Article in Stretton Focus, July 2017
Hell-fire sermons can still be heard in fundamentalist churches, where the Bible is taken literally. The doctrine of Hell can be a powerful incentive for people to say they believe what they are told is necessary for their salvation.
However, many churchgoers have abandoned such a belief, as being incompatible with the existence of a loving and merciful God. For them, any such God sitting in judgement and condemning people to an eternity of torment is deserving of the same!
If the doctrine of Hell wasn’t so grim, it would be laughable. Humour is actually the best way of dealing with this theological nonsense. Here’s how. The hell-fire preacher had told his congregation of the ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth’ that would be experienced by unrepentant sinners. An old lady who had lost all her teeth, asked him how she would get on, if she ended up there. The preacher solemnly told her that ‘teeth will be provided’!
How else but with ridicule, can you cope for example with the hellish account in Luke’s Gospel (Ch 16), where Lazarus is sitting comfortably in Abraham’s bosom, looking down into the Inferno where Dives is in torment, pleading for a help which is not available?
In the Middle Ages, viewing Hell from above, was offered as entertainment for the chosen few, who made it to Heaven. In those days they were familiar with such torment: they would turn up in thousands to watch witches being drowned and heretics being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Today, some might say ‘there’s a special place in Hell reserved for …’ whoever they are in strong disagreement with. Last year in the USA, Madeleine Albright said that such a place was reserved for all women who didn’t vote for Hilary Clinton to become President! Justin Webb, from the Today programme on Radio 4, said there are reserved places for journalists who take their craft too seriously! The saying is just a humorous and light-hearted figure of speech and as the Devil can’t stand being laughed at, to do so is good theology!
Donald Horsfield
