In Lamentations 3, the poet declares: "People are not cast off by the Lord forever, though he brings grief, he will show compa.s.sion, so great is his unfailing love."

In Hosea 14 G.o.d says: "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely for my anger has turned away from them."

In chapter 3 Zephaniah says: G.o.d "will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."

No more anger, no more punishment, rebuke, or refining- at some point healing and reconciling and return.

G.o.d promises in Isaiah 57: "I will guide them and restore comfort to them."

In Hosea 6: "On the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence."

In Joel 3: "In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem . . ."

In Amos 9: "I will restore David's fallen shelter."

In Nahum 2: "The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob." will restore the splendor of Jacob."

In Zephaniah 2: "The LORD their G.o.d will care for them; he will restore their fortunes." their G.o.d will care for them; he will restore their fortunes."

In Zephaniah 3: "I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes."

In Zechariah 9: "Even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you."

In Zechariah 10: "I will restore them because I have compa.s.sion on them."

And in Micah 7: "You will again have compa.s.sion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea."

I realize that that's a lot of Bible verses, but I list them to simply show how dominant a theme restoration is in the Hebrew scriptures. It comes up again and again and again. Sins trodden underfoot, iniquities hurled into the depths of the sea. G.o.d always has an intention.

Healing.

Redemption.

Love.

Bringing people home and rejoicing over them with singing.

The prophets are quick to point out that this isn't just something for "G.o.d's people," the "chosen," the "elect."

In Isaiah 19, the prophet announces, "In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the L in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the LORD at its border." at its border."

What's the significance of Egypt?

Egypt was Israel's enemy.

Hated.

Despised.

An altar in the heart of Egypt?

An altar was where people worshipped.

They'll worship G.o.d in . . . Egypt Egypt?

Once again, things aren't what they appear to be. The people who are opposed to G.o.d will worship G.o.d, the ones far away will be brought near, the ones facing condemnation will be restored.

Failure, we see again and again, isn't final, judgment has a point, and consequences are for correction.

With this in mind, several bizarre pa.s.sages later in the New Testament begin to make more sense. In Paul's first letter to Timothy he mentions Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom he has "handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme." (Something in me wants to read that in a Darth Vader voice.) Now I realize that the moment he mentions Satan, things can get really confusing. But beyond the questions- "Handed over to Satan?"

Paul has handed people over to Satan?

Do you do that?

Can you do that?

How do you do that?

Is there paperwork involved?

What is is clear is that Paul has great confidence that this handing over will be for good, as inconceivable as that appears at first. His confidence is that these two will be taught something. They will learn. They will grow. They will become better. clear is that Paul has great confidence that this handing over will be for good, as inconceivable as that appears at first. His confidence is that these two will be taught something. They will learn. They will grow. They will become better.

"Satan," according to Paul, is actually used by G.o.d for G.o.d's transforming purposes. Whoever and whatever he means by that word "Satan," there is something redemptive and renewing that will occur when Hymenaeus and Alexander are "handed over."

And this is not an isolated incident of Paul's confidence that the most severe judgment falls squarely within the redemptive purposes of G.o.d in the world. Paul gives a similar instruction in his first letter to the Corinthians, telling his friends to hand a certain man "over to Satan for the destruction of the sinful nature so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord" (chap. 5).

How does that work? Because it's counterintuitive to say the least.

His a.s.sumption is that giving this man over to "Satan" will bring an end to the man's "sinful nature." It's as if Paul is saying, "We've tried everything to get his attention, and it isn't working, so turn him loose to experience the full consequences of his actions."

We have a term for this process. When people pursue a destructive course of action and they can't be convinced to change course, we say they're "h.e.l.l-bent" on it. Fixed, obsessed, unshakable in their pursuit, unwavering in their commitment to a destructive direction. The stunning twist in all of this is that when G.o.d lets the Israelites go the way they're insisting on heading and when Paul "turns people over," it's all for good. The point of this turning loose, this letting go, this punishment, is to allow them to live with the full consequences of their choices, confident that the misery they find themselves in will have a way of getting their attention.

As G.o.d says time and time again in the Prophets, "I've tried everything else, and they won't listen." The result, Paul is convinced, is that wrongdoers will become right doers.

We see this same impulse in the story Jesus tells in Matthew 25 about sheep and goats being judged and separated. The sheep are sent to one place, while the goats go to another place because of their failure to see Jesus in the hungry and thirsty and naked.

The goats are sent, in the Greek language, to an aion aion of of kolazo. kolazo. Aion, Aion, we know, has several meanings. One is "age" or "period of time"; another refers to intensity of experience. The word we know, has several meanings. One is "age" or "period of time"; another refers to intensity of experience. The word kolazo kolazo is a term from horticulture. It refers to the pruning and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the branches of a plant so it can flourish. is a term from horticulture. It refers to the pruning and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the branches of a plant so it can flourish.

An aion aion of of kolazo. kolazo. Depending on how you translate Depending on how you translate aion aion and and kolazo, kolazo, then, the phrase can mean "a period of pruning" or "a time of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g," or an intense experience of correction. then, the phrase can mean "a period of pruning" or "a time of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g," or an intense experience of correction.

In a good number of English translations of the Bible, the phrase "aion of of kolazo kolazo" gets translated as "eternal punishment," which many read to mean "punishment forever," as in never going to end.

But "forever" is not really a category the biblical writers used.

The closest the Hebrew writers come to a word for "forever" is the word olam. olam. Olam Olam can be translated as "to the vanishing point," "in the far distance," "a long time," "long lasting," or "that which is at or beyond the horizon." When can be translated as "to the vanishing point," "in the far distance," "a long time," "long lasting," or "that which is at or beyond the horizon." When olam olam refers to G.o.d, as in Psalm 90 ("from everlasting to everlasting you are G.o.d"), it's much closer to the word "forever" as we think of it, time without beginning or end. But then in the other pa.s.sages, when it's not describing G.o.d, it has very different meanings, as when Jonah prays to G.o.d, who let him go down into the belly of a fish "forever" ( refers to G.o.d, as in Psalm 90 ("from everlasting to everlasting you are G.o.d"), it's much closer to the word "forever" as we think of it, time without beginning or end. But then in the other pa.s.sages, when it's not describing G.o.d, it has very different meanings, as when Jonah prays to G.o.d, who let him go down into the belly of a fish "forever" (olam) and then, three days later, brought him out of the belly of the fish.

Olam, in this instance, in this instance, turns out to be three days.

It's a versatile, pliable word, in most occurrences referring to a particular period of time.

So when we read "eternal punishment," it's important that we don't read categories and concepts into a phrase that aren't there. Jesus isn't talking about forever as we think of forever. Jesus may be talking about something else, which has all sorts of implications for our understandings of what happens after we die, which we'll spend the next chapter sorting through.

___________________.

To summarize, then, we need a loaded, volatile, adequately violent, dramatic, serious word to describe the very real consequences we experience when we reject the good and true and beautiful life that G.o.d has for us. We need a word that refers to the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets hidden deep within our hearts all the way to the ma.s.sive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in G.o.d's world G.o.d's way.

And for that, the word "h.e.l.l" works quite well.

Let's keep it.

Chapter 4.

Does G.o.d Get What G.o.d Wants?

On the websites of many churches, there is a page where you can read what the people in that particular church believe. Usually the list starts with statements about the Bible, then G.o.d, Jesus, and the Spirit, then salvation and the church, and so on. Most of these lists and statements include a section on what the people in the church believe about the people who don't believe what they believe.

This is from an actual church website: "The unsaved will be separated forever from G.o.d in h.e.l.l."

This is from another: "Those who don't believe in Jesus will be sent to eternal punishment in h.e.l.l."

And this is from another: "The unsaved dead will be committed to an eternal conscious punishment."

So in the first statement, the "unsaved" won't be with G.o.d.

In the second, not only will they not be with G.o.d, but they'll be sent somewhere else to be punished.

And in the third, we're told that not only will these "unsaved" be punished forever, but they will be fully aware of it-in case we were concerned they might down an Ambien or two when G.o.d wasn't looking . . .

The people experiencing this separation and punishment will feel all of it, we are told, because they'll be fully conscious of it, fully awake and aware for every single second of it, as it never lets up for billions and billions of years.

All this, on a website.

Welcome to our church.

Yet on these very same websites are extensive affirmations of the goodness and greatness of G.o.d, proclamations and statements of belief about a G.o.d who is "mighty,"

"powerful,"

"loving,"

"unchanging,"

"sovereign,"

"full of grace and mercy,"

and "all-knowing."

This G.o.d is the one who created "the world and everything in it."

This is the G.o.d for whom "all things are possible."

I point out these parallel claims: that G.o.d is mighty, powerful, and "in control"

and that billions of people will spend forever apart from this G.o.d, who is their creator, even though it's written in the Bible that "G.o.d wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2).

So does G.o.d get what G.o.d wants?

How great is G.o.d?

Great enough to achieve what G.o.d sets out to do, or kind of great, medium great, great most of the time, but in this, the fate of billions of people, not totally great.

Sort of great.

A little great.

According to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, "G.o.d wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear" (chap. 6).

G.o.d has a purpose, something G.o.d is doing in the world, something that has never changed, something that involves everybody, and G.o.d's intention all along has been to communicate this intention clearly.

Will all people be saved, or will G.o.d not get what G.o.d wants?

Does this magnificent, mighty, marvelous G.o.d fail fail in the end? in the end?

People, according to the scriptures, are inextricably intertwined with G.o.d. As it's written in Psalm 24: "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 45, says that G.o.d "did not create [the earth] to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited." Paul says in a speech in Acts 17 that in G.o.d "we live and move and have our being," and he writes in Romans 11, "From him and through him and to him are all things."

The prophet Malachi asks, "Do we not all have one Father? Did not one G.o.d create us?" (chap. 2). Paul says in Acts 17, "We are G.o.d's offspring," and in Ephesians 3 he writes, "I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives it name."

The writers of the scriptures consistently affirm that we're all part of the same family. What we have in common-regardless of our tribe, language, customs, beliefs, or religion-outweighs our differences. This is why G.o.d wants "all people to be saved." History is about the kind of love a parent has for a child, the kind of love that pursues, searches, creates, connects, and bonds. The kind of love that moves toward, embraces, and always works to be reconciled with, regardless of the cost.

The writers of the Bible have a lot to say about this love: In Psalm 65 it's written that "all people will come" to G.o.d.

In Ezekiel 36 G.o.d says, "The nations will know that I am the LORD."

The prophet Isaiah says, "All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our G.o.d" (chap. 52).

Zephaniah quotes G.o.d as saying, "Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder" (chap. 3). and serve him shoulder to shoulder" (chap. 3).

And Paul writes in Philippians 2, "Every knee should bow . . . and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of G.o.d the Father."