by Anonymous Logician, Copyright December 02, 2006, all rights reserved. 626 views
Philosophical clamor over the problem of hell often seems like a courtroom sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus:
"Um, is a charge really necessary, me lud?"
"The press is here!"
"Oh! Right then…"
Opponents of orthodox Christianity have already decided that the Triune God is unfit to continue in His duties, and His trial for Supreme Injustice and Nastiness is sure to be the clinching proof. The possibility of God actually having something to say on His side is completely ignored. No further questions. All we need to know is that a good, reasonable God like the one we advertised for in the classifieds would never wish judgment or punishment on anyone. Except maybe Hitler. Or Carl Rove.
But while it's expected that non-Christians engage in internal critiques of Christian thought, this type of attack betrays a complete failure to engage Christian presuppositions fully. Here's what I mean: To show the failings of a particular philosophy, we need to adopt that philosophy's assumptions for the sake of argument. If, on the other hand, we try to discredit our opponents' positions while sneaking in ideas they would reject, our arguments will run in circles.
When it comes to hell and divine judgment, non-Christians claim the Christian God is unfair without seeing things from His perpective. But wait a bit. Let's say the Bible is right, and that an all-knowing, wise, and just God created and rules the universe, a universe that rebelled against His commands. Isn't it possible that God might be just a little ticked off at us?
When David says that God "abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man" (Psalm 5), or Paul writes about mankind's colossal ingratitude (Romans 1) we get the other side of the story. Mabye we owe an explanation to God. Maybe things aren't peachy-keen down here and unbelief's rejection of Christianity is not only intellectually but ethically motivated.
To return to the legal illustration, maybe the reason we have such a hard time getting God in the dock is that He's already on the bench.