What Is Hell Like? Does It Even Exist? NT Wright on 100 Huntley Street (HD)

(HD) Transcript: " The word hell has had a checkered career in the history of the church. And it wasnt hugely important in the early days. It was important, but not nearly as important as it became in the middle ages. And the in the middle ages, you get this polarization of heaven over here and hell over there, and you have to go to one place or the other eventually. So you have the Sistine Chapel, with that great thing behind the altar. This enormous great judgment seat, with the souls going off into these different directions. Very interestingly, I was sitting in the Sistine chapel just a few weeks ago. I was sitting for a service, and I was sitting next to a Greek Orthodox...who said to me, looking at the pictures of Jesus on one wall. He said, these I can understand. The pictures of Moses on the other wall, he said, those I can understand. Then he pointed at the end wall of judgment, and said, that I cannot understand. Thats how you in the west have talked about judgment and heaven and hell. He said, we have never done it that way before, because the bible doesnt do it that way. I thought, whoops. I think hes right actually. And whether youre Catholic or Protestant, that scenario which is etched into the consciousness of Western Christianity really has to be shaken about a bit. Because if heaven and earth are to join together. Its not a matter of leaving earth and going to heaven. Its heaven and earth joined together. And hell is what happens when human beings say, the God in whose image they were made, we dont want to worship you. We dont want our human life to be shaped by you. We dont want, who we are as humans to be transformed by the love of Jesus dying and rising for us. We dont want any of that. We want to stay as we are and do our own thing. And if you do that, what youre saying is, you want to stop being image bearing human being within this good world that God has made. And you are colluding with your own progressive dehumanization. And that is such a shocking and horrible thing, that its not surprising that the biblical writers and others have used very vivid and terrifying language about it. But, people have picked that up and said, this is a literal description of reality. Somewhere down there, there is a lake of fire, and its got worms in it and its got serpents and demons and there coming to get you. But I think actually, the reality is more sober and sad than that, which is this progressive shrinking of human life. And that happens during this life, but it seems to be that if someone resolutely says to God, Im not going to worship you...its not just Ill not come to church. Its a matter of deep down somewhere, there is a rejection of the good creator God, then that it the choice humans make. In other words, I think the human choices in this life really matter. Were not just playing a game of chess, where tomorrow morning God will put the pieces back on the board and say, Ok that was just a game. Now were doing something different. The choices we make here really do matter. Theres part of me that would love to be a universalist, and say, itll be alright. Everyone will get there in the end. I actually...the choices you make in the present are more important than that."

More videos can be found at 100huntley.com and more of his thoughts can be found in his book "Surprised by Hope".

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[billybagbom]

As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I find myself in agreement with Bishop Wright on this and many other theological questions. The man is a consummate biblical scholar, and on the rare questions on which we disagree, I am made better by hearing his arguments, even if he does not ultimatelypersuade me. Wish he were ours!. I like to think that, ultimately, he is. "So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you...and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God" (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

[100huntley]

@MyTutorialFilms can we help you in any way?

[mananacl]

@jude030289 That's exactly what I thought.

[3Triforce1]

Hell looks like an obstickal that you have to have a spell to get past a monster

[jude030289]

Wright's description of lost or fading humanity is quite reminiscent of C. S. Lewis' portrait of the Un-man in his Space Trilogy, as well as Lewis' metaphysical ideas of heaven and hell, both of which are expressed with intense physicality in The Great Divorce. I sense that Wright's explanation here is a subtle hat-tip to Lewis.

[Marburg1529]

I've heard this video and read the transcript many times. I think Wright is essentially correct, but I also find my own thinking evolving, and being the brilliant man he is, I 'd wager his is as well. This is a great contribution to personal eschatological thinking.

[thegreathorseman]

Tank you for your understanding. You have a very humble spirit and yes there is a separation eternally from the love of God. I had a dream, or rather a sleeping vision that validated that question for me, so I made a video of the dream called last chance. You have to watch the video all the way through to really get it. It's called Last Chance by The Great Horseman

[Defin8te]

@caaam45 already done that and remember that God's purpose was for humans to fill the earth and care for it, not go to heaven

[joshuamiller79]

I'm not saying I have the answer but I don't see how you can deal with Hell without dealing with the etymology of the word itself.

Then you quickly see that Sheol & Gehenna (spelling?) are two different things. I think if you could study out each mention of the two in their original context & be as faithful as possible what it meant to the original audience than we'd be in a much better position to deal with the question of Hell.

[SUWBSWIBE]

evil people have to go somewhere

[kinbigbird]

1 Peter 3:“18 ¶ For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

[b29349]

"shrinking" interesting. The brain shrinks as people age, alcohol speeds up the process and beyond, addictions cause holes in the neuron weaving.