Four Views on Hell by Zondervan & William Crockett & John F. Walvoord & Zachary J. Hayes & Clark H. Pinnock

Author:Zondervan & William Crockett & John F. Walvoord & Zachary J. Hayes & Clark H. Pinnock
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religious Studies, Eschatology, Theology, Apologetics, Religious Studies & Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Christian Books & Bibles
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2010-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

One could ask what meaning this text could have if it were not possible that some sins could be forgiven in the next world. This, in fact, seems to be the understanding of Augustine12 and of Gregory the Great.13 Likewise, it is the understanding of various medieval popes and councils. This text, therefore, has been seen to provide at least some biblical warrant for the concept of purgatory.

The tendency among exegetes today is to see Matthew 12:31-32 as having little if anything to do with purgatory. Rather, it is understood to refer to the decisive seriousness of one’s relation to Jesus who is seen as the Spirit-filled messenger of God. To reject Jesus, who is animated by the Spirit of God, is equivalent to rejecting God. Without indulging us in arcane information about the other world, the text gives an eschatological weight to the rejection of Jesus by saying that such an attitude is a sin that simply cannot be forgiven anywhere at all.

A third important text is 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. Paul is describing the possibility that one person might build a life on the foundation of Jesus Christ while others might build their life on gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The deeper quality of life may not be apparent in ordinary daily observations, but in the end it will be made known. There will be a “Day” on which the quality of each life will be revealed “with fire.” And “fire will test the quality of each man’s work.” In speaking about the “fire of judgment” the text ends with the remark: “he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

If we take the “Day” to refer to the final judgment, then the text seems to speak of a “fire” after the particular judgment that is involved in individual death. Though it is not necessary to interpret this text to mean the fire of purgatory, it was common among the Latin Fathers to understand this fire as a reference to some sort of transient, purificatory punishment prior to the final salvation. Examples of this interpretation can be found in Augustine14 and Caesar of Arles.15 At the present, however, it is common among exegetes to see the “Day” and the “flame” as referring to the final judgment. If that is the case, the text provides no significant basis for the doctrine of purgatory. That is, the “fire” spoken of in this text is not seen as the traditional “fire of purgatory,” but rather the “fire of judgment” itself.

In conclusion, we might say that for Christians of earlier generations, it was not difficult to find some basis

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