (including themselves) that seem to be bad enough to merit hell. But the Biblical teaching on hell answers both of these objections. First, it tells us that people only get in the afterlife what they have most wantedeither to have God as Savior and Master or to be their own Saviors and Masters. Secondly, it tells us that hell is a natural consequence. Even in this world it is clear that self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness makes you miserable and blind. The more self-centered, self-absorbed, self-pitying, and self-justifying people are, the more breakdowns occur, relationally, psychologically, and even physically. They also go deeper into denial about the source of their problems.”
For Keller, Hell is a sentence to self: self-absorption, self-direction, self-justification, self-pity, self-centeredness for all eternity. Hell is simply God giving man over to his selfishness confirmed in perpetuity: the selfish man is left to his ego, his pride, his vanity. God no longer pursues or calls the narcissist back from his black hole of ego, but rather abandons him to himself.
Our view of Hell reflects our understanding of sin and Keller makes this point when he writes, “The idea of hell is implausible to people because they see it as unfair that infinite punishment would be meted out for comparably minor, finite false steps (like not embracing Christianity.) Also, almost no one knows anyone (including themselves) that seem to be bad enough to merit hell.”
