Posts tagged Heaven and Hell

So my book is called “10 Things I Hate About Christianity: Working Through the Frustrations of Faith.” You can click here to read a sample. But what are those 10 things? Today I am talking about the third thing.

I hate Hell.

Who doesn’t hate the idea of Hell? And that’s why I had to write a chapter about it. I think Hell is a lot like the monster in a horror movie. You run from it, maybe you hide in a closet and try to ignore it, but it keeps coming back.

Jesus talked a lot about Hell. So if I claim to be his follower, I have to reconcile the idea, no matter how difficult or ugly it is.

Hell is also one of those subjects that always comes up in religious or philosophical conversations. It’s a trump card for the skeptic or antagonist. You know, they’ll say something like:

So am I going to Hell because I don’t believe in Jesus?

I hate that. Don’t you? And it’s worse trying to answer this while keeping the conversation friendly. It just doesn’t ever go very well.

Awkward questions like this are the reason there are many different interpretations on Hell, which I also talk about in the book.

What do you think? Is Hell real? Why would God make Hell? How do you explain all this to a neighbor or coworker if they ask?