"To suggest that all non-Christians will be tortured by God for eternity is a horrible slander against the goodness of God." Brian Zahnd The last five years has taken me on a journey questioning everything and resurrecting a faith based on what I have experienced and known to be beautiful and true, and a large part of the last year in that journey has been questioning the eschatology I learned in evangelical church spaces. The teaching I inherited was that Jesus died for my sins, so I could go to heaven and not face eternal punishment for rejecting God. Jesus died so I didn't have to; a belief which I know know to be called penal substitutionary atonement, a theological theory about 500 years old. As Brad Jersak puts it, this propitiation is like appeasing an angry god by throwing a virgin into a volcano. I have been asked what led me to change my mind about these issues, so I want to share the very best resources and theologians who have helped me shed these ideas and adopt a more beautiful, loving, and merciful vision of God and justice. I am very thankful for them. This did not change overnight, and I certainly experienced much of the resistance in my heart to this theology that David Bentley Hart recently wrote about in the New York Times. But once my heart was ready to change, I experienced this new message as a beautiful, freeing gift. Hell and the afterlife: Pete Enns - Video about Hell in the historical context of Gehenna, the trash dump outside the city of Jerusalem Almost Heretical Podcast - 3 part series on Hell from the context of Gehenna, Hades, and Sheol, the 3 words in the bible that have all been translated into English as "hell". Son of a Preacher Man Podcast - Hell, Judgement, and Atonement with Brad Jersak Almost Heretical Podcast also has a 3 part series on Heaven, if that is of interest to you. Brian Zahnd sermon - Word of Life Church Podcast- What About Hell? Paschal Sermon from St John of Antioch (Crysostom) Atonement theories: Almost Heretical Podcast - Mako Nagasawa - Beyond Penal Substitution, first of their series on atonement You Have Permission Podcast - The Argument for Universal Salvation with Brad Jersak You Have Permission Podcast - To Consider All the Atonement Theories Another Name for Everything (Richard Rohr) - Hell, the Devil, and the Afterlife Brian Zahnd - Monster God Debate The above are all audio/video resources because that works for me, but if you're looking for books, I would recommend Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God by Brian Zahnd, A More Christlike God and Her Gates Will Never Be Shut by Brad Jersak, The Day the Revolution Began by N.T. Wright, That All Shall Be Saved by David Bentley Hart, and Pete Enns' books on the bible. Brad Jersak says in one of the podcast linked above, that you not only have permission to believe where your heart leads you to, but you are required to. Ephesians 3 says that the love of God is higher, wider, deeper, and longer than we can grasp. If you take two competing images of God, ask yourself: which one is the higher, wider, and deeper view of God's love? "Salvation is the kingdom of God. It's the only thing Jesus ever preached about. Salvation is not about getting a ticket into heaven, it's about experiencing the rule and reign of God here and now." Brian Zahnd If you ask what I believe, I would quote Teresa of Avila - Does hell exist? Yes, but no one's there.
1 Comment
Nancy Washington
1/20/2020 04:54:28 pm
My heart has required me to go in much the same direction in the past more-than-a-few years, Becca. The thots you've expressed here seem so much more compatible with the essence of Christ's life & teachings than do visions of eternal damnation & torment. I hope to look at some of the resources you noted, too.
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Becca LambChristian, feminist, idealist, wife, poet, abolitionist, dreamer, adventurer. Archives
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