Hell #3

Here is the third installment of Gordon Atkinson's videos on the topic of Hell. In this video he gives his own interpretation and thoughts on the meaning of Hell in the NT witness. I think this is really good stuff - it is very much along the lines of what I have been thinking about and studying in the past 2 years or so. I especially like his thoughts on who is going to hell, and why Jesus used it in the first place. In my own studying and thinking I have come to the same conclusion as Gordon - that Jesus uses hell only to refer to people in the context of the "religious establish". Jesus is taking imagery that the religious leaders of that day were using to refer to outsiders, and turning the interpretation on its head to use it in reference to them! This would have really outraged them. So, what are we doing the same thing today? Why are we using the language of Hell to speak about outsiders, when Jesus used it in the context of insiders? Not only does this at odds with the words of Jesus, we are also ignoring the vary danger that Jesus was trying to make us aware of.