Back to Keller

It's really not the case that I get easily distracted. It's true that a couple of months ago I did several blogs on Timothy Keller's book The Reason for God and stopped with over half of the book still to discuss. But there's so much going on that I put the book aside. Okay, I'd like to get back to discussing one of his later chapters that deals with a difficult issue -- how a loving God can send people to hell.

This is very offensive for those outside the Christian faith. They see this belief as exclusionary, abusive, divisive, and violent. Instead, many focus on a God of love who supports people no matter how they live.

However, the idea that God will blindly love us is not how the ancients saw things. They understood there was a transcendent moral order outside of the human race. If people violated that order, there were severe consequences, so people had to learn how to live wisely through character traits such as humility, compassion, courage, discretion, and loyalty.

Today, people have it backwards. We don't change ourselves to fit reality; according to Keller, "we now seek to control and shape reality to fit our desires." We believe so deeply in our own personal rights that we can't conceive of a divine judgment day imposed upon us.

What Keller is saying is that our Western sensibilities are not always in tune with the way the past or other cultures today see things. One other example is the fact that secular Westerners get upset by the idea of hell, but they like biblical teaching about turning the other cheek and forgiving enemies. Those in traditional cultures see it just the other way around. Turning the other cheek makes no sense because it offends many who have beliefs about what is right. They do not have a problem of the God of judgment.

So Keller asks a key question -- why should Western cultural sensibilities be the ultimate way to judge whether Christianity is valid? We object to the concept of hell, but other societies do not.

Keller believes many people struggle with the idea that God is both a God of love and of justice. They can't see that a loving God could also be a judging God. But, he says, all loving people are sometimes filled with wrath. For example, if you love someone and you see somebody hurting that person, it's easy to get angry. Keller quotes another author, who says that "anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference." God is angry at evil and injustice because it destroys his creation and ruins its peace and integrity. If God did not get angry at injustice and seek to put an end to it, that God would not be worthy of worship.

In fact, lack of belief in a God of vengeance is what causes problems. People who are victims of violence often turn to vengeance, which leads to an endless cycle of bitterness and destruction. They are more inclined to seek vengeance if they feel there is no God who will eventually put all things right and punish those who deserve punishment. Think of the Nazis and the Communists -- loss of belief in a God of judgment can lead to brutality. If there is no ultimate accountability, we can do anything we want to our fellow human beings.

Keller defines hell as "simply one's freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity." When we build our lives on anything except God, that thing becomes an enslaving addiction. His quote from C. S. Lewis is powerful: "It is not a question of God sending us to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will be hell unless it is nipped in the bud." Yes, people in hell are miserable, but it is unchecked pride, paranoia, and self-pity that makes it so. Hell is a prison of their own self-centeredness. We have our picture incorrectly drawn -- God is not casting people into a pit where they cry out desperately "I'm sorry! Let me out!"

Keller's key point here is that hell is actually a testament to human freedom. God gives people what they want, including freedom from himself. As Lewis says, "There are only two kinds of people -- those who say 'Thy will be done' to God or those to whom God in the end says 'Thy will be done.'"

Keller relates an interesting exchange that he had with two women who were upset with his affirmation of hell. They told him that believing in eternal judgment made him a very narrow person. Keller responded, "You think I'm wrong about these religious questions, and I think you are wrong. Why doesn't that make you as narrow as me?"

This takes us through the five chapters in Keller's book. There are a couple to go, so I'll try to stay focused enough to cover them in the next two blogs.