Chad Lewis’ Blog

Bertrand Russell was a famous writer and thinker throughout the previous century. He was not a supporter of any religion as he felt they contributed to many ills in society. The following is an excerpt from an essay he wrote outlining the reasons he was not a Christian.

When considering the doctrine of hell preached by Jesus, Bertrand Russell states, “I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as His chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible for that.”

Though I have many problems with the way Professor Russell draws his conclusions from Scripture, I will simply discuss the statement above.

Before Christ came into the world, did cruelty not already exist? People were so wicked that human sacrifices to pagan gods took place on a regular basis? Many temples were filled with forced prostitution for the purpose of worshiping other gods. Cruelty has existed since the Fall of humans. Sin and cruelty go hand in hand.

Since Russell holds to the presupposition that hell does not exist, his statements follow suit. If this is true and hell is not real, then Christ’s teachings are nothing more than spouted lies with horrible consequences. But if hell is reality, Jesus Christ would be the most unloving being in the universe to not declare this truth from the top of his lungs.

If a train were speeding towards a collapsed bridge, would a man be praised by keeping his mouth shut? If asked later why he did not speak, he might say, “I did not want to scare the conductor or the people in the train. Can you imagine the panic?”

Would we not call this man a fool and a murderer? The most loving thing possible would be to proclaim the reality of what is to come for the passengers unless the train stops and then hope they stop in time.

My presuppositions are clear. I do believe hell is a real place and that a divine Jesus Christ spoke truth in love. He came to make a way for this cruel world. He warned about impending judgment and then opened the closed door to be reconciled to a holy God.

He did not stop at saying hell is a real and miserable place. He came to suffer, bleed and die. He came to bear the wrath of God so we would not have to spend eternity in hell. Why did he do this? Because it was God’s perfect plan! It gave him pleasure to redeem a wayward people to himself. It is by his good graces that he calls us to come to him.

This is an excerpt from a song by Stuart Townend. It clearly depicts the Gospel message.

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

And the most gentle and kind Savior sings to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Our postmodern generation gags on the doctrine of hell for many reasons. I would like to address some of these reasons next week. Thanks for reading and may you be blessed as you consider the marvelous grace that is so richly lavished on us each day.

Filed under: Heaven and Hell by Chad Lewis