Christians who defend the doctrine of hell as eternal conscious torment often accuse critics of the doctrine of “modern sentimentalism”. What, like the “sentimental” ideas that slavery and torture are wrong? That animal suffering is morally significant? That armies in military conflicts shouldn’t target non-combatants? That prisons should seek to reform and not merely to […]
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Hell and the Image of God: A Response to Scott Clifton
Scott Clifton (aka Theoretical BS) offered a response to my YouTube video “If an atheist says they don’t think hell will be so bad, what do you say in reply?”. I’ve included his video below followed by a quick response: Scott’s main argument in the last half of his video appears to be that I’ve […]
If an atheist says they don’t think hell will be so bad, what do you say in reply?
Why would God send people to hell?
Talking hell, the Bible, biblical violence, and lots more with an atheist apologist
Remember Pinecreek Doug? If you don’t, you can get up to speed at “A street apologist puts me in my place” and “My Response to the Pinecreek-Doug-Dilemma.” Today, Doug had me on his show. He seems like a very nice fellow, but it also seemed to me that he had an inordinate and ultimately unhelpful focus […]
God can save mid-level sinners like me, but not mega-sinners like Stalin
The other day, I posted a couple of tweets listing bad objections to Christian universalism. Here is the second tweet: “The second worst objection to Christian universalism: ‘If everybody is ultimately saved by Jesus, then why bother telling anybody?’ “Um, because it’s the best possible news. And God told us to.” Steve Hays of Triablogue […]
Responding to a half-baked objection to hell
This morning I tweeted a link to an article I wrote on the complexity of salvation: “If God wants us to be saved, why isn’t salvation simple?” This prompted a response from a gentleman on Twitter named David Reilly. Reilly believed that this fact constitutes an objection to Christian faith. I argued to the contrary […]
The Nature of Hell: A friendly debate
I just finished recording four podcasts with Catholic apologist Trent Horn in San Diego. As I speak, I’m preparing to board a plane to fly back to Edmonton. In the interim, Trent just uploaded the first episode. It was also videotaped and apparently will be made available on YouTube. Here is the link to the […]
Dabney’s Disturbing Defense of the Elation of the Elect in the Destiny of the Damned
In 1878, the Anglican priest and theologian, Frederic Farrar published a monograph defending hopeful universalism titled Eternal Hope. In the following year, Presbyterian theologian Robert Dabney published a review article critiquing two works including Farrar’s book. Dabney was a defender of the view that hell consists of eternal conscious torment: hence, the title of his […]
A Christian Argument for Antinatalism
Antinatalism is the philosophical view that the birth of new human beings is, in some sense, a disvalue and should be avoided. However, antinatalists disagree widely on their reasons for assigning a disvalue to the creation of new human life. One person might be an antinatalist because of the anticipated quality of life of the […]
Why Every Christian Should Be a Hopeful Universalist
Here is a new video I uploaded to YouTube in which I discuss the concept of hopeful universalism. For further discussion, see chapter 20 of my book What On Earth Do We Know About Heaven? which is currently only $3.99!
Do bad children go to hell?
When I first became a father, I found myself facing a question that most Christian parents must confront at one time or another: when is my child responsible to make her own decision to follow Jesus? Were thirteen-year-olds in danger of going to hell? And what about a three-year-old? What was the point at which […]
Hell and the Principle of Proportional Justice
This is a brief follow-up to my article with the inexcusably long title “Do three-year-olds deserve to be tortured eternally in hell? Apparently, Ligonier Ministries thinks so. And they’re alarmed at those who disagree.” In the comments section, Fraternite commented as follows: “From your perspective, why wouldn’t or shouldn’t God overlook a person who sinned […]
Do three-year-olds deserve to be tortured eternally in hell? Apparently Ligonier Ministries thinks so. And they’re alarmed at those who disagree
“What do Americans think about God, Jesus Christ, sin, and eternity? Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology survey helps uncover the answers. Every two years, we take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better understand today’s culture and equip the church with better insights for discipleship. Read some of our key findings […]
