When I was coming out, my first therapist (a Christian who thought she was doing right) blamed my homosexuality on everything – my absent father, my choice in friends, spending too much time with my mother, and other things. My mother ignored me for two weeks and when we finally got around to facing each other, I learned she was scared that I was going to hell. Sometime after this, when she saw that I hadn’t changed, my goals in life and my personality and quality of character hadn’t changed, she no longer thought I was going to hell. So, what was it all about?

The Presbyterian Church spent decades studying and arguing, tearing each other down, until they came to a point when they could admit and realized that hell is not really mentioned in scripture. What is mentioned is a Jewish idea of She-ol, and a place where trash was forever burned outside the gates of Jerusalem called Gehenna, which Jesus used to shake his listeners into doing good in this world.

Jesus threatened in hyperbole this scary “stick” – Gehenna, and yet he never really did talk about the stick. According to Rev. Roger Wolsey, he (Jesus) talked about the “carrot” – “the Kingdom of God/heaven and the merits and blessings of living in Godly ways that demonstrate we’re living “kingdom lives” in God’s beloved community and realm.”

Hell was most likely a man-invented Pagan concept transferred to Christian theology as a way to scare others and control them. In the book of Revelation, hell is actually swallowed up in the transformative changing of the old heaven and earth into the new heaven and earth.

She-ol, however, a real Jewish concept of a place of rest/sleep until judgment day when Christ would return to judge the quick and the dead may be understood as the lie in wait…or death, until the second coming of Christ.

I rather enjoy how Rev. Wolsey describes his understanding and interpretation of “hell”. “…the only hells that exist are those ones that we create and allow at this time.” The threat of hell as we have come to understand it in movies and fantasies, or evangelical and fundamental groups is nothing more than fire insurance; keeps us from burning. Wolsey says, “I follow Jesus here and now for the sake of experiencing salvation (which means wholeness and healing) here and now – and to help others do the same.”

“For many progressive Christians, going to heaven is not the goal, but rather the gift. We are called to live “kingdom lives” (lives in sync with and that reflect God’s Beloved Community) now – trusting that whatever happens afterward will take care of itself. The eternal life Christ speaks about, the Greek words that actually mean abundant and full, is as much about a state and quality of being here and now as it is about infinite perpetual time.” - Wolsey

So, rather than worrying about the promise of heaven or the threat of hell one day in the future, we should emphasize the invitation to experience abundant life by following the way and teachings of Jesus here and now.

Here’s to living in abundance,  

Pastor Brian

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Image - Heaven Hell - stock image on Google