Doesn't hell's existence last eternal?
My apologies, CV, for taking so long to respond.
This is where we play fast and loose with the word "eternal." There is only one eternal, God. All that is not God (entities, places) are created by God and created good. No entity or place is eternal. Everlasting, maybe, but not eternal. Sin and evil function like parasites on the good. I can speak of what is good without reference to evil, but I cannot speak of evil without reference to the good, because the nature of evil is to be destructive of what is good. At any rate, back to so called "eternal places"...The endurance of entities (or places) is not a given. The idea that there would be a place of eternal destruction is...nonsensical? I would argue the images used in the scriptures are often metaphorical to communicate the incommunicable (pace Paul's statement that the human mind cannot comprehend what is in store...).
I realize there is a good bit in the scriptures about a new heaven and a new earth. Places in time? Maybe? I really don't know. What kind of place in time do resurrected spiritual bodies need? I don't know, haha.
At any rate, consider the fact that the scriptures begin and end (Genesis and Revelation) with images of a garden. These gardens function as "bookends" to the scriptures. They "hold them together" as representations of flourishing life in the divine presence, or in other words, as representations of the divine intention. Should we take these images as literal representations of what will be? I don't think so.
All humans inherit a 'sinful nature'. It is those whom choose Christ, that have any chance of redemption, according to Scripture. Which means, without belief, you stand no chance moving forward.
You would have to ask Augustine about how this "inheriting" of the sinful nature works. I'm fairly confident that Irenaeus and the EO church would disagree with his assessment. I have always liked Paul Tillich's statement that humans have a sin "destiny." Without committing myself to Tillich's theology, I think if we are in this world for any significant amount of time we will participate in ways of being that work against life (i.e. sin). As I have argued earlier, we are held to account for our own lives and what we have done.
I tried to express
my thoughts on this earlier, but will try again. The condemnation of humanity is expressed by the limits of death and finitude (the wages of sin is death). Christians are not Platonists. We don't hold that humans have eternal souls (see above my comments on "eternal"). Life is not a given, much less everlasting life. The work of Christ overcomes sin and evil, and thereby, he overcomes the limits of death and finitude. All are redeemed in the sense of being raised, on account of Christ, to everlasting life, then the judgment. The question then becomes are all who are raised prepared for everlasting life? The judgment lays bare the truth, i.e. have we lived in a way that is commensurate with life? Were we loving, generous, gracious, merciful, etc. Or, were we selfish, hateful, destructive, violent, etc. No one is perfect and God knows this. But, what trajectory did we abide by? People who are generally good still do things that are bad. Generally bad people still do things that are good. All will have "sinned and fallen short." But, God knows our capabilities and our needs.
Paul says in Romans 2 that to those who only had the law as it is given to the human conscience ("gentiles"), "They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse
or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all." Notice how Paul refrains from making a final judgment. Unlike the fundamentalist (and the atheist who co-opts the fundie certainty as their primary foil) who is so sure of who is in and who is out, Paul refrains because he knows better. He knows that judgment belongs to the Lord, and that he, Paul, does not know the outcome beforehand.
So, what advantage does the Christian have on account of faith. 1) they trust in the one who has overcome sin/evil and the limits of finitude and death
for all. 2) they are on the appropriate trajectory by embracing the way of life that leads to life. 3) they receive grace, not to do any old thing they want, but to continue to grow into the "full stature of Jesus Christ." What about everybody else?
Again, CV, big question. If someone who has no knowledge of Christ lives, generally speaking, loving their neighbor as themselves and loving God, as they understand God, are they not fulfilling the two-fold command, even if ever so imperfectly? How can they do any better than that, given what they understand to be true? Do we really think that God will not take that into account? Are they not on the trajectory that leads to life? I'm not making a judgment here, but I am simply saying that to assume God will not take all of that into account is absurd (unless arguing such helps promote one's atheism).
On the other hand, take a confessing Christian who is miserly, hateful, selfish, incorrigible, and yet believes it is true that Jesus died and rose again, will that one just waltz into the presence of divine love as if the way they have lived was unimportant? Have they truly had faith in the sense of embracing the way that leads to life? Won't they be held to a stricter account given what they believed to be true? Again, this caricature that God will condemn without proper judgment is ludicrous. And, I don't think a responsible interpretation of the scriptures should result in such a caricature. Yes, no one has life, nor will they have life without Christ. All things came into being through him, and all things are being reconciled to God through him. He is the Way. But God's judgments are not settled simply on account of what propositions to which one gives their intellectual assent.
"Believers" have been given a guarantee that if they believe in their hearts that Christ was raised from the dead and confess as much, they will be saved (i.e. everlasting life in the presence is theirs). But, that believing is not mere intellectual assent, but a way of life trusting that the dead are raised and Christ is Lord (i.e. one is living according to his ways). If Christ is my Lord, then I am living under his reign, i.e. living according to his way of life. But, and this is the point I am getting at, that statement of guarantee to those of faith is not a statement of exclusion to everyone else, in spite of what the fundie and evangelical want to say. They take a statement of guarantee and turn it into a statement of exclusion, when one does not necessarily entail the other.
The limits of the mercies of God, if there be any, are not known by us. It is certainly foolish to treat a Holy God in a trite manner, but the one who is to be our judge is the one who gave his life so that we would receive mercy and life. Whatever God's final judgements may be, we will just have to wait and see. Or, we simply cease to exist and living a life of love is of no more transcendent value than any other way of living because life is mere existence and the end result is the same. But, this is why I say we all make an act of faith and we all take a risk.
So, Amen. You may now pass the offering plate.
