Good afternoon!

I hope everyone had a great week and are enjoying their Sunday.

On this week’s episode, we talked about whether hell is truly eternal. The Book of Enoch has a lot to say about the eternal nature of hell, so I thought it best to deal with this early on. The Bible teaches that hell is (1) eternal, (2) conscious and (3) torment. And this view often comes under attack- by atheists, agnostics, and even Christians.

I dealt with three objections in Wednesday’s episode:

1- Why can’t Annihilationism be true?

2- God is a God of love, and hell isn’t very loving

3- How can a finite amount of sins deserve infinite punishment?

And in today’s newsletter, I want to talk about a fourth…

One more objection: “Hell is narrow-minded”

Isn’t it narrow-minded to say that you have the right way to heaven and everyone else is going to hell?

This is a major stumbling block for apostates such as Rob Bell and Marty Sampson (who I discussed in Wednesday’s episode). They think that Christians are too narrow-minded because we say that there’s one specific way to go to heaven- which is through Jesus.

John 14:6 - I am the way and the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is THE way. Not A way. THE way. Every other way leads to hell.

Is that narrow-minded? Let’s reframe the question. Say I’m giving someone directions from my church to the city post office. I would say something like, “You need to turn east on Spring Street and drive down a block to Jefferson Avenue. Then turn right on Jefferson Avenue and head south for three blocks. After that, turn left onto Main Street and it’s at the next stop, right next to the funeral home at the intersection of Main St. and Wood St.”

It would be ridiculous for them to reply this way: “Well I want to get there by turning east on Spring Street and drive for 8 blocks. Then I want to turn north and head that way another 6 blocks, and then park next to the supermarket and get to the post office that way, because I think all roads lead to the post office.”

That would be stupid. You can’t get to the post office by just driving down whatever road you want. If Main & Wood is “the way,” you’re gonna have to get there by going to Main & Wood.

Heaven is the same way. There’s one path. And that’s not narrow-minded, it’s specific.

But if you want to call it narrow-minded, that’s fine with me. I’m very narrow-minded when it comes to facts. If there’s a right way to do something and all the other ways are wrong, then I’m not going to be open-minded about how to do it. I want to do it the right way, so I’ll be narrow-minded about that.

And when it comes to going to heaven and avoiding hell, Jesus said this:

Matthew 7:13-14 - ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Next time…

It was a heavy episode this week, and frankly, I’m glad to be done with it. There’s some great stuff in store over the next few weeks, including the next episode: “Will we receive a new name when we get to heaven?” Learn what that’s all about soon.

Until next time, have a great week and a weird Wednesday…

-Luke