Doctrine v. Love

"People don't care about the doctrine of the Trinity; they care about feeling close to God and others in community."

Often the biggest churches in the towns of this country are atheological. They are places where "love is all you need." (Just don't ask anyone do define what is meant by "love..." that is far too theological!) Joel Osteen can bring together tens of thousands of people while preachers of depth will see their churches shrink (1 Tim 4:3). The interesting thing here is that any group can provide a sense of belonging. I once knew a group of druggies in my old neighborhood that were beautiful people, man. None of them would send anyone to hell. They would love you regardless of what you did, provided you didn't take their weed.

Liberal theology in our day, combined with epidemic narcissism, has led to a progressive erosion of doctrines classically held, and jealously defended, by the orthodox Christian communities. The first casualty was biblical inerrancy, but of course if there is no corpus of essential Christian truths that escapes interpretation and re-interpretation by fickle and arrogant human beings, then no doctrine can be held to be perspicuous or above scrutiny. We now are watching churches abandon ideas long thought to be the simple the sober truth of the matter, beyond any need of cultural speculation. Now there are any number of "scholars" at reputable institutions finding nuances in the Bible that allow them to question marriage, gender roles, miracles, the atonement, the trinity, and, the one I want to spend some time on during this article, hell. Perhaps it is merely a commercial matter, since universities in our day are businesses first and educational institutions second. As such, they value creativity and never-ending novelty and the Beatles. "Old-Time Religion University" just won't move product like "The University of Relevancy and Invention" can.

Meanwhile, our pastors, now one tier removed from their very enlightened college education, learn that the best way to remove the scandal and offense of the gospel is to throw the doors of heaven open and obliterate doctrine in the church altogether. Our culture has taught us well that the two things that will kill public sentiment are intellectual snobbery and, well, harshness. Be a druggie, a womanizer, a fool, or even a parasite, but never, ever, be an exclusivist. The worst kind of exclusivist is the one consigning people to hell, like Paul. If you want to kill your church, so the wisdom of the day goes, then be like Paul.

In a day of almost universal agreement that the Bible is a merely human book, subject to human interpretations, the exclusivist is seen as a simpleton, or worse, a megalomaniac fundamentalist. He is not giving us God's loving message in the Scriptures, but merely his own hateful interpretations. We are at the point where I wonder if Christians have lost the ability to give a cogent explanation for the doctrine of hell. Why is it an important doctrine? How could God send people to a place of infinite suffering for sins? How does the doctrine of hell square with the idea that God is loving?

You will not learn the answers to these questions from an ever increasing number of the pastors and university professors in this country who claim to be Christians. To find a thoughtful biblical defense of the doctrine of hell, it is probably best to go back to the old Christian thinkers. If, on the other hand, you want to grow a church, just pay 200k for entrance into one of the gaggle of progressive Christian universities in our land. They will teach you well how to pander to the proclivities of the nominally Christian, nominally American, nominally alive and painfully bored products of this over-educated, over-entertained, over-stimulated, over-connected and pseudo-intellectual culture.