Massive controversy between Christians right now: Is Hell eternal punishment?

[coffeeveritas]

The inside track on Christianity is that hell has been a big topic lately. The new Rob Bell book “Love Wins” has everyone talking (including some embarrassingly immature reactions by prominent Christians). The basic gist of the conversation is that Rob Bell said, “hey guys, I think that Jesus really saved everyone, so no one has to spend forever in hell.” The response from of several Christians was, “HERETIC! YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE CHURCH ANYMORE!” This has pretty much been the biggest deal in Christianity in a long time.

So I was wondering if some people who really don’t care about the church either way could give some insight. Read the description of the basic argument of “Love Wins” below and let me know if it sounds better or worse than the “turn or burn” attitude of the traditional crowd. Does it sound better to you? Or at least less harmful? If Christians all believed this would they be generally less unpleasant? Does the argument make more sense to you?

Love wins summary -->

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Rob Bell starts with the basic question, “why would God let people He loves spend forever in hell for things they did or didn’t do in the comparatively small time they spent on Earth?” He argues that heaven and hell are both things that start now. There are people you meet who just genuinely care about everyone and spend their lives helping people, and there are people whose lives spiral out control with addiction until there is nothing left. They are getting a taste of heaven and hell, respectively. The point of life is to become the kind of person that you were truly made to be, the kind of person that could be happy in heaven (a racist would be miserable in heaven, because of diversity). We are actively growing and learning to choose love over hate, and that continues after we die. Depending on our trajectory that will be either heaven or hell, but that is not the end of the story. There is life after life-after-death.
The reason that Christians have traditionally believed that hell is forever is because of the phrase “aion kolazo” in the Greek text which most Christians have traditionally translated as “eternal punishment.” This is a valid translation, technically. The problem is that the word “kolazo” is derived from a word that means “to prune.” The word has the connotation of inflicting some sort of injury with the purpose of making something better. A more accurate translation of the word is “correction.” Also “aion” is often translated “age” or “period of time” rather than “eternal.” So what you get is “age of correction” instead of “eternal punishment.” For the people who have all sorts of pain and darkness in their hearts they are sent to face their dark side. The process of facing your dark side and your past is really hard and painful, so hell is really tough, but ultimately its purpose is healing and reconciliation. After heaven and hell the world is made right, a perfect restored creation with everybody in it. All the hurts and problems from the history of the world are made right, everybody’s happy, and love wins.

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So let me know what you think about this one and I’ll relay the message to the rest of the Christians. Thanks in advance for taking the time, this really interests me!

(I did my best to represent Rob Bell’s argument fairly, but he’s a much better writer than me).