Hellfire

Photo: pro.corbis.com

“I don’t believe in a literal hell, you know, fire and all. I think that is just a symbol,” my friend said, smirking. He clearly thought (though he didn’t think clearly) that he had escaped from any need to “literally” fear hell.

His eyes showed his surprise when I told him, “I think you are right, fire is a symbol. I don’t believe hell is just a bunch of spirits floating around in a lake of fire.” By now his smirking had turned to relief, as I had confirmed his slogan (for he was merely repeating a slogan he had heard, hoping to change the subject or deadlock us in an unanswerable debate).

At this point, I must admit, I also wanted to change the subject. I wanted to leave him with his smug feeling, and I especially didn’t want to think about hell. Even as a Christian the thought of hell can be overpowering. My impulse to flee from the subject was countered by my fear that my friend would flee from the s ubject until it was too late.

Photo: pro.corbis.com

“The picture of earthly fire is clearly used as a symbol of the punishment and pains of hell. That is why it scares me so much,” I pressed on. “When I was about five or six, I remember seeing the little red picture of a fire on the back of a gasoline tanker. I asked what it was there for and my brother explained that it was a symbol to warn people that the truck could catch fire. I was struck, even at such a young age, by the immeasurable difference between the symbol and the reality. I knew something of fire because we cooked and heated our house with a wood stove, and more than once I had accidentally touched it and knew its pains. I was also familiar with bonfires and trash fires, and with the intense heat which they produced. I knew that that little symbol on the back of the tanker in no way came close to showing the reality of what fire was.”

“That is why the idea that fire is just a symbol, as you say, for hell makes me so scared. Just as the little picture on the tanker was not worth comparing with the reality of fire, so, I’m afraid, the reality of physical fire is not worth comparing with the reality of hell. That is the way it is with symbols. A very small symbol is used to represent a very big thing. A small coin represents the authority of the government, and if that government disappears then the coin is no longer of any value. It never had any value in itself, only symbolically. Or consider the dove with the olive branch which symbolizes peace; a very small symbol for an enormous concept.”

“So I am very much afraid that you are probably right, and real fire is just a miniscule symbol compared to the pains of hell. In the Bible, one of the most common symbols for hell is the idol Tophet. Tophet was a huge hollow idol in which the Canaanites would set a blazing fire. The fire would rage so hot that the metal idol would glow red with the heat. In their sacrifices to Tophet, the Canaanites would place their living children onto its glowing red hot outstretched hands. The screams of the children as they burned were so terrifying that the Canaanites would beat their drums loudly trying to drown out the sound of their dying children. And Tophet is only a symbol, only the merest hint of what hell will be like. Tophet and the lake of fire are only like the reality of hell to the extent that the little picture on the back of that tanker was like real fire.”

“If you and I are right, my friend, and fire is only a symbol for the pains of hell, then I would expect to hear the damned crying out for the relief of just a literal fire.”

Doug P. Baker