Picking and choosing Probably the objection I have heard most often whenever I bring up the subject of my thoughts on hell or the Old Testament is that I'm just picking out of the Bible the things I like. I have been thinking over this charge a lot recently.
On the surface, the charge had the appearance of logic even to me. Have I really got to the stage where my study of the Bible is just a matter of selecting which bits I like and which I don't like? Surely there's a strong possibility that's exactly what I'm doing? Then a distinction occurred to me, an all-important distinction that I think really settles the question: The distinction between disliking something and finding it morally reprehensible.
I have combed my conscience on this one, and fact is there are still plenty of things in the Bible I dislike or wish weren't there, but which I do not reject. I am very uncomfortable with a lot of the things Jesus tells me to do: Turning the other cheek, taking up my cross, sharing my wealth, being a servant to others; none of these things comes naturally to me or most people at times; these things play upon my conscience. As much as I'd like to write them out of Scripture and do things the Dave way, I don't. I might dislike them and wish at times they weren't there, but there is nothing in there I find morally reprehensible. On the contrary, my conscience is bound by them.
The reason I reject the doctrine of hell as eternal, conscious punishment is not simply because I dislike it. If that were the case, there are plenty of other things I'd throw out at the same time. No, the reason I reject the doctrine is because I find it monstrous, immoral and totally out of whack with the concept of a God of love. That to me is quite a different matter to personal taste.
Dave
10:02:54 AM 
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