Where The Traditional Views Of Hell Fall Short

Originally published at https://rethinknow.org.

God is love… Most people would agree that the primary attribute of God is love. Every other attribute flows from this one (grace, holiness, justice, mercy, righteousness, etc…). Most, not all, will agree with that. But that leads to a glaring problem that I’ve personally wrestled with for close to a decade. What about hell? How the hell, can hell be loving? But… What if, hell is actually God’s final act of love? What if Hell in the Bible has been misread and misunderstood?

Bear with me… We have to do some groundwork first. Most of us grew up with a traditional view of hell so that statement probably makes no sense. Let’s start by looking at the most prevalent views of hell and the problems each of them present. And then we will look at what the Bible says about hell.

If you haven’t read What Jesus Said About Hell (and what it means) I would recommend reading that alongside this article.

The 3 Traditional Views of Hell in the Bible

Traditionally there are 3 prevalent views of hell that are accepted, albeit hotly debated, among Christians. You could also include the traditional Catholic view of purgatory as a forth option as it is growing among some Evangelicals. However for this article…