Kirk Cameron's "HELLGATE" Roundtable

Why there are better answers on "hell" than Kirk is allowed to have

There is a great scene in the 1983 film “The Right Stuff” where government officials are sent to Edwards Air Force base in the early 1960s to recruit the very first NASA astronauts. They ask the local bartender at the pub where the test pilots all hang out who he recommends.

“Well, what about Chuck Yeager” the bartender suggests.

“Yeah, but Yeager doesn’t have a college degree. We are only recruiting pilots with college degrees,” they respond.

“Wait,” the barkeep asks a bit perplexed, “you don’t want to consider our best pilot?” .

“Of course we want the best,” the say, “but we want the best we are allowed to get.”

That scene was playing in my head as I watched all two hours plus of Kirk Cameron’s roundtable with four Evangelical scholars on the topic of “Hell”

Not unlike “The Right Stuff” there indeed, are much better answers on “hell” out there, but Cameron was only considering the best he was allowed to have.

Two of the Cameron’s guests held to what they would say is the “traditional” view of hell; those that die in their sins outside the grace of God will suffer an eternity of torment (referred to colloquially as “Eternal Conscious Torment”)

The other two guests expressed the view Kirk Cameron recently sparked controversy with by admitting he is leaning towards and that is the idea that a person who dies in their sins outside the grace of God is simply wiped from existence (referred to as “annihilationism” or the less threatening “conditionalism”)

Now I really appreciate Kirk Cameron’s honest inquiry. He is asking a LOT of the right questions and has sadly drawn some horrible blowback from many of his fellow Evangelicals for flirting with the idea that God may NOT be keeping a special place set aside for tormenting people all of eternity. (Some Christians really love their hell)

However, as civil and congenial as the discussion was, I found myself frustrated as there are so many better answers on this topic much more aligned with the God revealed through Jesus Christ but, like from the scene in The Right Stuff, these were simply the two best answers the “roundtable participants” were allowed to have.

Indeed, I found myself playing out a thought experiment while watching the discussion. Instead of the men talking about God, I imagined they were talking about my beloved late father Gary Hackman, who taught me what unconditional love looked like. I imagined them discussing what my dad would do with me if I had not responded to his generous love and either actively or passively separated myself from him.

· Would he keep me alive for all eternity in an endless state of torment?

· Or wipe me from existence altogether

You can see when you apply the discussion to reality it becomes ridiculous. A theater of the absurd.

Yes, if they were forced to provide an answer to justify either of those two outcomes my earthy dad would subject me to, I’m sure they could come up with something.

And that something would sound just as foolish as most of this two-and-a-half-hour round table discussion went.

And that’s not meant to be a slight on these fellow Christians, these are simply the best answers they are allowed to have.

But there are better answers!

At one point Kirk Cameron admits that he is seeing this question on hell as a father of 6 children and I thought, “Yeah Kirk, keeping seeing the issue through that lens and you will find yourself on the right trajectory.

It’s not that sin has no consequence and decisions we make will reflect both in this life and in the next….

…but, when you see you God as “Abba” you will find yourself landing in the confidence that nothing will separate us from the love we have from God through Christ (Romans 8)

There are much better answers Kirk, keep asking the questions a father would ask and you’ll get there.

Peace,

Steve