Real Spirituality

Francis Chan’s upcoming book on Hell has been heralded with with a 9+ minute video preview. I realize the book is going to be popular level, but I hope it has more than the video offers. The video has three shortcomings I’ve seen, and I truly hope the book is able to address these, because the issue is important.

What can’t we afford? The last statement of the video is “We cannot afford to be wrong on this issue.” I hope the book explains why we cannot afford this. Will I go to hell if I don’t believe that hell is the traditional eternal conscious torment? Is a doctrine of hell a salvation issue? (See this post for my thoughts on salvation by doctrine.) Simply put, if this doctrine is a salvation issue, then we have salvation not by “Christ alone” but by “Christ and right belief about him alone.” If it isn’t a salvation issue, then why can we not afford to be wrong? I want the book to explain why this doctrine isn’t just important, but so important.

Just because you don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s true. Chan’s largest argument in the video is that God’s ways are higher than ours, so it should not be surprising that God does things we don’t understand, that we feel are distasteful, or that even offend us. He is God, and he can do whatever he wants to. True enough. And I agree.

But this doesn’t mean every offensive thing that a Christian writer writes about God is true. The video pushes this point so much, that I fear the book will make this very simple logical fallacy: It must be true because the argument is overwhelming.

One example of this in the video is Chan’s reference to Isaiah 55:8-9, where God declares his ways are higher than ours. But Isaiah 55 is about the amazing redemption of God’s people, not about God seeming mean to us. If anything, that chapter would indicate that we will be surprised when God does NOT punish people as they deserve. Will Chan’s book leave open the possibility that God is different than Chan’s doctrine? Can God’s ways be higher than the doctrines Chan brings to the table?

The humility argument. Preachers need to learn than calling for humility is extremely arrogant. Chan is so adamant about our need to have humility, that he undercuts his own humility. [Sorry, but speaking urgently into the camera in a close-up doesn't equal humility.] It essentially sounds like: “You need to have enough humility to realize that I’m right.” To make it worse, he applies the “I’ve studied this” argument−which boils down to “I humbly read the Bible and reached this conclusion. If you read it humbly, you will also reach the same conclusion.” I hope the book is as humble as the video calls us to be.

Ultimately Chan’s book will be influential, in the short term at least, because he is a dynamic personality who can clearly and with conviction communicate powerful truths. But I hope the book has more explanation, logic, and humility than the video.

[The book's publisher has requested this hashtag be used when referring to the book, and I assume the video as well: #Erasinghell]