In 2019, I wrote a post titled “Understanding Jesus’ Teaching on Hell.” In it, I admitted that “I’ve wrestled for years with the Bible’s teaching on hell and its implications,” and this is certainly still true. At that time, I also shared some quotes that had helped me the most, and now—six years later—I’d like to do the same. The last on the related topic of Jesus’ descent into hell is a bonus, and certainly an encouraging way to conclude reflections on what can be a troubling, oft-distorted, and potentially divisive subject.
“It is necessary to posit the existence of a metaphorical hell in order to acknowledge the reality and power of radical evil—evil that does not yield to education, reason, or good intentions. Evil has an existence independent of the sum total of human misdeeds. The concept of hell takes seriously the nature and scale of evil. Without a concept of hell, Christian faith is sentimental and evasive, unable to stand up to reality in this world. Without an unflinching grasp of the radical nature of evil, Christian faith would be little more than wishful thinking.”[1] -Fleming Rutledge
“J. Christian Beker writes: ‘The final apocalyptic triumph of God does not permit a permanent pocket of evil or resistance to God in his creation.’ If Beker is right… , then neither the devil nor hell can be allowed to continue indefinitely as a parallel (or even subordinate) domain. The reign of Satan will not be permitted to keep its territory as a permanent realm alongside the kingdom of God. It must be finally and completely obliterated, and will pass out of memory. Whether this means the redemption of the Hitlers and the Pol Pots or their annihilation we cannot say.”[2] -Fleming Rutledge
“Jesus used a whole host of other images of judgment, that read literally, are not compatible with one another… [He] uses many metaphors to describe the unhappy lot of the condemned. Many of these are metaphors of destruction, like annihilation of chaff or brambles in ovens, or the final death of body and soul in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). Others are metaphors of exclusion, like the sealed doors of wedding feasts. A few, a very few, are images of imprisonment and torture; but, even then, in the relevant verses, those punishments are depicted as having only a limited term (Matthew 5:26;18:34; Luke 12:47-48, 59).… So we really cannot know whether Jesus viewed the Gehenna’s ‘fire’—itself only an image surely—as one of annihilation or as one of purification; his metaphors could be interpreted in either way. In support of the former possibility, one can [again] point to the images of total destruction that Jesus frequently employed, such as dead branches or darnel weeds or chaff being incinerated in ovens, not to mention his claim that it lies in God’s power to destroy both body and soul in the Gehenna (Matthew 10:28). In support however, of the later possibility—which incidentally, can explain the ‘annihilationist’ images equally well—there are those metaphors used by Jesus that seem to imply that the punishments of the world to come will be only of limited duration: If remanded to prison, ‘you shall most certainly not emerge until you pay the very last pittance’ (Matthew 5:26; cf. Luke 12:59); the unmerciful slave is ‘delivered to the torturers, until he should repay everything he owes’ (Matthew 18:34). It seems as if the ‘until’ should be taken with some seriousness. Some wicked slaves, moreover, will be ‘beaten with many blows’ while others will be ‘beaten with few blows’ (Luke 12:49)…. And, of course, ‘everyone will be salted with fire (Mark 9:49). This fire is specifically that of Gehenna, but salting here is an image for purification and preservation—for ‘salt is good’ (Mark 9:5)…”[3] -David Bently Hart
[Revelation 14:10-11] gives offense to some modern readers; certainly it sounds terribly vindictive and gruesome. But since elsewhere in the book of Revelation the author uses metaphors and symbolic language, it would be quite unfair to take him literally here and to think of God roasting rebels for eternity in a lake of fiery, molten sulfur. Nevertheless, the language ought to communicate something about the seriousness of persistently rejecting God. John’s words here mean that the most terrible thing that a person can do is deliberately turn away from the living God. Such torment, John says, is ‘forever and ever.’ [14:8] This is so, because God respects our free will and will never force us to turn to him. So this picture of wrath and hell means nothing more or less than the terrible truth that the sufferings of those who persist in rejecting God’s love in Christ are self-imposed and self-perpetuated. The inevitable consequence is that if they eternally persist in such rejection, God will never violate their personality. Whether any soul will in fact eternally resist God, we cannot say.”[4] -Bruce Metzger w/ updates from David A. DeSilva
“The descent of Christ into hell means that there is no realm anywhere in the universe, including the domain of Death and the devil, where anyone can go to be cut off from the saving power of God.”[5] -Fleming Rutledge
[1] Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 458.
[2] Ibid., 460-461.
[3] David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (Yale University Press, 2021), xiv, 93-94, 115.
[4] Bruce M. Metzger, Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation (Abingdon Press, 1993, revised 2019), 100-101.
[5] Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 461.