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Basics of the Faith
What Is Hell?
Morgan and Peterson set forth a clear biblical theology of hell, addressing the major questions people have and applying what the Bible has to say about it to Christian living.
- GenresTheology
40 pages, Paperback
First published June 11, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 19, 2015
Hell is, obviously, not a topic about which people like to talk, but it is something that Jesus talked about (quite a bit) and it is something that is addressed regularly throughout Scripture. This little booklet does a good job of addressing questions like, “Would a loving God really send good people to hell?”. Morgan and Peterson state that “the Bible speaks truth, even when it says things we may not like. It is crucial that we hold to this. Otherwise, we may believe whatever we want to believe, rather than what is actually true.” Obviously, these are two writers with a presuppositional apologetic, so that affects their approach to this difficult (putting it mildly) subject-matter. Morgan and Peterson address many of the tough questions about hell; they also give an overview of the Bible’s definition of hell and examine how a Biblical view of hell should affect one’s theology and practice. I think it is really helpful to have this clear, Biblical booklet on a topic that most would avoid mentioning. If hell is a reality (as it is clearly presented in Scripture), then it is worth having a Biblical understanding of what that reality is and what it says about God, humanity, sin, forgiveness, justice, love, and holiness. This booklet aids well in that understanding.
June 21, 2017
The view put forth in this book, though common, is not biblical. Every passages has been dealt with in different works putting forth the alternative view of conditional immortality, also known as annihilationism. These include passages like Matthew 25:41-46, Mark 9:48, and Revelation 14:9-11. Almost all of them have been dealt with at www.rethinkinghell.com, for example.
Some specific shortcomings of this short volume include the following:
- There is a section on hell being "destruction" despite the authors believing that no one in hell is actually destroyed. That section just raised more questions than answers and would have been better left out in a volume that is not lengthy enough to allow decent elaboration.
- Passages such as Isaiah 66:24 are cited without explanation as to how they would indicate eternal torment. The authors themselves point out that Isaiah 66:24 describes dead bodies. Why then should we see it as speaking of people who can think and feel and be conscious (i.e. not dead bodies...)?
- In the section on "Hell is Suffering," they cite descriptions used in James 5:1-5, such as future punishment "'eating their flesh like fire' in 'a day of slaughter.'" If your goal is specifically to describe hell as a place of eternal conscious suffering, why would you cite passages that sure sound like death and destruction (the way normal people mean the word) and not like extended conscious existence?
- They tie hell to Christ's suffering on the cross, showing that it is what Christ suffered. But if hell is a place of eternal torment, how did Christ suffer the equivalent of hell? They quote someone who says that everything true about hell is true of the cross (pain, separation from God, etc.). Except they miss the one part of the cross that matters most: death. Actual death. Jesus did not atone for us in His conscious suffering on the cross prior to death, or in any post-mortem suffering. He atoned for our sin with His death. That is Christianity 101 and to believe anything else is heresy. Yet if hell is the suffering on the cross prior to death, then how did His death atone for sin? This was clearly not thought through because if taken to its logical conclusion, it renders Christ's death meaningless, at least as far as the atonement goes.
In fact, if believe that Christ atoned for our sin by taking on the equivalent of the punishment of the unsaved, then eternal torment is not an option. Either Jesus atoned for us prior to His death, or He atoned by going to hell and suffering after His death. The latter is heretical and contradict's Jesus' declaration that "it is finished" the moment before He died. It is one thing if he made the declaration a few seconds before it was actually finished (since He couldn't make that public declaration once He was dead). But if He still had days of hell to suffer, in no sense was it even close to being finished. And if Jesus atoned for us by His conscious suffering prior to death, then His death is meaningless to the atonement, which must also be rejected. Now, one could simply say that Jesus did not actually suffer the equivalent of hell in His atonement. And that is fine. I think many believers in practice have believed that. But it becomes a problem when you say that Christ atoned by suffering hell when you think hell entails being alive forever in suffering.
The book has a few good points here and there, such as the fact that people too often think of sin as accidents and mistakes and boo boos. It just isn't enough to save the book.
Some specific shortcomings of this short volume include the following:
- There is a section on hell being "destruction" despite the authors believing that no one in hell is actually destroyed. That section just raised more questions than answers and would have been better left out in a volume that is not lengthy enough to allow decent elaboration.
- Passages such as Isaiah 66:24 are cited without explanation as to how they would indicate eternal torment. The authors themselves point out that Isaiah 66:24 describes dead bodies. Why then should we see it as speaking of people who can think and feel and be conscious (i.e. not dead bodies...)?
- In the section on "Hell is Suffering," they cite descriptions used in James 5:1-5, such as future punishment "'eating their flesh like fire' in 'a day of slaughter.'" If your goal is specifically to describe hell as a place of eternal conscious suffering, why would you cite passages that sure sound like death and destruction (the way normal people mean the word) and not like extended conscious existence?
- They tie hell to Christ's suffering on the cross, showing that it is what Christ suffered. But if hell is a place of eternal torment, how did Christ suffer the equivalent of hell? They quote someone who says that everything true about hell is true of the cross (pain, separation from God, etc.). Except they miss the one part of the cross that matters most: death. Actual death. Jesus did not atone for us in His conscious suffering on the cross prior to death, or in any post-mortem suffering. He atoned for our sin with His death. That is Christianity 101 and to believe anything else is heresy. Yet if hell is the suffering on the cross prior to death, then how did His death atone for sin? This was clearly not thought through because if taken to its logical conclusion, it renders Christ's death meaningless, at least as far as the atonement goes.
In fact, if believe that Christ atoned for our sin by taking on the equivalent of the punishment of the unsaved, then eternal torment is not an option. Either Jesus atoned for us prior to His death, or He atoned by going to hell and suffering after His death. The latter is heretical and contradict's Jesus' declaration that "it is finished" the moment before He died. It is one thing if he made the declaration a few seconds before it was actually finished (since He couldn't make that public declaration once He was dead). But if He still had days of hell to suffer, in no sense was it even close to being finished. And if Jesus atoned for us by His conscious suffering prior to death, then His death is meaningless to the atonement, which must also be rejected. Now, one could simply say that Jesus did not actually suffer the equivalent of hell in His atonement. And that is fine. I think many believers in practice have believed that. But it becomes a problem when you say that Christ atoned by suffering hell when you think hell entails being alive forever in suffering.
The book has a few good points here and there, such as the fact that people too often think of sin as accidents and mistakes and boo boos. It just isn't enough to save the book.
November 8, 2021
On the plus side of good. Morgan draws out the historical Christian doctrine of Hell and what that looks like for believers and unbelievers alike. Morgan holds to the eternal conscious torment theory and ably defended it. I do wish he was able to address annihilationism and universalism morez but for as short as this work was he was lucky to be able to fit in all that he did.
December 30, 2013
There is perhaps no teaching of Scripture that has been more maligned or misspoken of in recent days than that of hell. To alleviate these errors, Morgan and Peterson have written this brief booklet to reveal the Bible’s clear teaching on the reality and necessity of hell. Although these two authors have edited a much larger and more comprehensive work (Hell Under Fire) dealing with these issues, this functions as a serviceable introduction to the basics.
April 13, 2017
A sobering reminder of the reality of hell, an admittedly neglected doctrine in my life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews