Biblical Views: Is Hershel Doomed to the Lake of Fire?
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I recently received a telephone call from BAR editor Hershel Shanks. He had just returned from a trip where he had stayed at a hotel that was also hosting, quite by chance, a convention of Gideons, the organization that distributes millions of Bibles in hotel rooms worldwide. (In the United States it is the entire King James Version; elsewhere it is the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs.) Shanks got into several conversations with Gideons, as they refer to themselves, and enjoyed their company, although he and they differ in several respects. They are an exclusively men’s organization of evangelical Christians; Shanks is Jewish and would prefer organizations that admit women as well as men. Nevertheless, “I do respect other religious traditions,” Shanks told me, “including evangelical Christians.”
“I was not offended when they urged me to become a Gideon. I could continue to be Jewish, they told me, as long as I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I was secure enough in my own tradition that I knew I was not about to change, but it was in this context that I accepted their application to become a member.”
The application asked whether the applicant recognized the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God and as the applicant’s personal savior, and whether the applicant believed that the Bible was the “inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God.”
Then came the one that disturbed—even offended—Shanks: Did the applicant “believe in the endless lake of fire for the unsaved?” citing the Book of Revelation 20:10, 14–15. Discussions with Gideons confirmed that Shanks in his present state was literally doomed to the “lake of fire,” unless he made some serious changes in his beliefs. Moreover, the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti may be signs that the end time was near.
The Gideons with whom Shanks was speaking seemed to feel there was no way to interpret this passage from Revelation except literally. That was why Shanks called me: Was this the only way to interpret the passage?
My reaction is twofold. First of all, even on the literal level, the emphasis in Revelation is not on beliefs but on works. Those written in the book of life from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) are presumably the elect or the just. It is not clear, however, that these are all believers in Christ. In Revelation 6:9 those who will be vindicated are those who have been slaughtered on account of the word of God. This group seems to include Jews as well as Christians.
Those whose names will be erased from the book of life are not those whose beliefs are inadequate. Rather, they are those whose works are not “full” or “complete” in the sight of God (3:1–5). According to Revelation 13:8, those whose names are not in the book of life are those who worship “the beast,” that is, the Roman Empire and emperors or, more generally, those who abuse their political power. Chapter 17 makes a similar point (17:8). There is no indication that those who worship the beast include Jews by definition.
In the scene of the Last Judgment (20:11–15), the emphasis is on judgment by works. It is not the unbelievers who are condemned, but those whose works are not pleasing to God.
Finally, the Book of Revelation gives a list of the types of people whose place is the lake of fire (21:8). They are described primarily as those who break the Ten Commandments: the detestable (because of idolatrous worship), murderers, sexually immoral people and liars. Related to these are the poisoners (murderers) or the sorcerers (who count as idolaters). The first two kinds of people mentioned in the list are the cowardly and the faithless. These two vices relate to the situation addressed throughout Revelation: the temptation to worship the beast. The cowardly are those who refuse to resist the idolatrous worship of the beast because they want to preserve their lives or even their social standing. The faithless, similarly, are those who are unfaithful to God by putting a creature, the beast, in God’s place. The word translated “faithless” could also be translated “unbelieving,” but the context suggests that “faithless” is the more likely meaning. It should be obvious that Jews, as well as Christians, reject these vices in principle.
My second reaction concerns the literary character of the Book of Revelation itself. It contains visions and revelations that do not express hard and fast doctrines or facts. They are rather imaginative constructions. They do not tell us exactly how things are or will be. They communicate, instead, a way of looking at things, present and future. The variety of images in the Book of Daniel, in closely related extracanonical apocalypses, and within Revelation itself makes clear that no one vision of the things that really matter is the only true one. My advice to Hershel was that, as a Jew who does not accept Jesus as his savior, he need not worry about being thrown into the lake of fire at the end of time.
I recently received a telephone call from BAR editor Hershel Shanks. He had just returned from a trip where he had stayed at a hotel that was also hosting, quite by chance, a convention of Gideons, the organization that distributes millions of Bibles in hotel rooms worldwide. (In the United States it is the entire King James Version; elsewhere it is the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs.) Shanks got into several conversations with Gideons, as they refer to themselves, and enjoyed their company, although he and they differ in several respects. They are an exclusively men’s organization of […]
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