Ep.90 - Heaven and Hell are Not Real Places - Really? w/ Stephen Gaukroger

Theology for the Curious

Some years ago Time magazine featured a survey taken in the US in which 72% of the people believed in a literal heaven compared with 58% who believed in a literal hell. The most surprising statistic however was that of the 58% who believed in a literal hell, only 4% believed they were likely to go there.

Heaven and hell have been topics of perennial tension and misunderstanding. Some years ago in the Guardian newspaper, physicist Stephen Hawking defined heaven as little more than a “fairy story” for people afraid of death!

Is heaven real? Is it a geographical place where people actually go? Is there such a place as hell? Did Jesus teach it or was it added countless years later by over-enthusiastic theologians? And how, on the one side, do we understand a just God who might be willing to bypass sin and wickedness to allow all access to heaven? Or on the flip side; a loving God who seems willing to dole out an eternity of torment based on a few decades of sinful behaviour?

This week Pete and the Curious team are joined by pastor, writer, thinker Stephen Gaukroger as they attempt to level some very difficult and sensitive questions about our traditional understanding of heaven, hell and the afterlife!

Further Reading

We’ve listed two very different views below for you to read and ponder….

5 Misconceptions about Heaven and Hell (and 5 truths) - Crossway.org

What Jesus Really said about Heaven and Hell - Time.com

What we’re reading?

As a new little feature to our notes, we are adding the book or books that we’ve been browsing and reading as part of this episode. So here goes. This week we’ve been reflecting on;

Bart D. Ehrman ― Heaven and Hell: A History of The Afterlife

(for a touch more of a controversial perspective we list Ehrman’s book)

C. S. Lewis ― The Great Divorce

Editors Stanley N. Gundry & Preston Sprinkle ― Four Views on Hell
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