Salvation .... Heaven and Hell

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Published on Monday, 13 February 2012 11:24

This is a discussion starter - your comments are welcome.

What do we mean when we talk of people being 'saved'?  

What do Methodists believe about heaven and hell?  

These are two questions raised by people in our church in Crewkerne. They are important questions.

Methodist belief has been expressed in terms of the 'Four ALLs of Methodism'.  Each of these ALLs speaks of being saved.

All people need to be saved

All people can be saved

All people can know that they are saved

All people can be saved completely / utterly

But these four all assume an understanding of what we are saved from, and this both simple and not simple.

The simple answer is that 'The wages of sin is death - but the free gift of God is eternal life' (Romans 6:23).  God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16,17)

These are not the only parts of scripture which speak in such terms.  Indeed, from Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures speak of the effects of human sin not just on the individual, but also on relationships and on the whole creation.

In creating human beings, who are made in the image of God and therefore have free will, the ability to choose - and the responsibility for their actions which goes with this ability, God made beings who could chose to accept his existence and guidance - or to deny his existence and to refuse his guidance.  God knows what we are each and corporately capable of.  He also knows how far short of this potential our existence often is.   The evidence of history is that humanity is capable of immense cruelty and wickedness as well as inspirational acts of selflessness and devotion.   Our sin is a denial of God and his image in us, and leads inevitably to us cutting ourselves off from God.  God, however is the source of all life - and life without God is a pale shadow of what it can be when we are in full relationship with him.  As Paul writes 'now we see through a glass darkly (as in a frosted mirror)....'  

Some people think that human beings are capable of improving ourselves on our own.  Christians realise that, apart from God, we are are unable to help ourselves.  St Paul puts it this way:

Romans 7:16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.       21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.  (New American Standard Version)

We need to be saved from the effects of sin on us.  For we humans are slaves to sin - but God wants us to be free in him and share an abundant life in Christ Jesus.

So what about heaven and hell?

The simplest description of each of these is that Heaven is where God is acknowledged, worshipped, and where his will is done and where his kingdom has come.

Hell, the opposite - is where God is not acknowledged, not worshipped and where his will is not done and his kingdom does not come.  Hell is a total lack of love, a lack of compassion, a lack of justice, a lack of mercy, a lack of grace.....  It is where there is no vision, no perception of a saving and loving creator and where the selfishness of humanity is released.   Hell is the fate of those who refuse to acknowledge God and accept his will.

What is not clear in scripture is the exact nature of the future - and I think this is a good thing.  As I read the Revelation, for example, I am reminded that while I will have to stand before God and answer for my life, to take responsibility for my choices, I do not know the details - and neither I nor any other human make the decisions about who ends up in heaven or hell.  We can, I think, say with some certainty, that part of the image of God in us is that we are eternal beings and that the death we finish our earthly existence with is not the end.

C. S. Lewis, in his book 'The Great Divorce' describes hell as a city of immense boredom which is for people who are tiny.  These very small people have not grown to their potential in God and they dwell in what seems to them to be such an immense city that they hardly ever meet each other.  However this immense city is in reality tiny compared to heaven.  It exists in a crack in the ground of heaven.  Heaven is for those who have grown in God and is an immense land full of the riches of God's creative imagination.

One more short gem from C. S. Lewis - he said that the gates of hell are locked - but from the inside!

So will all be saved?  We might wish this to be, and I believe God wishes it to be.  All need to be saved.  All can be saved.   His love excludes no one.  His grace is sufficient.  He will not, however, reverse his creation-will that made us in his image and gave us free will.  He will not force us to do his will.  He will not take away our integrity and autonomy.  He will not force us into heaven - for to do so would make it hell for some.  He will not over-rule our God-created nature and our ability to be independent beings.  We will therefore have to take responsibility for our actions, and for some, the outcome will be hell.

Universalism, the belief that all people will be saved - is not a Methodist doctrine.  It denies free will.  Methodism has an Arminian understanding of free will and God's grace - that we all have free will, as a gift from God, as part of our being made in God's image.  That free will enables us to take responsibility for our actions.  There are none made by God who are predestined in such a way as to negate our free will.  We can neither be predestined for heaven or for hell.  God offers us his grace freely - we have the ability to refuse the gifts of God and are responsible for our rejection of these gifts if we do so.

I picture heaven as an immense, God-ruled, land with huge opportunities to explore an discover.  Not 'in my Father's house are many mansions' but an alternative translation .... 'in my Father's land are many oases / taverns / places of hospitality.  In my Father's land is room for continued discovery of the bounty of God.'  I am looking forward to living in a future in God's presence and blessing.

Pete Pillinger