the wine of god's wrath

And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt...

--Exodus 7:5 

I've been reading this book, Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle. It's written as a response to the more post-modern "Christian Universalist" position that is becoming increasingly popular, and it's written as an honest inquest into the Biblical reality of hell.

And it makes me extremely uncomfortable.


You see, at the same time as I'm reading this book, I'm watching the ninth and tenth seasons of Stargate SG-1, where the enemy is this huge religion from another galaxy and its gods, called the Ori. The priests of the Ori perform miracles, healing sick, raising people from the dead, etc-- unless someone claims to not believe in their divinity. At that point, the Ori will kill entire planets. They demand worship, and if a people refuse to bow the knee, they are killed. Follow the Ori or die.


When SG-1 resists the Ori, they are always asked, "You question the power of the Ori?" And they always respond, "No. We know your power, and it's awe-inspiring. What we question is your right to claim authority over beings of lesser power. We question your morality. We question your godhood."


And the picture Francis Chan paints of God (and even Jesus) is one of a God who has a huge emphasis in "severely punish[ing] those who do not bow the knee to King Jesus. (pg. 103)" He pulls passage after passage from the Old Testament, from Jesus, and from Paul and Peter which paint quite vividly a portrait of a wrathful, vengeful, condemning God who will cast all who do not follow Jesus and obey his gospel into a place where they will be "tormented day and night forever and ever." 


Like Stargate's "Ori," God offers the "good news:" bow the knee and be saved from torment. This is God's love.  This is the gospel. Instead of being cast into eternal torment, we can worship a being of incomprehensible power. No other option, no other choice. Subjection or torment. Convert or die. This is not love. This is not morality. This is "might makes right" on a divine scale.


What makes a God? Is it power, or is it morality? For my part, I could not worship an immoral God, no matter how powerful he is. And that's why this doctrine makes me uncomfortable. In my understanding of morality, love keeps no record of wrongs. Love forgives its enemies and prays for its persecutors. Love does not sentence someone to eternal torment-- no matter what he's done, and especially not for simply refusing to bow his knee. So why does God do this?

"God's ways are higher than our ways," Chan reminds us. His methods are not for us to understand, but simply for us to obey. Nevertheless, humanity understands morality, don't we? We know, at least generally, what's right and what's wrong, what's loving and what's evil. We know that if someone extends the choice "follow my commands or be cast into eternal torment," that's wrong. What makes it right for God? Do we assign him moral immunity simply for the vastness of his power?

And people will say, "No, God is saving us from our own sin. It's not God who sends us to hell, but we choose it when we sin." To which I would respond, "Who decided that the wages of sin is death? Is that a law even God must follow? A truth more universal than our Creator?"

The bottom line is, hell makes me nauseous. I don't understand how an ethically perfect being could torment his own creation for refusing to acknowledge him as their god. Chan makes it very clear that hell is not remedial--it doesn't fix people--it's just punishment. It's just vengeance born of anger. It seems incredibly contrary to me for Jesus to tell us to love our enemies one minute and preach the horrors of hell the next. Is God above his own moral law? Is that moral?