"Hell House": 1 of 5

Last night I watched an old documentary called "Hell House", all about the revised Haunted Houses that are actually "depictions" of what hell is (supposedly) like. I'd seen this video a LONG time ago and wrote a blog post about it here. I made a few observations in that post, and this is the first of five different posts regarding my reactions to the whole thing. First off, a summary of the documentary: like I said, it's about a "Christian" haunted house that depicts what hell will be like preceded by dramas and sketches showing who goes there: homosexuals, people who have abortions, people who rape others, abusers of their families, and suicide. At the end of the whole experience, someone gives you six seconds to "accept Jesus as your personal savior." If you don't make the decision, it's either because 1. you want to continue living in sin or 2. you're not taking the whole thing seriously (but what if you're already a Christian? hmmm....). I find it ironic that at that part in the tour, the person giving the invitation says, "This isn't a scare tactic..." even though at the beginning of the documentary, the leader of the whole operation (the pastor of the host church) told the organizers, "One of the key reasons why we're Christians is because we're scared of hell."

Now. Just in that paragraph above, I have at least... let me count... five observations or, rather, critiques. This is the first of a five-point response to the documentary, I'm just going to focus on these four things: 1. the depiction of hell, 2. why a person goes to hell, 3. the gospel presentation, and 4. the effect on conversions, and 5. (well, it's a surprise, a re:mix of sorts). So here we go:

In the documentary, Hell is depicted as this dark place with lots of flames and people being trapped and trying to get out. Obviously, this is pulled out of the graphic imagery used by Jesus to describe the fate of those who reject his way of peace ending up in Gehenna, the garbage dump (translated Hell in most English translations). They also depicted Satan as being the "owner and operator" of Hell, Satan as the one who sends people to Hell, and demons (Satan's minions) being the ones who court people to Hell. There is much talk of "torment" and "torture", and in the last sketch, the tourists of Hell walk through hell and see people being chained up and whipped by sadistic demons. After this, they enter a quiet and serene room where they're invited to invite Jesus into their hearts (obviously, the psychological effect itself--going from chaos and disturbance to peace and tranquility--cannot be overlooked as a mechanism for people converting; but more on that at a different time). Now, here are my initial observations:

1. The depiction of hell is based upon a handful of gospel texts where Jesus talks about people being thrown into Gehenna if they, in effect, reject him. Relatively early on in the Christian church, and mostly within the Gentile converts, this was interpreted as having to do with one's eternal destiny in a lake of fire and brimstone where the fire is never quenched and the worm doesn't die. My conviction, after much study and contemplation, is that instead of translating "Gehenna" into "Hell" we should follow the simplest route of interpretation. In one text that speaks of what theologians call the Intermediate States, Heaven and Hell, Jesus tells a parable about someone in heaven ("Abraham's Bosum," a Jewish reference to paradise) and someone in hell (Greek "hades", used in the Septuagint [the Greek Old Testament] to speak of the abode of the dead or, in some cases, the place where the unrighteous dead go; literally our concept of Hell). The parable itself is resplendent with imagery and the main focus isn't on what heaven and hell are like but, rather, that people better listen to Jesus or they'll regret it. With that aside, when we look at most of the texts regarding what we consider to be hell, Jesus uses the word "Gehenna", which is literally a geographical place outside Jerusalem that had become a garbage dump, and it was where thieves and criminals crucified by the Romans were thrown to be eaten by dogs, and it was the place in the Old Testament narrative where infant sacrifices were made. It was, essentially, a place of abomination. Those who think Jesus is literally talking about the abode of the unrighteous dead (hell) need to find a way of reconciling Jesus' use of Hades with his use of Gehenna. Why does Jesus use a different word? My understanding is that it's because he's referring to something entirely different. When Jesus makes threats about those who reject him and his way of living ending up there, I don't think he's talking about people going to hell when they die: rather, and I think this is critical, it is an extension of his prophetic message regarding the future fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem, of which the 586 B.C. occurrence was just a foretaste, if the people failed to heed his message of repentance (i.e. abandoning their way of living by the sword, abandoning their zealous activities to overthrow Rome and to establish themselves). Jesus' predictions came true: Israel failed to repent and their death came by Roman swords and falling masonry, and the bodies of the slain revolutionaries were thrown outside the battered city gates, thrown into Gehenna, and left to burn and rot amidst flames and worms. This seems like a new idea regarding Jesus' words on Hell, but I think it's more sound and valid. Now, with all that said, back to Hell House: again, with their depictions of Hell, they're basing the descriptions not so much off what the Bible says (contrary to popular belief, the doctrine of Hell is not a major doctrine in the New Testament; matter-of-factly, St. Paul doesn't mention it even once!), but, rather, off medieval imagery populated not least by Dante. Many of those involved, when interviewed about their ideas of what hell would be like, said that each person would have their own personal hell suiting their rebellion in life. And where does this idea come from? Not from the Bible! It's straight from the pages of Dante's "Inferno"!

2. Though the Bible doesn't say much about Hell, it is mentioned in Revelation quite often. You know: the lake of fire and brimstone, stuff like that. Again, one's interpretation of Revelation lends to one's understanding of these texts (there isn't just one interpretation of Revelation; rather, there's four primary ones within scholarship that have emerged at different times throughout history: the Futurist [the most common today, the foundation of all premillennial theologies], the Historicist [the idea that Revelation is about the charting of the history of the church until the return of Jesus, populated by the Reformers in their reaction against the Roman Catholic Church, whom they portrayed as the Beast in Revelation], the Spiritual [that Revelation is about spiritual matters that are a reality to all Christians at all times], and [my personal favorite], the Preterist view: that Revelation is written to give comfort to the Christians amidst their persecution under Nero and that the Beast is either Rome itself or rebellious Jerusalem). The interpretation of Hell House falls into the Futurist camp, and they interpret the lake of fire and brimstone as an accurate depiction of hell. I bring this up only to counter-act their portrayal as Satan being the one in charge and his henchmen, the demons, being the ones courting and shuffling the people in hell to various torture chambers. The testament of Revelation, and the testament throughout the entire Bible, is that hell, whatever it is, is designed by God for Satan and his demons. If one is to buy into Dante's "ladder of sufferings," then Satan and his demons (along with all false prophets) would be at the very bottom. In Revelation, too, only Satan and his demons and false prophets are literally tortured by God; everyone else just experiences torment and suffering, not direct and divine torture.

3. The last observation: Hell House explicitly said that Satan is the one sending people to hell. Whatever hell is, and whatever judgment there will be, the Bible is quite clear: God is the one doing it. If people are sent to hell, then God is the one behind it. Period. I do believe in hell (though I disagree with their depiction of it, and I likewise disagree with most protestant understandings of it), and I believe that those who "end up there" will be sent there by God, and any torment--or torture--that exists there will be at the hand of God.

Those are my initial reactions to the depiction of hell presented by Hell House. On my next post in "The Chronicles of Hell House," I'm going to look at why people, according to my own and perhaps flawed conviction, "go to hell" (i.e. experience negative judgment by God).