So what the Hell do you believe?

Like many of you I grew up with two views of the afterlife; I’ll either sit on a cloud playing a harp, or I will burn for all eternity and a little man with a pitchfork will poke me.

I can’t honestly say whether it was the Catholic upbringing or the exposure to what “Christian” seems to mean in North America, but that’s where I camped out.

A couple of years ago my pastor gave a sermon on Heaven and explained the idea that it’s not “somewhere else” and equated it almost to the upside down from Stranger Things.  This was the first I’d ever been exposed to the idea that Heaven wasn’t somewhere “else” and that it could be here on earth.  I’m not going to lie…this threw me for a loop.  I’d never considered I wasn’t going “somewhere else” and I talked with my wife about me leaving this church (I was that guy who was ready to throw in the towel because of one sermon). 

So where does this leave me?  With no defined view of Heaven or Hell or the afterlife in general I started digging.  Don’t get ahead of yourself.  If you’re picturing a movie montage of me buried in textbooks at the library, that wasn’t me.  My research and digging has come in the form of audiobooks and podcasts during a daily grind of a commute.  Where possible, I will site my sources but understand that my writing is not for an academic paper and as a result, may not be perfectly sourced.  That being said, the work of Keith Giles has done great things for my understanding of the early church and what “Hell” might have meant.

Overall, I no longer stand behind the idea that a finite number of years on this earth will either doom me or praise me.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that what you do here doesn’t matter or that it’s just a stop gap, but ultimately, our 80ish years on this planet are not what defines our eternity with God.

I’ve actually had people ask me in the past though, what if you’re wrong?  What if Eternal Conscious Torment is real and you’ve screwed up.  I will be the first to acknowledge that that could be the case.  That being said, I choose to follow a God of love and relationship.  A God that understands our flaws and walks with us through the heartache. 

I’ve heard arguments against it but for me it comes back to Pascal’s wager.  If I live a life of following the work and life of Jesus, and it turns out to be nothing, what’s the worst case?  I lived a life where I cared for and reached out to others and extended grace wherever possible?  I know the basis of Pascal’s wager is based around Christianity and I understand that but it is something I feel I can build off of.  With that understanding, it feel’s win/win. 

With regard to who is going to Heaven when they die, these days I follow an idea I first heard from Bruxy Cavey (I don’t know exactly when or where) that professes Hopeful Universalism.  I am hopeful that every race, creed and gender will be reconciled with the Divine to a life in Heaven. 

I also lean toward my own version of annihilationism.  This would be a view that if someone is face to face with God and still chooses to reject God, that person is just gone.  In theory, this could be a version of ECT because any eternity without God, would in theory be torment.  I’m hopeful that no one would choose this, but I’m not 100% confident of that fact based on human nature.  I’m somewhat fearful that it’s just my human retributive nature that wants this to be true.  Part of me doesn’t want Hitler to say that he’s sorry or to hear that Dahmer found Jesus.  The Christian part of me however desperately wants to hear these things.

I don’t intend to solve anything with my writing but rather just to make you think. 

Is Hell real?  Do we have to walk through the fires?  Is there any judgement with God or just what we put on ourselves?  Are our loved ones looking over us now?  Is Heaven a place in the clouds?  Are our dogs there?

I can’t answer all of these questions or really any of them definitively.  The important thing to remember here though is that neither can you.  I don’t know where I’m at with everything but I’m loving the journey every day and as always, I’m interested in your feedback.