Hellfire and Damnation

Douglas Wilson

May 27, 2014

I want to begin by acknowledging that the metaphors of damnation that we find in Scripture are quite possibly not literal descriptions — where the worm does not die, where the fire is not quenched, where it is an outer darkness, where there is a lake of fire, and so on. But before assuming that I am quietly becoming a liberal, let me point something out about the nature of symbolic language.

The symbol is always less than the reality it represents. I am married, and I wear a ring to symbolize the fact. But the ring is less than the reality. The flag is less than the nation it represents. This means that if the language about Hell is literal — straight across — then it represents a horrible reality. But if the language is figurative, then let no one take comfort in the fact, because the comfort is as false as the other lies that can take a man to Hell. If the language is literal, then it is the stuff of nightmares. If the language is figurative, then it will be much worse than that.

One of the reasons we object to language about judgment is that we believe that it corrupts our motives for coming to Christ. We should love Christ, not fear Him. Right, but as sinners we are in no shape to love Him, and our sins require us to fear Him. Jesus does not reject the motive of fear, but rather encourages us to cultivate it. “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).

But we are in the grip of theological preciosity, and we are fastidious about hellfire.

Monday, 26 August 2013

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

When a Public Mind Cannot Repent

Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2013

By Douglas Wilson

Blog and Mablog

Many Christian activists and reformers are in that position because they see — they anticipate, they look forward, they can run out the consequences. If they were in a position to do so, they would be good providers for our society. The word provide comes from two Latin words, meaning to see beforehand. You can give the provision because you saw it coming.

When someone sees ordinary things coming — springtime and harvest, for example — he is considered diligent. The sluggard is surprised by the arrival of winter. He wants desperately, but has nothing (Prov. 13:4). He is reduced to begging in the time of harvest (Prov. 20:4). But can you warn him beforehand? Not a bit of it — he is wiser in his own conceits than seven men with good reasons (Prov. 26:16).

When someone sees extraordinary things coming — the famine that threatened Egypt, for example — he is considered a prophet like Joseph. When someone truly identifies future things in a way that is not consistent with chance, we say that he is a prophet of God (Is. 41:23). And (in a movie) if someone were able to predict the winning lottery numbers, we would say it was clairvoyance . . . or cheating.

But when someone sees damnation coming to someone, the more his prediction is confirmed, the more it is discounted and despised.