In this video, I consider the depiction of damnation in the new Korean Netflix show “Hellbound?” in which people await their fate to be dragged to hell and I bring that depiction into dialogue with the Christian doctrine of damnation. ?
judgment
Jesus and Sodom and Gomorrah
A reader emailed me a question about how Jesus viewed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: “when it comes to sodom and Gomorrah it seems that Jesus affirms this event as literal in Matthew 11:23 and Luke 17:29. But if this is the case it seems as if Jesus is affirming genocide of a large […]
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 […]
What can we learn from the Covington Boys Controversy?
Like many people, I was outraged at what *appeared* to be the overt disrespect and racism from the “Covington Boys” toward Vietnam vet Nathan Phillips. I described my visceral reaction in the article, “A Word on Behalf of the Idiots.” In that article, I assumed the moral culpability of the young men and then offered a […]
Would a loving God send people to hell?
I just wrote an article for Christian Post on this topic. You can read it by clicking here.
If you want to see folk damned, there is something wrong with you!
J.I. Packer has long distinguished himself as among the foremost evangelical critics of universalism. At the same time, he also made the following admission: “No evangelical, I think, need hesitate to admit that in his heart of hearts he would like universalism to be true. Who can take pleasure in the thought of people being eternally […]
The Surprise of Judgment? A Review of The Skeletons in God’s Closet (Part 2)
Joshua Ryan Butler. The Skeletons in God’s Closet: The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War. Thomas Nelson, 2014. This is part 2 of my review of The Skeletons in God’s Closet. For part 1, click here. The second section of the book turns to the topic of judgment and […]
Damning the disordered? An argument against eternal conscious torment
Paul Bernardo is one of Canada’s most infamous rapists and serial killers. While his litany of crimes is too extensive to list here, the court evidence against the man was absolutely overwhelming and included video tapes of the crimes he filmed with the help of his equally psychopathic wife. Suffice it to say, anybody with a […]
Are we horrified by hell because we aren’t holy enough?
Could it be that we are horrified at the prospect of people suffering eternal torture in body and mind because we are insufficiently holy? At first blush, that claim seems to contradict in the most direct terms what it means to be holy. And yet, you don’t have to look far to find theologians suggesting that […]
One more thing I’m really good at
A couple years ago I took the dogs for a walk. A block away from our home I walked by the house with the rusty old Chevy Malibu in the driveway. As I passed by I grumbled to myself: “Thanks for lowering the property values, pal.” A couple blocks later I looped back and walked by a […]
Why are so many Christians so pessimistic about eternity?
There’s an old joke about some parents who wanted to test the irrepressible optimism of their little girl. So for Christmas they presented her with a load of manure to test her reaction. Surely this stinking gift would be too much and her optimism. But instead of bursting into tears as they expected she grabbed a […]
