It'll be Alright.

The story goes like this:  I walk downstairs tonight at the YWAM base where I live.  I can’t sleep.  Sleeping during the day, plus caffeine has got me.  I find on a table an item that we for some reason sell: an Evangecube.  

For those of you not familiar with an Evangecube, is is basically just as it sounds: a cube, that ‘evangelizes’.  The cube, which switches inside and out as you move it, shows the stages of our sin, Jesus’ sacrifice, and our redemption.  The cube is initially a really good idea, as it explains basic tenants of our faith without the use of words.  But something struck me as I looked at it.  

The cube consistently uses Hell and our iniquity between us and God as represented by fire.  So for the misinformed evangelizer, or poorly communicated to evangelee, Jesus’ death apparently saves us from a fiery Hell, but that assumes one notion too far:  They care about Hell.  

That is, their understanding of Hell.  Which they learn from us.  And it would seem to me that the overwhelming view of Hell that a non-Christian would get from us, at least at a distance (which is mainly where we’re seen from) is of a fiery horrible place.  Now, taking into consideration that most Non-Christians not on a relative path towards the faith see us as ignorant people following a dead religion of mythical proportions, un-certifiable by science, and seemingly oft documented off of spoken third-party representations, I’d consider that our depiction of Hell doesn’t really scare too many in said crowd, at least in the West.  But that’s not even what gets to me.  What gets me is this: In a modern age, what is fire to us?

Now, I can see why the depiction of fire would mea a whole world of sense to people back in the early development phases of the church, and up through many ages.  Fire was a symbol of destruction.  Whole towns were sometimes burned down by enemies.  Fires, once started, generally were not easy to put out.  You couldn’t stop it, and it killed you.  Or at least ate all your stuff you’d ever had, ever.  If you were out on the hunt, or away from your town, and you saw billows of smoke from the distance, toward your village, you were screwed.  And that happened a whole lot more back then.  Fire bad.  Cut and dry.

But think about today: When are the times that you’ve seen fire?  As far as I’m considered, most of the times I’ve seen fire in my life was at a bonfire, or on a Boy Scout campout.  Truthfully, I’ve never seen a building burning down.  The most I’ve been able to catch is smoke rising from some unforeseen location of a fire either put out, or being put out.  Even if I have seen destructive fire, it’s mainly been in screen protected media, and it hasn’t made much of an impact on me.  It seems to me, in a modern America and on a very large average, fire’s not that bad.  Most memories I have attached to it are good ones!  

So that brings me to my question:  Should we as Christians rebrand Hell?  In a land where fire means camping, and brimstone means Barbecue, what does Hell really look like?  Obviously, most of us know that the idea of Hell means a lot more than inconveniently toasty buns for eternity, or a Far-Sideian world where Hell’s just always inconveniently cold coffee.  It’s about eternal separation from the only force in the universe that understands and yet loves you in entirety.  It’s about the voluntary and yet desired distancing of yourself from all things Good to the point of total death.  Jesus describes is as a place where there is, “Weeping, and gnashing of teeth.”  Suggestive to the idea of sadness and regret formost, and not burning and physical pain.  

Should be opt for a colder Hell?  Maybe we could all go around with banners saying “Hell has frozen over” to strike up conversation.  Either way, I think in this day and age, it’s important to stop and think about our relation to eternity, and our communication of the things most important to us:  Love, salvation, and true Shalom.