A Non-Rob-Bell Hell Post

You've probably noticed the recent popularity of books detailing people's trips to both heaven and hell, ostensibly intended to warn the future inhabitants of hell and comfort the future inhabitants of heaven. The most recent addition to this genre is Heaven Is For Real—not to be confused with Choo Thomas' Heaven Is So Real! or Heaven Is Fo' Real Dawg, a soon-to-be-released album by a Christian hip-hop artist. (Just kidding.)

If you accept the often divergent travel accounts of these post-mortem tourists, there are two biblical passages with which you must deal:

1) The ONLY biblical example we have of a person apparently traveling to heaven and returning is the cryptic account offered by the Apostle Paul of "a man" (who many scholars think was Paul himself) who visited "paradise" and was strictly forbidden to share what he saw.

2) The ONLY biblical example we have of a first-person account of hell is that of the rich man in Jesus' story  in Luke 16:19-31 who pleaded with Abraham to return to earth and warn his living brothers of their plight. Abraham noted that even if someone visited them from hell, they would not repent.

Please tell me: What has changed?

The Pharisee and the Tabloid

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some lunch fixin's and happened to glance at the magazine rack as I waited in line to pay for my goods. Now the sin I have been most warned about as it relates to supermarket tabloids is that of lust. The plunging cleavage of female celebrities and salacious headlines detailing their exploits are said to be veritable ICBMs in the tempter's arsenal.

Not this time.

As I surveyed the absolute train wrecks that are the lives of our nation's celebrities, a very pious thought came to my mind: "I thank God I am not like one of these loathsome monsters ... making babies out of wedlock, snorting cocaine, losing and gaining weight all willy nilly."

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector." Luke 18:11

The pride of the Pharisee can seem so holy and upright, but the stench of it must be utterly obnoxious to God. How often we look at the comfort, wholesomeness and relative normalcy of our lives—in contrast to others—and attribute the cause of such goodness to the wise choices we have made, the quality education we worked hard to obtain, the decent spouse we had the good sense to marry.

There is little room for grace in the face of good, clean living.