For the sake of answering the Thursday Night Theology Question with more focus, we have decided here at Way of the Pastor to start asking just one big debatable question at a time!
1. Did Jesus decend into Hell during his three days in the tomb?
One note: The Lake of Fire (the eternal fire, eternal punishment, eternal hell) doesn't exist yet, so Jesus couldn't have gone there. However, there is presently a "hades," a place of the dead where Spirit's go to wait for judgment. In this place or places, folks are treated according to their eternal destiny.
I've got a few thousand dollars worth of 2 cents. Who knew?
That is more the realm of speculation than theology. A theological question might be "what is that value to the living of discoursing about hell?" If I were to say what I believe it would be that Jesus entered into death and overcame it - and perhaps we don't have the words this side of death to fully explain that, so Paul's 'he also descended' does it for us. Death is a fun one for theology because you have different views presented: Job tells us the dead don't praise God and seems to fit a more classic Jewish view of death that weighs in on the importance of this life. Jesus presents some interesting parables but we are left with questions as to what his real point was (likely not a specific description of hell any more than the creation myths are scientific explainations of creation). And we run the gamut in between. That there is an afterlife and that Jesus is Lord/Judge/present to this afterlife is absolutely clear - the rest is speculative and we really need to think not just on what we say about it, but how we talk about it. A great text on this is Jurgen Moltmann's "In the End - The Beginning". There he basically says that if our talk of what comes after death doesn't help us in our life before death then what is the point. That affirms the imminance and eternal nature of God which I think is always important to bear in mind when theologizing.
Oh, BTW I am Frank a Vineyard Pastor from Canada, stumbled on this blog and I love theologizing.
For the sake of answering the Thursday Night Theology Question with more focus, we have decided here at Way of the Pastor to start asking just one big debatable question at a time! 
I tend agree with Steve on this one.
ReplyDeleteOne note: The Lake of Fire (the eternal fire, eternal punishment, eternal hell) doesn't exist yet, so Jesus couldn't have gone there. However, there is presently a "hades," a place of the dead where Spirit's go to wait for judgment. In this place or places, folks are treated according to their eternal destiny.
I've got a few thousand dollars worth of 2 cents. Who knew?
That is more the realm of speculation than theology. A theological question might be "what is that value to the living of discoursing about hell?" If I were to say what I believe it would be that Jesus entered into death and overcame it - and perhaps we don't have the words this side of death to fully explain that, so Paul's 'he also descended' does it for us. Death is a fun one for theology because you have different views presented: Job tells us the dead don't praise God and seems to fit a more classic Jewish view of death that weighs in on the importance of this life. Jesus presents some interesting parables but we are left with questions as to what his real point was (likely not a specific description of hell any more than the creation myths are scientific explainations of creation). And we run the gamut in between. That there is an afterlife and that Jesus is Lord/Judge/present to this afterlife is absolutely clear - the rest is speculative and we really need to think not just on what we say about it, but how we talk about it. A great text on this is Jurgen Moltmann's "In the End - The Beginning". There he basically says that if our talk of what comes after death doesn't help us in our life before death then what is the point. That affirms the imminance and eternal nature of God which I think is always important to bear in mind when theologizing.
ReplyDeleteOh, BTW I am Frank a Vineyard Pastor from Canada, stumbled on this blog and I love theologizing.
Thanks for posting on this site Frank! We theologize every Monday and Thursday! Look forward to hearing more of your input!
ReplyDeleteWay of the Pastor,
Joe
I know
ReplyDelete