Personal Log (A Reader Writes About Her Mother Refusing To Read ‘What Did Jesus Say About Hell?’)

This blog is not so much on a specific subject as it is a personal sort of journal entry based on a facet of my experience concerning my book What Did Jesus Say About Hell? I would love to hear anyone’s feedback on this. 

I can’t tell you at this point how many people who loved the book have tried to get one of their parents, or sibling, or friend to read it, but was met with only refusal. I heard a story today of someone who tried to get her mother to read the book. Her mother is a religious Christian and, as this woman’s daughter described to me, read the first few pages of my Preface and said, “I won’t read this, no matter what you tell me about it.” Not wanting to upset her relationship with her mother, the daughter quickly relented.

It was the subject of hell that dismayed her mother, specifically that she read: ‘the idea that you could burn in eternal fire after you die is not supported by the Bible.’ The sad and at the same time funny part is, when she handed the book back to her daughter she said, “I believe in what the Word says, not what this man [author] says.”

Of course, by “the Word” she means the words in the Bible. Somehow, even though I actually said in those first few pages that everything said about hell will be supported by the Bible, and you can verify the information for yourself, she basically said in reply, “I only believe in what the Bible says.” 

What is going on there?

As I see it, there are a few things going on there. First, the truth is, she thinks she only believes what the Bible says, but how can she at the same time be refusing to look at what the Bible says about hell? Second, this is where the ego comes into play: ‘what I think is correct and right, and therefore anything to the contrary is incorrect and wrong.’ In the paradigm of the ego, it has a life or death need to be correct and right.

 She makes it clear that she believes in what she believes the Bible says. She believes what she is taught the Bible says. And isn’t this true for so many of us? We are raised in a set of beliefs, we are taught those beliefs are in the Bible, and this paradoxical reasoning ensues where we don’t question what we believe because it’s in the Bible, and we don’t feel the need to learn the truth for ourselves because we believe that what we believe is in the Bible. There’s no need to actually know what the Bible says because we believe in the Word!

If one truly believes the Bible is the Word of God, how can one not care to examine what those words are for oneself? Underlying the refusal to look at the facts, as well as the ego, is good old-fashioned fear. Our ego has developed with us our whole lives and it has been constructed with our beliefs. If we have believed something our whole lives and then suddenly that something is called into question, it can be terrifying because it is calling our entire belief system into question—and our ego can only see that as an existential attack. It springs into action. It is much easier to simply deny the information being presented, or the person presenting it, than to go messing around with our beliefs. Ignorance may not be bliss, but it can certainly keep us more comfortable. 

When it comes to the subject of hell—our fear of judgment and what could send us there, the kind of thinking discussed above seems a great tragedy to me. It is why I wrote this book. If we truly believe that what we believe is true—to the point where we say we know that it is true—why should there be anything to fear in looking into the veracity of information being presented to us that might conflict with what we believe to be true? If anything, it seems the resolve and/or knowledge of what we believe should stand solid no matter what and pass any amount of tests given to it by conflicting evidence. We should come out the other side even stronger in what we believe! 

But we are terrified—perhaps unbeknownst to our conscious mind. We’re scared that what we have believed for so long might be wrong, we are scared of what it could mean to even question what we know—it could mean we are of weak faith, and we are scared most that we could be left in a place of uncertainty and vulnerability. In sum total, we are terrified that we might end up in hell; the fear of hell keeps us from looking into the biblical facts about hell!

Does God work in these ways? Is it God that works through fear and doubt in order that we never question what we believe—never question “the Word?” If we believe something other than what the Bible says, is it actually the Word we believe in? Therein lies the great irony. 

I won’t restate the short summary from last week’s blog on the facts of what Jesus said about hell, but I present a challenge to anyone who believes in hell and why they could go there simply to look in the Bible to be sure what Jesus said about it. My book only helps to comprehensively show you in one place, and in short time, all the pertinent information for you to verify in the Bible. This challenge is not based on my ego, it is based solely in love. My book has a lot of original material in it but the material about hell is anything but original—on that subject I do not deviate from what the Bible says. I use scripture to gives us clarity on the meaning of Jesus’ messages. 

If we believe in hell, or heaven for that matter, what could be more important than knowing through and through what the Bible has to say? It’s wonderful if we were taught spiritual truths growing up, or what to believe about the afterlife—it’s like training wheels for us, but shouldn’t there come a point where, as adults, we learn the truth for ourselves? Jesus promoted a pearl of wisdom from the Old Testament: Seek and you shall find. Why did he tell us to seek if the answers are already found?

What are your thoughts? Please chime in using the comments below!

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