Another really good video interview done by Grace Communion International!
"]Elmer Colyer discusses how hell and God’s wrath are related to God’s love.
Dr. Elmer Colyer is professor of historical theology at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, and pastor of a Methodist congregation. He is editor of The Promise of Trinitarian Theology: Theologians in Dialogue with T. F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology in Transition: Theologians in Dialogue with Donald Bloesch. He is author of How to Read T.F. Torrance: Understanding His Trinitarian and Scientific Theology and The Nature of Doctrine in T. F. Torrance’s Theology. You can read more at udts.dbq.edu/ecolyer.cfm
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The question is, Why did hell become an unpreachable doctrine for some?
I think we have to go back in history and take a look at that. Part of it was because of the hell that was taught and preached in the church. …
Also, in the hymnal at that time there was a hymn that sang that part of the glory of heaven was for the saints in heaven to watch sinners suffer in hell. That kind of depiction of hell is what made the doctrine unpreachable. It went something like this: People who knew something of the love of God in Christ revealed on the cross, just sensed something profoundly wrong with that kind of picture — that God would so hate the reprobate that they would suffer for all eternity, and that part of the glory of heaven would be to watch the reprobates suffer in hell — maybe even one’s relatives and friends — suffer there. There’s something incommensurate with that, with the picture of the love of God revealed in Christ.
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I think part of the reason that hell became unpreachable is because it was related only to the wrath of God. This is not tenable, Mike, as you know. God’s attributes are not separate. You cannot divide God’s holiness and God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s justice and wrath — God is ultimately…simple…all of those attributes are integrated. Somehow we have to think about this in a different way — a way that unifies it, a way that brings hell into relation of God’s love and not simply God’s wrath.
He also makes some excellent points about the importance of the Trinity in understanding the love of God.