Letting go of hell PART 1

I believe that there are good reasons for throwing the idea of hell on the dust pile of history, at least as far as hell in a literal sense goes. Even more so after having written these blog posts.

I wish to say from the beginning that this is a three part series, that I will continue on Saturday, because I wish for as many people as possible to read it. The reason is that I, while pondering this question, truly think that I reached an important conclusion.

The reason that I believe that the question of hell is important in the first place, is because I find the question of choosing love over fear very important. Because whether we let love or fear guide us, has a tremendous effect on what actions we take and what kinds of persons we become. And I believe that the idea of hell, whether we believe in it or not, is a source of much fear in the world. I know that I fear it, even if I don’t believe in it. This fear has however lessened in later years, both because of the transcendent experiences that I’ve had of God’s unconditional love, and because of what I’ve observed with regards to human behavior, and the conclusions that I’ve drawn from these observations.

Here is what my observations tell me: If a person truly understand him/herself and his/her being in the world, that person would not wish to commit any sinful act. What is a sinful act is, is a different topic for a different post. Here it suffices to say that I don’t look at sin from a moral perspective. I rather see it as something that leads to undesired results. 

If a person sins in spite of seeing the actions from a clear perspective, it is because of brokenness and weakness and not because the person is evil. I’ve come to this conclusion because I have seen for myself, how egoistic acts bring me further away from God. Because acts that are not in line with God’s will bring me further away from God. And being separated from God is its own punishment, without anyone but ourselves having to to inflict the punishment upon us. When we see things clearly, we will know beyond any doubt, that we don’t need the threat of punishment to want to do God’s will. We will know that we do it because it is the only way to live a meaningful life. And because it is the only true remedy for the suffering of being. This makes hell superfluous. Something unimaginably cruel, inflicted on people for no good reason. By an all-powerful, all-loving God? I honestly have a hard time thinking of anything that would be more self-contradictory. 

Could we become totally separated from God? I find this unlikely, since it is possible to become severely corrupted and still turn around and earnestly seek God. What would be the meaning of having this possibility taken away by death? At the same time, I believe that the inevitability of death and the uncertainty of what comes after, should be an incentive to prioritize our spiritual life right here and now. Because we don’t know what we may throw away by wasting this life on trivialities.