title: What Does the Bible Really Say About Hell? Wrestling With the Traditional View (Living Issues Discussion, Vol. 2) (Living Issues Discussion Series)
author: Randy Klassen
description: Mennonite minister Randolph Klassen does battle with the devil in What Does the Bible Say About Hell? Wrestling with the Traditional View. He addresses every reference to hell in the Bible, offering separate chapters on Acts, the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles. He rejects the traditional notion of hell as a place of eternal torment for the wicked, claiming that such as view "fails the test of justice": in other words, a just and loving God would not sanction eternal suffering with no possibility of parole. Klassen's voice is gentle and pastoral as he analyzes reasons why many individuals need a belief in hell to scare them into heaven.
zlib_text: Most contemporary Christians acknowledge the doctrine of hell, but they'd
  rather notthink abouthow God punishes the wicked.The authors of Four
  Views on Hell meetthis subject head-on with different views on what the
  Scriptures say.
  Is hell to be understood literally as a place of eternal smoke and flames?
  Or are such images simply metaphors for a real but different form of pun-
  ishment? Isthere such a thingas"conditional immortality;' in which God
  annihilates the souls ofthe wicked rather than punishing them endlessly?
  Isthere a Purgatory, and if so, how does it fit intothe picture?
  The interactive Counterpoints forum allows the reader to see thefourviews
  on hell-literal, metaphorical, conditional, and purgatorial-in interaction with
  each other. Each view in turn is presented, critiqued, and defended. This
  evenhanded approach is ideal for comparing and contrasting views in order
  to form a personal conclusion aboutone of Christianity's key doctrines.
  The Counterpoints series provides a f