Four Last Things - Hell

Everything stops in our house at 9pm on Thursday night. Why? We have thoroughly enjoyed, if that’s the right word, the BBC programme ‘Apparitions.’

Without diverting into too much detail, the series centers around a Roman Catholic priest, Fr Jacob, who practices a ministry of exorcism. During last Thursday night’s episode Fr. Jacob, referring to a tormented soul in Hell, said something like. ‘People are not sent to hell, they choose it when they deny God.’

During Advent, the church has traditionally meditated on what it calls the Four Last Things - death, judgement, heaven and hell. They are traditionally the things that the dying contemplate on before the inevitable, or to put another way, they are the four things that the dead encounter after death. In this final address this morning I want to think about Hell.

There was a time when it was very a la mode for preachers to talk about, Hell, hellfire and damnation. Yet as a doctrine, whilst still central to the teaching of the church, it is mentioned very infrequently these days, so much so that one could seriously wonder whether the church has completely ditched it.

The Church though places the doctrine of Hell at its’ heart. The 39 Articles of Religion, the basic summary of the beliefs of the Church of England, composed back in 1563 but still one of the founding documents of the church today, refer to Hell. Article III reads, ‘...As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed that He went down into Hell...’

Back in March 2007, in a Lent sermon, Pope Benedict XVI said, "Hell exists and there is eternal punishment for those who sin and do not repent."

Using the Gospel reading of John where Jesus saves the adulterous woman from death by stoning by saying "let he who is without sin to cast the first stone", Pope Benedict said: "This reading shows us that Christ wants to save souls. He is saying that He wants us in Paradise with Him but He is saying that those who close their hearts to Him will be condemned to eternal damnation....Only God's love can change from within the existence of the person and, consequently, the existence of every society, because only His infinite love liberates from sin, the root of every evil...”

Dante's The Divine Comedy is a classic inspiration for modern images of Hell with its flames and winged, diabolical-looking beasts. The 15th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch also seared his vision of Hell into the popular European imagination, with pictures showing half-man, half-beast creatures.

There is no one specific definition of Hell in the scriptures, but rather three different traditions. Firstly within Judasim there is Gehenna. The name derived from the burning rubbish dump near Jerusalem, metaphorically identified with the entrance to the underworld. It was a foul smelling place, outside the safety and sanctity of the city where rubbish and the bodies of dead animals and criminals were burned.

Gehenna is cited in the New Testament and in early Christian writing to represent the place where evil will be destroyed. Gehenna as a destination of the wicked is different from Sheol, the abode of all the dead.

Secondly there is Sheol as it is called in the OT, Hades the Greek New Testament. Hades was the place of the dead in general rather than the abode of the wicked. It is a place of waiting before the Final Judgement. The parable of Lazarus and Dives is unusual in that Jesus links Hades to a place of torment for the wicked.

Thirdly there is Hell. A fiery vision of Hell is mentioned in the Bible, in the Gospel of Matthew 25, which describes: "the eternal fire prepared for
the Devil and his angels", while the Book of Revelation talks of "lakes of fire, brimming with sulphur". Hell is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin and for those who have rejected Jesus.

In the 1968 book, Introduction to Christianity, Joseph Ratzinger, described Hell as a state of existential abandonment, "the loneliness into which love can no longer reach".

Our world feels like a loveless place from time to time, whether that’s in a Harringay flat or a Merseyside pub car park or in a refugee camp in Darfur or a Zimbabwean hospital. Yet even these places are filled with colour, love and light compared with a time and place where the love of God cannot reach.

God does not condemn souls to Hell, it is somewhere people choose when they willfully turn their back on love, God’s love. Love draws us in. It transforms loneliness into friendship, relationship and intimacy. God created in love, he fills the world with love, and shows us His love in Jesus Christ. As this season of Advent draws to a conclusion, Hell stands as a warning sign to us all, not necessarily to believe or behave in a certain way, but rather to live in love, to live by love and be judged by love. Amen.