The history of hell
There probably is no doctrine more fearful than the one we will be considering in this series of articles – the doctrine of the eternal conscious punishment of the lost. The mind reels at the thought of it. The emotions recoil. The will rebels. Can it really be true? Is it really that bad?
There is no doubt that eternal conscious punishment (hereafter ECP) has been the historical position and the near-unanimous teaching of the church. Richard Bauckham, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at the University of St Andrews wrote:
Until the nineteenth century almost all Christian theologians taught the reality of eternal torment in hell. Here and there, outside the theological mainstream, were some who believed that the wicked would be finally annihilated (in its commonest form this is the doctrine of ‘conditional immortality’). Even fewer were the advocates of universal salvation, though these few included some major theologians of the early church. Eternal punishment was firmly asserted in official creeds and confessions of the churches. It must have seemed as indispensable a part of universal Christian belief as the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation.[1]
And this doctrine has not merely been left on the shelf of orthodox beliefs. It has been employed by the great heroes and most fruitful evangelists of the church as a potent weapon in their evangelistic arsenal. From the days just after the apostles, through the Reformation, into the Great Awakening and the great revivals, history shows that the preaching of ECP has been widely used by Christianity’s greatest preachers, and has been mightily used by God in the salvation of multitudes.
To suggest that this teaching is incorrect when it is the historical consensus of the church is quite daring, but to do so when it really does seem like God has set His seal of approval on it, is beyond daring – it’s dangerous.
Some might object here and say that it is a bit hypocritical to appeal to the historical consensus of the church and at the same time hail the Reformation as a work of God – after all, weren’t the Reformers saying that “the Church” had been getting the gospel wrong all these centuries? Well, no. Contrary to what many think, the Reformers were the ones appealing to the history of the church. They were pointing out that the “Institutional Church” had departed not only from Scripture but also from the teachings and practice of the early Christians. A striking example of this position is seen in John Jewel’s “Challenge Sermon”. In 1559, John Jewel, the Bishop of Salisbury, preached on twenty-seven points of disagreement with the Medieval Roman Catholic Church, and said he would convert to Roman Catholicism if anyone could show a basis for these Roman Catholic doctrines from Scripture or from the first 600 years of Christianity. The Reformers were not saying the consensus of professing Christianity got the gospel wrong for 1,400 years, but rather, the institutional church then present had departed from Scripture and the beliefs of early Christianity. In contrast, those who deny ECP are saying that the consensus of professing Christianity got a major element of the gospel wrong for about twenty centuries – and this “error” of ECP was blessed and used by God to bring sinners to Christ.[2]
However, our supreme authority is not history or experience, but Scripture. And those questioning or denying ECP don’t just say they don’t like it. They come with an open Bible, and that is how we must meet them (and every challenge we face). In the next few articles I will try to show that the teaching of Scripture agrees with what Christians have taught and God has used for 2,000 years, and that the arguments against ECP fail the test of Scripture.
[1] Universalism: a historical survey, Themelios 4.2 (September 1978).
[2] Just to be clear – someone coming to Christ after a sermon does not give everything in that sermon God’s seal of approval. The point I am making is that it is specifically this doctrine of ECP that has been preached by the great evangelists of the church, and has brought so many people to repentance. It would be strange (to say the least) that error would appear to be so widely blessed by God.
