Jim Coppoc.

I asked last month for questions you might have about faith, the Bible, theology, etc. And the question that hit me the hardest came from an unexpected place.

A elderly friend of mine has children who no longer share his Christian religion. His grandchildren were never baptized, and were not raised in the faith. My friend is in the last stage of life. All he wants is the knowledge that he will see his family in Heaven, but his own upbringing teaches that they will all go to Hell. Complicating this further, one grandchild of his did die already in infancy, and for her Baptism is no longer possible.

I remember growing up in small, fundamentalist churches in rural Kansas that believed that everyone but them was going to Hell. Each time we moved – and we moved a lot – we had to get re-baptised, because only that new church’s baptism would “count.” I remember what it felt like to have a gay brother the church hated. I remember being threatened with Hell for even the smallest “sins” of childhood. I remember what it was like taking my own children years later to my parents’ church, and hearing afterward that the Sunday School teacher told them they were full of demons, and needed to be baptized in that specific church to be saved.

The Bible is very vague and contradictory on what “Hell” even is. The Old Testament has the torpor and darkness of the Hebrew “Sheol”; the New Testament has the temporary afterlife of the Greek “Hades,” which may or may not involve punishment; and in some places there is even the fiery “Gehenna,” which was an actual, physical valley just southwest of Jerusalem where garbage was burned, and which later became a metaphor for annihilation of the wicked. In Western culture, more of us get our idea of Hell from the 14th century poem, “Inferno” by Dante Alighieri than from any source in the Bible itself.

How we are saved from Hell is just as contradictory and vague. Some believe that you have to be baptized to be saved, and there is scripture that supports that (e.g. John 3:5). Others believe all you need is faith, and there is scripture in the same chapter of the same Gospel to support that (John 3:16). Some believe that good works in this life are required (Matthew 25:31-46). Others believe that, although reconciliation with Christ is required, somewhere in this life or the next, everyone will be reconciled to Christ anyway (Phillipians 2:10-11), and will therefore be saved (1 Corinthians 15:22).

No matter who you are, or how you live, there is someone out there ready to tell you that you are going to Hell. They will offer cherrypicked verses and condemnation, but not the love of Christ. They pretend to know the mind of God..

I do not know the mind of God. I do not know how to interpret so many conflicting scriptures, except to note that in every case, Hell is a disconnection from God, and that is something you don’t have to wait for the afterlife to experience. For my friend, all I can do is encourage him to pray and meditate and look into his heart for answers about the character of God. Does he believe in a God that would consign an infant to Hell because she happened to be born to non-Christian parents? Does he believe that God would allow anyone to burn forever because of theological differences?

The answer, I hope, lies in infinite Grace.

Jim Coppoc serves Ripley United Church of Christ at 400 S. Main Street in Traer. After a long career in both academia and human services, he has settled into a comfortable existence as a writer, part-time “Bridge Pastor,” and full-time musician in the memory care unit at the Iowa Veterans Home. You can find Jim online at www.facebook.com/jim.at.ripley.