intersections

The Missing Doctrine of Hell

Many thanks to Ryan for inviting me as a guest blogger!

I don’t believe in hell.

I believe in hell.

Pardon?

That’s right. I don’t believe in hell while at the same time I believe in hell. I suppose this grants me some minor form of special power, immunity to fundamentalist revival preaching or some such. What is going on in my brain that such a strange belief could formulate?

I’ve been raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, the denomination where I continue to pursue ministry. This church has excelled at defining our collective theological beliefs into an extensive list of fundamental doctrines; we’ve got a propositional answer for any question. Yet within these 28 Fundamental Beliefs there is not a single statement that mentions hell. For Adventists, and thus for me, there is no hell. We’re annihilationists.

There’s no denying the presence of hell in the Bible. Hell is a frequent topic in the synoptic gospels, and Peter speaks in the past tense of fallen angels chained and cast into hell. The Revelation of John spiritually describes a lake of burning sulfuric fire that receives the beast, the false prophet, the devil, death, and all of Hades—which begs the question of how can Hades be cast into hell? Perhaps this is hell itself being destroyed by God’s judgment. In any case, hell (of some form) is a reality to the biblical authors.

Here’s where questions emerge and where I begin to wrestle with the doctrine of hell, because for me a theology of hell not only has implications for human nature, but also impacts my view of God’s nature and heart towards humanity.

Announcing and Enacting Peace

I have an article in the recent Special Issue of the Adventist Review called Beatitudes Project 2. This is the second time the Review has done this special project. I've been privileged to be involved both times. This issue is composed of theological reflection, poetry and narrative. Two of my good friends, Tompaul Wheeler and Nathan Brown both have articles in the same issue.

My piece is on the beatitude "blessed are the peacemakers" and is entitled "Announcing and Enacting Peace." If you are a subscriber to the Review you probably already have this issue. If you have an online subscription to the Review you can access my article here and the whole issue here.

If you have none of the above, you can download a PDF of my article by clicking here.

President Paulsen: "Silence in the face of evil is complicity in what is wrong"

Yeah, he said that! But that's not all he said. Go and read it for yourself at Adventist News Network. Thanks to Bonnie Dwyer who pointed this out to me.

For the first time in my ministry I wish I was at the General Conference to be a part of the conversation that happened there yesterday. It was a meeting of the Council on Evangelism and Witness. Here are a few choice quotes from the article...

The conduct of church members within the community is either a "confirmation or a denial of our faith," Paulsen said, adding that "silence can be as much a failure as speaking the wrong words."

"The faith we have is not best explained by academics or theologians. Our faith finds its most compelling expression in the everyday words and actions of Christians in their communities."

People should see Adventists as peacemakers, but not people who dodge defending the rights of others, Paulsen said, noting the church's failure to respond to the Rwandan genocide. "Silence in the face of evil is complicity in what is wrong," he said. "Let us speak from the pulpit and show from our actions that we oppose anything that instills hatred or inflames violence."

This is the kind of leadership many of us are waiting for. When you are the the primary leader of the church, to a certain degree you get to set the agenda. If Elder Paulsen hadn't brought these issues to the Council in his remarks, my guess is that they would not have been discussed. It so refreshing to have our world president say, "Here is what we're going to talk about..." and have it be something that connects with the real world outside the stained glass windows.

This is not the only "prophetic speech" we've heard from Elder Paulsen in recent days. In a recent article in Adventist World entitled, "Clear Thinking About Military Service," Paulsen reaffirmed the church's stand on non-noncombatantcy. Those of us that have been trying to rekindle a conversation about nonviolence have observed that it has been a long time since we've had a statement like this.

You can read the whole article here. It's not too earth shattering, but I'm sure a few people found it offensive. This piece was much blogged about a week or so ago. In connection with today's story at ANN, there is new reason for hope!

My friend, Nathan Brown, interviewed in re:frame newsletter

My friend and author, Nathan Brown, from Melbourne, Australia, was recently interviewed for re:frame newsletter - the newsletter for the Centre for Secular and Postmodern Studies at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. You can read the interview here.

His most recent book is 7 Reasons Life is Better with God. In the interview he actually critiques the title - he clearly doesn't like it and didn't choose it.

It's great to see his work getting out there, though. We have been collaborating together for years in spite the vast Pacific Ocean between us.

re:frame wants to interview me and I've been working on the answers to their questions. I like very much the work that this organization is doing and I think it reflects some of the best that's out there in terms of a post-Christendom encounter with the West.

You can subscribe to re:frame newsletter (which comes monthly by email) by clicking here.

NT Wright on Heaven

NT Wright has a new book out (by the way, how does this guy do it? I'm in awe!) called, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church. My copy is on its way from an Amazon.com warehouse to my door as I type!

Here's an really interesting article and interview with Wright from Time magazine. I highly recommend this short piece from Time. I'll let you know about the book after I read it, but as some of you know, NT Wright is something of a hero with me so I'm predisposed to agree with him. He's one of the top 5 people I'd like to meet someday.

Here's a short quote to whet your appetite. It has interesting resonances with Adventist theology of the nature of people, death, resurrection, heaven and hell.

Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I've called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus' resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will "awake," be embodied and participate in the renewal. John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: "God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves." That gets to two things nicely: that the period after death is a period when we are in God's presence but not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering Christ's kingdom.

Peace Conference at La Sierra next Sabbath

Next Sabbath, January 26th, at La Sierra University, the Adventist Women for Peace will be holding their 2nd Annual Peace Conference. The title of the Conference is "Making Peace in Times of War: Adventist Responses to Violence."

I will be speaking at 1:30 pm if anyone wants to come out and support! My title is "Peace and Justice as Evangelism in Hollywood." I'll be talking a little bit about what we're doing in Hollywood in terms of Peace & Justice ministry, but the focus will be on why we're doing this. Hint: it's not a strategy to bring more people into the church. So what could it be? You'll have to come out and find out.

Also, my good friend, Ron Osborn, will be speaking at 4:25 and his topic is "In Praise of a Modest Patriotism." Should be exciting!

Click here to download the brochure with all the details. The one-day conference schedule is after the jump.

The new big idea

I just learned of this new strategy being promoted by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

EVANGELISM INITIATIVE – 2009, “YEAR OF PASTORAL EVANGELISM” (09YPE) — Imagine what could be done if, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we all worked together to fulfill our God-given mission!  Ron Clouzet, NAD Ministerial Association Secretary, presented an outline for the 09YPE to the nearly 340 delegates at the session,  challenging the North American Division to increase its membership by 10%, or about 100,000 new members every year. (There were 38,275 baptisms and professions of faith in 2006.)  “It was impossible to see Nineveh repent. It was also impossible for a handful of Adventists to win the world,” said Clouzet. But I am reminded that what is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).  Every pastor and leader is challenged to believe that through God, “not by power, nor by might, but by My Spirit” mountains shall become plain.

It seems like the latest strategy to conquer the world for Jesus. You can read the rest of the details of the strategy here.

When are we going to get it? The underlying institutional anxiety about its own validity and survival is so transparent. In 2009 the Southern California Conference has a "big evangelistic strategy" of it's own, so I don't know how it going to mesh with this Year of Pastoral Evangelism. We're having 4 consecutive evangelistic campaigns with Shawn Boonstra of It Is Written, basically running back to back in four quadrants of Los Angeles.

Calling Adventists in Maryland's 6th Congressional District

With the House override vote on SCHIP just a week away, many organizations, including PICO, are working on key Republicans to see if we can get this legislation passed.

I just heard today that one key Republican is Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, of Maryland's 6th congressional district. Mr. Bartlett is a Seventh-day Adventist who has this say in defense of his "NO" vote on SCHIP earlier this month.

“Only Democrat Congressional leaders could demand that a family earning $82,000 a year could qualify for their expanded S-CHIP program and simultaneously call that same family rich enough to force them to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. It just goes to show that what Democrats really want is to have the government control how to spend the money that American taxpayers earn." (Read the rest here).

So, I am in search of Seventh-day Adventists who live in the 6th district who think extending health insurance to 4 million additional poor children is a good idea. If someone would be willing to call his office, I would be more than happy to brief you on the key policy details and help you craft a simple, but powerful, message. Please email me at rjbell (at) hollywoodsda (dot) org.

Redbooks: Our search for Ellen White

I've been looking forward to seeing "Red Books" at the Association of Adventist Forums Conference in Santa Rosa on Sept 28. But if you live in Southern California, you have a few chances to see this play. You can visit the website and learn all about the play and see the schedule. In short, it will be at the Eagle Rock Church in Glendale tonight and tomorrow night (Sept 17 & 18), and at La Sierra University in Riverside, Oct. 5 & 6. For more info, click here.

Here's what Hollywood member Lennox Fleary had to say -

Just got back from watching "Redbooks" at the Eagle Rock church. If I didn't have a rehearsal tomorrow night at 8, I would see it again tomorrow night. Not only did I feel proud to be Adventist, I sensed something Ryan has been talking about the past few months: "the Spirit of God is at work in his people" There are conversations happening in Hollywood that are so well represented in this piece that I was actually amused at the similarity of the dialogue to our own discussions. It's not just a piece about Ellen White, although the story begins there. To me, it's about honest, open conversation that begins with questions and commitment (emphasis added).

Very nice, Lennox. I hope more of our members will see it!