Burning Fingers on Hell

In today’s Nederlands Dagblad (Dutch newspaper) appeared the following report (I quote only a part):

GIETHOORN – Heaven and hell are the central topics at a multi-day conference of theology students from Utrecht. The second day of the conference focused on hell, “an attic room of the faith where we rarely go.” The Bible speaks sparingly but also grimly, very seriously and forcefully, about hell. It is impossible to maintain that it is merely a marginal phenomenon in the Old Testament, says the Reformed theologian Dr. Jan Hoek. Hoek spoke yesterday at the multi-day conference of the Utrecht Reformed Theologians Student Association Voetius, whose forty members are gathered at a camping farm in Giethoorn to reflect on “heaven and hell.” The second day, it turned out, was mainly about hell. Hell is by no means a popular topic, Hoek knows, referring to the religion sociologist Hijme Stoffels, who stated: “Hell is taboo. An attic room of the faith where we rarely go.” Hoek on that: “People are no longer afraid of hell, but rather of degradation and suffering on their deathbed. Hell, in short, is terribly out of fashion.” But ignoring this subject – even Christians would rather not burn their fingers on it – is, according to him, not a solution. Hoek: “We must acknowledge that there is a hell…”.

Dr. Jan Hoek does dare to burn his fingers on the subject of hell, but unfortunately has little meaningful to say about it. According to the report, he takes a fully theological route and fails (therefore…) to let Scripture speak. Forty (partially) future preachers were once again saddled with knowledge that is essentially irrelevant, all to maintain the myth of hell. A myth (read: a teaching of demons!) that fatally undermines the Evangel of “the living God, Who is the Saviour of all mankind.” The counter-voice that was heard at the conference was once again so ‘wonderfully’ theologically vague (“unreal reality”…) that the conference-goers presumably went home empty-handed once more.
If you ask me, they would have done much better to buy the latest booklet by Martin Zender…(Dutch version)

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