14: Deep Thoughts (What the Hell?)

“Yeah, we don't want to just have pooled ignorance, which can happen, and we don't want two sides of the discussion throwing bombs at each other. We want to actually think deeply together. So the scriptures call us in Romans 12 to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.”

“The biggest thing that I took away from the group is a deeper understanding for people's hearts and where they're at in their walk with Christ. And the fact that we're all wrestling with wanting to come to the deeper understanding of what truth is.”

“Did we all come to the same conclusions at the end of our discussion? No, actually. Was that okay? Yeah. It was enriching.”

“The doctrine of hell has always been part of Christian theology. Unfortunately, hell has a bit of a checkered past. From the apocalypse of Peter's gruesome depictions of women hanging over boiling mire to skin-curling images of hell in Dante's Inferno, to Jonathan Edwards' blistering sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, to 20th century Bible Belt preachers barking with anger about the wrath to come. Hell has been used, some would say abused, to scare people into obedience or increase their tithe.”

“It seems like there's kind of a trend in the church, I don't know, at least in some elements of the church, where we don't actually encourage thinking deeply. It can be even kind of discouraged. There's kind of a rise in kind of this anti-intellectual view of the faith. So we want to reclaim a view of thinking deeply in the scriptures and about things that matter.”

“Yeah, I've noticed sometimes, especially when there's a new believer or a young believer, they start asking questions that get to more theologically deep waters. Sometimes people shut those questions down. Either intentionally or not. Yeah, those questions just continue to linger.”