Dutch websiteGetting Burned by Hell
07-04-2004 - Posted by Geert-JanToday’s Nederlands Dagblad carried the following report (I quote only part of it):
GIETHOORN – Heaven and hell are the central themes of a multi-day conference for theology students from Utrecht. The second day of the conference focused on hell, “an attic room of faith that we rarely visit.” The Bible speaks soberly, but also somberly, very seriously and forcefully about hell. It is impossible to maintain that it is merely a marginal phenomenon in the Old Testament, says Reformed theologian Dr. Jan Hoek. Hoek spoke yesterday at the multi-day conference of the Utrecht Reformed Theology Students’ Association Voetius, forty of whose members are spending time at a group accommodation in Giethoorn reflecting on “heaven and hell.” The second day focused mainly on hell, as became clear. Hell is certainly not a popular subject, Hoek knows, referring to sociologist of religion Hijme Stoffels. He stated: “Hell is taboo. An attic room of faith that we rarely visit.” Hoek comments: “People are no longer afraid of hell, but rather of loss of dignity and suffering on their deathbed. Hell, in short, is terribly out of fashion.” But ignoring this subject – Christians would rather not get burned by it either – is, according to him, no solution. Hoek: “We have to conclude that there is a hell…”
Dr. Jan Hoek is willing to risk getting burned by hell, but unfortunately has little of substance to say about the subject. Judging from the report, he goes entirely down the theological route and therefore (…) fails to let Scripture speak. Forty (partly) future ministers were once again burdened with knowledge that is not really relevant to the matter at hand, all in order to keep the myth of hell alive. A myth (read: a teaching of demons!) that fatally undermines the Gospel of “the living God, Who is the Saviour of all mankind.” The countervoice heard at the conference was once again so “wonderfully” vague in theological terms (“unreal reality”…) that the conference attendees presumably went home empty-handed once again.
If you ask me, they would have been far better off buying the latest booklet by Martin Zender…(Dutch version)
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