By Marc

I had the opportunity this week of visiting a terminally ill man in hospital, playing a few songs and speaking to him and his wife about our hope and belief. It was a strange discussion because, although the husband had perhaps a few days left to live, the wife insisted on being his mediator and interrupting the discussion. Even though her husband was clearly interested in what we had to say she would speak on his behalf and constantly send the signal “that’s not for us“. Very reminiscent of some characters in The Great Divorce.

Having said that, it was an interesting and moving evening and we touched on most of the objections a western, postmodern, well-to-do person can come up with. That means we hardly spoke about evidence for God at all but rather about whether God is existentially satisfying, a nice guy, egalitarian and democratic, worthy of being my God etc.

Hell became an acceptable destination if God can’t “take me as I am” after all, “he apparently made me as I am”. If God doesn’t want me then I don’t want God and I won’t be alone in Hell. I’m not a bad person! And isn’t God in everything as our Yoga instructor taught us? Jesus, Buddha it’s all the same.

I tried to listen mostly and only come in when there was a proper question or an obvious mistake. For example when the question of “which religion is right, they all disagree” came up I tried to show how much the Abrahamic religions have in common and what it really means to say that the Jews are God’s chosen people – a burden and a bloody vocation and by no means a fast-lane to salvation.

Regarding sin, I asked whether our sinless candidate had ever hurt anyone and, if so, whether that might be an affront to that person’s Creator? Surely if I hurt someone’s child I must reckon with the parent’s anger? We managed to get some traction here and no quip was forthcoming.

I heard the (sadly widespread) understanding that Christian salvation is about collecting points and that our candidates surely have above average score. I tried to explained that God’s focus is on our future not our past. God is not going to accept a Mother Teresa who turns away from Him but he would accept the worst sinner who sincerely turns (Ezek 18). It’s not about where you’ve been or are but where you are headed. Repentance is the key.

When the puzzle of the cross and Jesus’ blood was mentioned I found no way to explain how this cleanses of sin. I’ve wrestled with this in the past and my conclusions are so unorthodox that I prefer to keep them semi-private, confined to the realm of theological speculation.

My views on Hell are also unorthodox. I don’t believe that Hell is the inevitable consequence of not becoming a Christian in this life. The fact that someone’s eternal destiny hangs on the church’s ability to evangelise in this pitiful life seems rather incompatible with a gracious God. Were all African’s damned until the first missionaries set foot on the continent? I think grace will surprise even us Christians when we see how God saves everyone possible in surprising ways just as he saved us to the surprise of the Jews.

I have no doubt that God’s new creation is only a place for new, restored people under Jesus’ kingship. Even the nicest non-Christian person today would spoil the perfection if not completely under God’s reign. But what we call “heaven” is not a place one goes but rather the “kingdom of heaven” is any place where God reigns and it’s coming here as Jesus announced. It is therefore logically impossible for nice people to be there without being under Jesus’ kingship.

I sometimes wonder how many professing Christians are actually denying Christ by their lifestyle and how many non-Christians inadvertently live as God ordained (in love). Surely there are many – Jesus certainly indicates that the first group exists (Matt 7:21, Matt 25).

Perhaps the evening had more of an effect on us than on the couple.