“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12 NIV
C.S. Lewis imagined it as a grey, joyless city. The Italian poet, Dante Aligheri, wrote that it was a series of nine circles. You might have your own vision of it. But what do we really know about Hell? What does the Bible tell us about it, and what is speculation, myth, or even plain error? Is Hell a place or a state of being? What does Hell look like? What kind of suffering do people in Hell experience? What are the devil and demons really like?
How does the coronavirus outbreak relate to the vivid, end-time biblical prophecies about plagues, pestilences, and pandemics? Jesus listed “pestilences in various places” as a sign of his coming. How does the coronavirus foreshadow what lies ahead?
What are the cultural insights Westerners often miss when the Eastern context of the Bible is ignored? What were the ways Jesus taught that were thoroughly Eastern—rooted in story, honor, and community—yet appeal to Western thinking—based in reasoning and linear process—today? How does understanding Eastern idioms and customs make mysterious or seemingly confusing Bible passages understandable?
More than ever, modern cultural conversation seems driven by conflict and anger. People sitting together in pews every Sunday have started to feel like strangers, loved ones at the dinner table like enemies. What is the biblical way to have a civilized dialogue?
