Why I like Annihilation

The other day a couple of friends and I were talking about what happens after death. We were debating whether or not hell and the idea of eternal damnation were consistent with a just and loving God. This is a debate I have heard many times and my ideas have changed over the years I have read and listened to others and tried to understand the bible in the light of what others say and my own study. These are my conclusions:

We are born with an innate sense of justice and mercy. We understand that some crimes are more heinous than others and therefore deserve a greater form of punishment. The Mosaic law in Leviticus shows us that God himself gave us laws that showed asome crimes deserve greater punishments. With this in mind, it seems out of character with what I know of God through Scripture that he would then send all people who don't believe in him to a lake of fire where they would then be in torture for the rest of forever. Eternity. Always. That is one heck of a long time and seems a little extreme (except perhaps in cases of people like Hitler etc).

I have also noticed that one of the greatest fears in the world is that of death. People are terrified of getting old and dying. They don't know what lies beyond and that is scary. If it is hell then they ought to be scared. But even if it is not, the idea of dying and there be nothing, zip, nadda, and this life of approx. 60yrs has been for nothing is just as scary. People often get depressed thinking about the fact that this life could be pointless. Even in days gone this was a fear. The idea of dying without an heir to carry on your name was seen as the worst possible fate. That is why it was permissible to divorce barren women, because if your genes weren't passed on then really, what was the point? Life is pretty damn hard, the only point of it would be hope that something in the future gives it meaning. For Christians this is Christ. He offers life, life eternal, and so this life has meaning beyond our painful years here. It means that when we die there is something that we are living for. That is why we do not fear death, that is why death has lost it's sting. That is why death was defeated by Christ, it is no longer our enemy.

So if death is the enemy of all who don't believe in Christ, then it makes sense to me that those who chose not to follow him have a reason to fear it. Not because of torture or hell or anything like that, but because they will be dead. No more. Cease to be. All over red rover. The few years they spent carving out a niche in this world was pointless. Whether they spent it in luxury or in pain they all end up the same way. They will be worm food and their children will in turn die and they won't be remembered. Hell is knowing that your life had no purpose, no reason, was a waste of time. Everything you did was for nothing. The hopelessness of that scares the bejeezus out of me. But Christ brings life and hope.

So I am an annihilationist and proud of it. It seems consistent with what I know of God and Scripture and life. Maybe I am wrong, but, as I am in Christ, I don't really fear hell anyway :)

What to do with the Church

I have often found my self in the position of being asked hat I think about a particular church. It could be any church and anyone could be asking for any particular reason. Most of the time I can give them a run down on the doctrinal differences of one denomination to another, the structure of the church, and (if I know the church personally) will be able to tell them about the programmes and people within it. Sometimes I find myself in the particularly tricky situation of being asked my own personal belief on whether or not I agree with the gospel the church is preaching. A lot of the time I have no issue, but what do I do when I do?

I find it difficult to speak out against a church to people, which is odd for me because I usually have no trouble speaking out about anything! But it feels almost unchristian, almost traitorally to speak out about a church. For example, I have major issues with the prosperity doctrine that some churches preach. I find it antethical to the gospel and it offends me when I hear it preached. I know people who go to churches who do preach and people who believe in it and many, if not all, are good people and have a strong faith. But when asked what I think about the teaching I don't know how to respond.

I think this kind of stage fright when asked about churches is not just a problem that I have. I think christians all over are not sure if it is kosher to be anti a church, or if it appropriate to say so. I wonder why? Luther had no problem, though a lot of heart ache, at speaking out against what he saw to be false teaching that was against the gospel. He didn't want to speak out but felt it his christian duty to do so. So did his name sake Martin Luther King Jr. Pretty much every denomination started because somebody somewhere said something about how they didn't like the way the church is being run. Church splite became almost fashionable in some denominations over trivial issues in some cases. Jesus himself spent a lot of time telling the religious authorities of the day that they were doing things wrong, as did Paul.

So where does that leave me? If I am checking my intentions, speaking in love and with wisdom, is it alright for me to sppeak out against a church to whom I do not belong but with whom I hva emany issues? Am I allowed to encourage people not to go? Am I allowed to voice warnings out of concern for the faith of the poeple asking me? Am I allowed to challenge the leadership and question its authority? And can I do it on the grounds of them not preaching the gospel?

The Monotony of Life?

I was having a discussion the other day with a friend about his fear of the monotony of life. He told me he was afraid of living a life that was a 9-5 work day, coming home, tv, sleep, repeat. His fear was that life would get boring, friends would get boring and, worst of all, that family would eventually get boring.

This conversation has stayed in my mind the last week or so and I have wondered about his fears at those times in the night when everything is silent except all the thoughts in your head. I have wondered if he is right, that life is a treadmill of monotony and then you die. I have wondered if people have always thought like this, and if not, where did it come from? I have wondered and asked myself and the night if I too fear life being boring?

I think that in a life bombarded by advertising telling us that our lives will not be truly happy til we buy a, b, or c then it is totally understandable that we are growing generations of people terrified of being boring, of being still, of things not constantly changing. We have bred an age of people who do not know how to live the same day in and day out. We must be buying something new, seeing something new, going somewhere new, dating someone new. If life is boring it is our fault, the problem is with us and we must do something to fix it, to make it exciting again. The age of irresbonsibility (cunningly disguised in the title 'adolesence') is getting older and older because people are afraid of being responsible, of being boring.

But if you really stop to consider a life without routine I think that that is a decidedly scarier thought. Imagine a life where you can't rely on your job being there in the morning, can't trust your partner/spouse/boy/girlfriend to be there for you and consistent in the way they are (hmmm, actually that sounds a lot like some people I know....). Imagine not being able to rely on a paycheck every week, food on the table, money in the bank (well, most of the world lives like that so maybe we should count our blessings...). Imagine that the day in day out 'boring' stuff of life changed at random any day in liked and tell me how much fun would it be living in a world like that? Would it be less stressful, happier, more exciting? Or would it become so unstable that people would be desperate for monotony? Is that in fact why we have such high rates of suicide and drug and alcohol problems, because people can't stay up to speed with this world that changes so fast? Perhaps it is the boring that makes the exciting exactly that.

I am getting married in just over two months and, I have to say, I am looking forward to waking up everyday to the same face, to seeing him and dinner time, to knowing he will be there for me, to having our house with our stuff and not having the nomadic life of a single. Call me boring, but I think all of that is exactly what I was made to enjoy.