HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
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Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
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WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT HEAVEN AND HELL?
Copyright © 2013 by Douglas A. Jacoby
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jacoby, Douglas A.
What’s the truth about heaven and hell? / Douglas Jacoby.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7369-5172-2 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-5173-9 (eBook)
1. Heaven—Christianity. 2. Hell—Christianity. 3. Future life—Christianity. 4. Theology, Doctrinal—Popular works. I. Title.
BT846.3.J33 2013
236'.24—dc23
2012041088
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive, and non-commercial right to access and view this electronic publication and agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s and publisher’s rights is strictly prohibited.
Acknowledgments
Many people have propelled me in the search for biblical truth. Our conversations, correspondence, coffees, and meals have called me higher: David Bercot, Mark Cahill, Craig Evans, Everett Ferguson, Edward Fudge, Gary Habermas, Randy Harris, Tom Jones, Gary Knutson, Craig Keener, Bob Kurka, Denis Lamoureux, Michael Licona, Jim McGuiggan, and Peter Williams—I owe you a continuing debt of love and respect.
Other lovers of Scripture have uplifted me more than they may realize through kind words of encouragement: Francis Chan, Francis Collins, Bill Craig, Dinesh D’Souza, Kenneth Kitchen, Peter Kreeft, Josh McDowell, Timothy McGrew, Charlie Moule, John Polkinghorne, Graham Stanton, John Stott, Ben Witherington, and Ravi Zacharias. I owe you too profound thanks.
To the entire Harvest House staff—especially Gene Skinner, Terry Glaspey, and Bob Hawkins Jr.—as well as my unofficial editor, Joe Sciortino, I am grateful for your support and confidence in me. May it not prove to be misplaced.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Part 1: Think Again
1. A Fresh Look: Opening Minds
2. The Lens of Eternity: Defining Terms
3. Lenses of Interpretation, Part 1: Should We Take the Bible Literally?
4. Lenses of Interpretation, Part 2: Poetry, Parable, Apocalypse
Part 2: Destinations
5. The Good Place: Heaven
6. Heaven on Earth: Up There or Down Here?
7. The Other Place: Hell
8. No Exit: Does It Ever End?
Part 3: Postmortem
9. A Third Place?: The Logic of Purgatory
10. The Intermediate State: Hades
11. Resurrection: Up from the Grave
Part 4: One Way?
12. Judgment Day: The Books Are Opened
13. “Do Not Judge”: Is Judgment Ungracious?
14. Alternative Views: Moonlight
15. The Narrow Road: Is God Just?
Part 5: Questions
16. Out of Their Bodies or Out of Their Minds?: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences
17. Angels, Ghosts, and Other Things You’ve Wondered About: Seven Further Questions
Part 6: Finally
18. Treasure: The Paradox
Appendix A: Imagery in Isaiah
Appendix B: Analysis of Alcorn
Notes
About the Author
About the Publisher
Part 1
Think Again
If we are serious about examining what the Scriptures really say about the afterlife, we must be willing to approach the subject with an open mind. This is easier said than done. First of all, everyone interprets, whether he or she is conscious of this or not. Second, we cannot help but bring preconceptions to the discussion of the afterlife. Last, not all Scripture is intended to be read literally. Knowing the difference is key to making sense of the passages touching on the afterlife.
1
A Fresh Look
Opening Minds
The unexamined faith is hardly worth believing.
I was 18, and I was a young Christian. Like many new believers, I was burning to share my faith with everything that moved. That included the blonde from New York, who like me was a freshman at Duke University.
I had no idea she had a gun. One evening we were discussing Christianity. In mid-conversation, and without the slightest warning, she pulled it out of her handbag and shot me. Before everything went dark, I felt the bullet tearing into my chest. I clearly recall the surprisingly intense heat of this minuscule chunk of metal.
I was fading…blackness…then utter calm. I asked out loud, “Am I in heaven?” As my eyes focused, I saw a light, and then a series of numbers—3-5-0. What was happening? And why did I expect to be in heaven? As I came to and to my great disappointment realized I was still alive, the luminous alarm clock informed me it would soon be four a.m. It was all a dream. My question, “Am I in heaven?” was decisively answered by my roommate, Joe. “Go back to sleep, Doug.” What a dream. Would it perhaps be like this one day? What is on the other side?
I didn’t have many answers—I’d become a Christian only weeks earlier. So why did my dream take the shape it did? My assumptions about the afterlife had almost certainly come from my religious surroundings. But were they correct? In John 3:13, just three verses before the most famous Scripture in the Bible, Jesus told us, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.” What about you—what do you believe about heaven and hell? And if you’re a believer in Christ, if a coworker asks you at lunch what you think about the topic, what scriptural basis would you have for your response?
It is indisputable that every culture has believed in life after death. Whenever I read the holy writings of the world’s religions, attend a funeral, see a sarcophagus or mummy, or walk through a graveyard, this truth is impressed on me. For millennia humans have speculated about judgment, the afterlife, and how to tip the balance in one’s favor lest the final outcome prove negative. Even in countries where religion is discouraged or banned, this orientation toward the future cannot be squelched, and powerful underground movements keep faith alive. Of course the fact that faith is strong is no proof that it is right, but it does—and should—make the nonbeliever stop and think.
In my work I travel a lot, usually explaining the Christian faith and teaching the Bible. Last week I sat next to a fascinating woman on a flight from Mozambique to South Africa. She was well educated, fluent in many languages, and she was an atheist. We had much in common, including two countries (Sweden and Malaysia), and soon she was sharing with me her life philosophy. In short, she reasoned, “There’s no need for anyone to live past age sixty.”
“Should they be euthanized?” I asked innocently.
“Of course not. But we need to consider the next generation and not be selfish,” she explained.
I should probably tell you that this dear woman looked to me to be in her late fifties. Time was short, according to her philosophy. I sensed an opening. “What’s your take on what happens after we die?”
“We decompose and become part of future generations of life.”
“Okay, so we become part of the next generation literally. But if the scientists are right, in a few billion years our world will be burnt up by the sun. If nothing’s going to last, then what’s the purpose of it all?” (She had no answer, although she insisted some things in her life were deeply meaningful.) “Then it’s like existentialism? Life is ultimately absurd, so we create our own meaning?” She didn’t know what to say, and not because she didn’t understand the question.
We had a great talk. I was able to identify several things in her life (things she had opened up to me about) that point to something beyond, to purpose and meaning. “You have to admit, the evidence suggests transcendence—something beyond this life.”
“And you believe in God?”
“I do,” I responded. “This world makes a lot more sense if there is a God. I’m a Christian writer, and one of my books is actually on this subject—why belief in God makes more sense than the alternative. I have only one copy left, but it’s yours if you think you’ll read it. When we land in Johannesburg, I’ll be happy to give it to you.”
“Yes, I’d like that.” When we landed, she eagerly introduced me to her work associate, who was on the same flight, and I handed over the book. Was a seed planted? Yes—but long before we met. The Lord had been preparing this soon-to-be 60-year-old for this encounter. We exchanged contact information, and I’m waiting for her response.
What would you have said to her? How would you share your faith in a similar situation? Don’t ever write off atheists as uninterested in the afterlife. In fact, many persons who wouldn’t be caught dead in a church (well, perhaps unless you count funerals) are taken with the paranormal. I find a great response among young and old when I teach about angels and demons, ghosts, and a number of other supernatural topics.
This is a great way to start a conversation with an unbeliever, by the way. Ask what he or she thinks about popular themes (vampires, for example) and then steer the conversation in a spiritual direction. Or ask directly, “What do you think happens on the other side?” You’d be amazed how many people, regardless of whether they have faith, have been waiting for someone to bring this up.
The afterlife is a subject that interests everyone, because it is about the one thing that happens to us all. Ultimately, nothing could be more relevant. There’s a pressing reason many long for this discussion: God has set eternity in their hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We are spiritual creatures.
Everyone’s interested, but nearly everyone is confused. What’s on the other side? Do we go to heaven the second we die? What about near-death experiences? Are we reincarnated? Is hell forever? How literally should we read the book of Revelation? Are there ghosts? What if you aren’t a Christian—are there other valid paths? These and many other questions are being asked—and will be addressed in this volume.
This is a crucial conversation. If anything is on the other side of the grave, then heaven and hell aren’t just small talk. We need answers, and so do your friends, family, and neighbors. Care enough about others to have this conversation!
Is heaven on earth? Is there a waiting place before judgment day? Do those who haven’t heard the gospel get a second chance? Let’s see what the Bible says and make an honest effort to sort out the confusion. This means wading into some of the controversies and seeing that sometimes sincere students of Scripture land in different places. And in the process, we may receive some much-needed personal assurance about life after death.
This book may take you into new territory. Even if you’re a veteran Bible reader, it is intended to prod you, to push you to think. Though the book touches on matters of eternal significance, there is latitude for flexibility of thought, for acceptance of differing views.
The Bible will be the authoritative text for our discussion in this book.1 Do you think you know the Bible—that you’ve already heard all there is to know about heaven and hell? Think again. Bible scholars and teachers worldwide are taking a new look at both heaven and hell. We should too. In researching this volume, I have tried to analyze the most influential as well as the most recent works on heaven and hell. The conversation isn’t over your head or inaccessibly erudite. You can listen in.
We all wear colored lenses; no one is (fully) objective. This means we need to keep our minds open and our hearts humble. For that reason, the three chapters that follow—one on eternity, the other two on interpretation—are probably the most important chapters in the book. You may think, “I only want to know where the author comes out on those who haven’t heard the gospel”—or the second death, or…(fill in the blank). But should you really care what my position is? Isn’t it far more crucial to learn how the Lord wants us to read his word? So please don’t skip ahead if you want to be able to weigh the various views on the afterlife.
It’s just possible, once we dig into the Scriptures, that we may change our minds on something important. Let’s not be numbered among the timid souls who cannot, or will not, reexamine their faith. It’s time for a fresh look.
• Everyone is interested in the afterlife—nonbelievers as well as believers.
• Even if we have read God’s word, our notions about the afterlife may require refining or even replacing.
• We all have presuppositions regarding heaven and hell. Our knowledge was not attained in a vacuum. Becoming aware of these presuppositions is the best starting place for our inquiry.
2
The Lens of Eternity
Defining Terms
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light…
1 TIMOTHY 6:15-16
I’ve worn glasses since I was ten, or at least I was supposed to. Those were the days before wearing specs became fashionable. We all require “lenses” in order to make sense of the world, to be able to cope. Of course lenses can do far more than correct nearsightedness or astigmatism. They can take us into microscopic worlds or deep space. Not that anyone, when it comes to viewing eternity, has 20/20 vision. What are your “lenses”? To successfully navigate the various afterlife views, we first need to be aware of lenses that have refracted our view of the world to come.
Plentiful ideas compete about heaven, hell, and the afterlife—and not just the rival belief systems of Hinduism, Islam, and other worldviews. Even Christians only roughly agree on what happens after we die. Everyone has an opinion, and apparently many of these opinions are rooted more deeply in tradition and personal preference than in Scripture. Like Pharaoh’s chief baker, we are attracted to interpretations that bode well for us (Genesis 40:16). To some extent, our lenses distort our perception of reality.
To be sure that we are correctly hearing the multiple voices in the discussion, we need to define terms. In religion as in politics, without agreeing on what it is we are disagreeing about, we are doomed to talk past one another. Key terms for this chapter include eternity, infinity, and immortality. Sharpening our thinking about eternity and immortality will bear fruit in chapter 8 as we examine nonstandard views about the end of the wicked. All three terms are lofty, loaded, and to some degree more elusive than we may realize.
Woody Allen quips, “Eternity is really long, especially toward the end.” In his unique and winsome way, he makes us laugh at ourselves. Who, after all, can even begin to appreciate eternity, let alone the part “toward the end”? We mortals must admit we face a basic limitation, a sort of vision impairment.
The biblical words often translated “eternal” are the Old Testament Hebrew ‘olam and the New Testament Greek aion. But what is eternity? One nineteenth-century Princeton scholar insisted that aion always denotes time (quantity), never quality or nature.1 Yet few are so bold as to claim that the Greek adjective aionios always suggests “infinity in time”—such thinking has been rejected by most modern exegetes.2 But isn’t this how many readers understand the Bible? Other scholars, including those who believe that hell is eternal torment, are more tempered in their judgment. Bruce Milne is an example. “The word commonly rendered ‘eternal’ in our New Testament translations is in fact literally ‘of the age (to come).’ Thus it refers in the first instance to a particular quality of life, rather than to its durational quantity.”3
The basic sense of aion (from which we get the English word eon) is “time, age.” The listed definitions in the standard lexicon for New Testament Greek are “very long time, eternity; a segment of time, age; the world.”4 There is no inherent notion of everlastingness.
For example, the following list is based (only) on the Greek root aion, common in the Greek New Testament and the Greek version of the Old Testament.5 There are a number of Scriptures where words such as “forever,” “eternal,” and “everlasting” entail no sense of infinite duration.
• Genesis 6:4—The Nephilim were heroes “of old.”
• Genesis 9:12—The rainbow was to be a sign for “all generations to come.”
• Exodus 21:6—Servants could choose to serve their masters “for life.”
• Leviticus 25:34—The Levites’ pastureland was their “permanent possession.”
• 1 Chronicles 16:15; Psalm 105:8—“Forever” is equivalent to a thousand generations.
• 1 Samuel 1:22—Young Samuel was to serve at the house of the Lord “always,” even though his death is recorded in 1 Samuel 15:35.
• Ezra 4:15,19—Jerusalem had a “long history” of resisting political domination, but Israel had existed as a nation less than a millennium.
• Psalm 24:7—The gates to Jerusalem were “ancient,” as was the boundary stone of Proverbs 22:28.
• Jonah 2:6—The prophet was confined in (the fish) “forever.”
This makes sense. In Exodus 31:17 the Sabbath was to remain a sign for the Jewish people “forever,” yet the early church felt no obligation to keep it (Colossians 2:16; see Galatians 4:8-11). Similarly, circumcision was “for the generations to come” (Genesis 17:12), yet as Acts 15 and the letter to the Galatians make clear, the requirement was no longer considered binding under the new covenant. Think carefully about the meaning of “eternal” in these three passages in Hebrews:
• Hebrews 5:9—“Eternal salvation” refers to the effect of the cross. We are saved once; only the consequence that endures into the age to come.
• Hebrews 6:2—“Eternal judgment” refers to the consequences of our rebellion against God; no one is repeatedly hauled before the judgment seat of God for pronouncements of guilt.
• Hebrews 9:12—“Eternal redemption” is nonrepeatable. Jesus doesn’t redeem us over and over; the effect of his redemption lasts into the age to come.
For a final example, in Matthew 25:41,46, “eternal” punishment is illuminated by Matthew 21:19.
Jesus even provides us with a graphic illustration of his use of the Greek root word aion, when he cursed the unfruitful fig tree on his way into Jerusalem: “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forward forever,” Jesus commanded. “And presently the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:19 KJV). The desired effect was not something that happened over and over again throughout eons of time, but once for all time. Apply the imagery of immediate withering to “eternal fire” and you get the picture.6
This line of reasoning is important to follow if we are to understand, in a later chapter, why some take exception to the traditional concept of hell as infinite torment.
The New Testament announces that eternal life is now, not just something in the distant future (John 17:2-3). The age to come has already arrived; the kingdom has come (Luke 11:20; 17:20-21). As theologian Dallas Willard puts it, “Eternity is now in process.” 7 Yet few Bible readers are even aware of these important distinctions. In short, we may think we grasp eternity, but how likely is this? Humility is needed.
If eternity is elusive, it certainly isn’t any easier getting a handle on the concept of infinity. All the same, it’s a term frequently bandied about in many a religious or scientific discussion—just as armchair physicists drop impressive names like Einstein and Hawking without actually understanding these scientists at all.
Speaking of human ignorance, I sometimes hear Christians say, “I guess I’ll just have to ask Paul what he meant when I see him in heaven,” or “I look forward to learning the theory of relativity when I meet the Lord.” But how can we be sure that “know fully” and “see face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12) denote omniscience? Isn’t this passage referring to knowing God through Christ—a context that is relational rather than informational? And what makes us think we’d understand Einstein in the next life? (How did you do when you studied calculus and physics here on earth?)
“But if I had all eternity to learn…,” you may be thinking. But what makes you think you’d get it even if the Lord took 100 years to patiently explain it? Some things we don’t know now, and some things we may never know. After all, in the next world we still won’t be omniscient—that’s the province of God alone.
So shall we give up? Not at all. The point is to be humble—not inert. And so back to infinity. In the real world, infinity is more a concept than a reality. For example, if time extended to the infinite past, how could we ever have arrived at the present? An infinite gap would remain between the past and today? Perhaps that’s why Augustine (AD 354–430) argued that time is not eternal; God created the universe with time, not in time. This agrees with modern cosmology. The big bang theory holds—and the evidence is strong—that matter and energy, space and time all came into being at a point in the distant past.
If that isn’t mind-bending enough, there’s more. For us, will eternity be infinite? Well, not in both directions; after all, our existence had a beginning. Our eternal life with God will last forever, so it is infinite in one direction, or halfway infinite—yet any fraction of infinity is still infinity. Eternity has to do with the age to come; infinity has to do with extent or duration. Neither concept is easy to grasp, and in some sense neither is fully intelligible to us, but that doesn’t mean the words are interchangeable. We will do well to keep the distinction in mind.
Preachers sometimes proclaim there are only three eternal things: God in heaven, the word of God, and the soul of man.8 Surely God’s word is eternal (Psalm 119:89; Matthew 24:35). And there is no doubt that God is immortal (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16). What about us?
The Barna people tell us that most Americans believe we have an immortal soul.9 Sometimes this is assumed because God breathed his spirit into man (Genesis 2:7), investing us with his own immortality. But how can we sure? By every appearance, after sin entered the world, the Lord refused the first couple immortality (Genesis 3:22-24). Why would such an important teaching not be revealed until the New Testament—and especially if this vital truth had eternal implications for the hundreds of millions living before the time of Christ?10 The New Testament teaches that eternal life is a gift for those who are saved by faith.11 After all, God is uniquely immortal: “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:15-16). Whether God is outside time, inside it, or both, he is certainly not subject to the same limitations we struggle under. That we may become immortal does not mean that we are innately immortal.
The idea of the immortal soul was baptized, in some quarters at least, as early as the second century. The Platonic notion entered Christianity by way of the second-century apologists, such as Athenagoras and Tertullian. Says the latter, “I may use, therefore, the opinion of Plato when he declares, ‘Every soul is immortal.’”12 In time, much of Judaism would follow suit.13
Says theologian Stanley Grenz, “The idea of the soul’s immortality has been highly influential throughout Christian history…Despite its influence, the doctrine is problematic. It suggests that immortality is somehow intrinsic to the soul, rather than being God’s gift.”14 During the great housecleaning known as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, the Anabaptists, and Tyndale roundly rejected the immortality of the soul.15 But Luther did not push his view; the Anabaptists were too radical for most, and by the end of the Reformation, Calvin and his opposing viewpoint had won the day. The traditional (Catholic) concept reigned virtually unchallenged until the nineteenth century.
Conditional immortality, the notion that the soul’s immortality depends on God, gained traction in late 1800s through groups like the Seventh-day Adventists. 16 This belief is sometimes called conditionalism. It is widely recognized that human immortality stems from Plato (423–347 BC). But this is in conflict with what God has revealed in the Old and New Testaments.17 Many biblical scholars now agree that the human soul is mortal, and several popular writers have taken the hint.18 It is especially noteworthy that scholars of the conditionalist persuasion hail from the entire spectrum of Christianity: Baptists George Beasley-Murray, Dale Moody, Clark Pinnock, and E. Earle Ellis; Anglicans Richard Bauckham, John Wenham, John R.W. Stott, and Michael Green; F.F. Bruce (Brethren); Edward Fudge (Churches of Christ); Philip E. Hughes and John McRay (Reform); and John Stackhouse Jr. (J.I. Packer’s successor at Regent College, Vancouver). These are just a few of the better-known names among this growing number.
If the soul is going to live forever, God will have to grant it immortality. Then the question is, will he give immortality to the lost? That is, will he keep them existing forever for the purpose of punishment, or will their punishment ever come to an end? (That will be our focus in chapter 8.)
Does science shed any light on the matter? According to Rodney J. Scott and Raymond E. Phinney Jr., experts in neurobiology, “There is little question that traditional exegetes have viewed the Old Testament picture of human nature through the lenses of Christian Platonism…a material body and an immaterial soul or spirit was simply taken for granted.”19 Malcolm Jeeves, a Christian neuroscientist, goes even further. He doubts the existence of an immaterial soul.20 Of course he does not deny the soul, only its existence independent of the body—a far cry from Plato.
It is not unlike the unborn baby in the womb, who already has life, but hasn’t yet been born. And who could possibly explain to that developing little person about life outside the womb? Or about the nature of time? The irony is that, in the womb, we’ve already experienced a timelessness in which we were perfectly content. An “eternity,” as far as we knew, in which our every need was met without our ever asking!21
We ought not to imagine that we perceive too clearly the essence of immortality, infinity, and eternity. Appreciating the contributions of scholars who have laid the groundwork for us laymen, we realize that there is often more than one way to look at things.
Doubtless there are other significant terms in the Bible related to the afterlife, such as soul and spirit. We will touch on several in the course of our investigation.
We began the chapter with the analogy of corrective lenses. My eyes are not the same. Although one is stronger than the other, neither sees clearly. Sometimes a lens will fall out of its frame, or a contact lens might slide out of position. At times like these it’s almost easier to have no lenses than only one. Similarly, our interpretive presuppositions form a second, powerful lens, clarifying or distorting the truth, as the case may be. This will be our study in chapters 3 and 4.
Being aware of our biases goes well beyond rethinking eternity, infinity, and immortality—a task that weighs heavily on our puny minds. Everyone interprets—despite the claims of some who claim direct access to the meaning of Scripture without the difficult work of applying their minds to the text. Next, therefore, we will examine our method of interpretation.
• The logical starting place in the afterlife discussion is to define terms. In religion as in politics, without agreeing on what it is we are disagreeing about, we will talk past one another.
• As optical lenses refract light and enable us to make sense of our world, so our previous understanding of eternity affects our ability to discern clearly the will of God.
• Eternal is not a synonym of infinite.
• Only God is intrinsically immortal. The philosophical doctrine of immortality of the human soul is difficult to defend biblically, and many scholars reject it.
• In short, the concept of eternity is beyond our capacity to apprehend.
3
Lenses of Interpretation, Part 1
Should We Take the Bible Literally?
It is never too late to give up our prejudices.
THOREAU
In the last chapter we saw that when reading the Bible, we all bring something to the text. We aren’t purely objective; our picture of reality is refracted or even fragmented by our personal “lenses.” Three concepts fraught with presupposition are eternity, infinity, and immortality, and unpacking them is essential if we are to thoughtfully consider the passages usually regarded as informing us about heaven, hell, and the afterlife. While it may be tempting to skip to the book of Revelation or the parables of Christ, it is better to take our time—especially if we are really willing to reconsider the weighty matters of eternity. In fact, there is a great deal of language that affects our view of heaven, hell, eternity, and the afterlife that comes from the Old Testament, and a close look shows that much of this language is figurative or must be understood differently than a simple literal reading would propose.
To say that “no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20) is to say that the Scripture authors did not inject their own opinions in any way so as to distort the meaning. Or as the NASB translates this verse, “No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” The imperative for us is not that we should (or can) understand without interpreting. It is that we should understand the Scripture as the Spirit-led author intended it to be understood rather than as we wish it to be.
The idea of letting the Bible interpret itself can be better stated another way. We should understand the writings of Scripture in their most plain, straightforward manner unless another passage elsewhere in the Scripture makes it clear we must look for a more complex or subtle meaning. Actually, the Bible never claims that every part is easy to understand (in fact, quite the opposite—2 Peter 3:14-16). It urges us to meditate diligently on God’s word (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 119) that the Lord may give us insight (2 Timothy 2:7,15).1
Therefore, interpretation is not a dirty word. It does take work to integrate our knowledge of all the Scriptures and to discern what the author meant for us to understand. That is the appropriate application of interpretation to the Scriptures. To neglect to do this is not to be spiritual. It is just to be lazy.
Whatever goes for our tendency to deprecate interpretation goes double for a dismissive stance toward theology. I. Howard Marshall perceptively notes, “Although some people claim to be able to dispense with biblical criticism and to settle issues by the plain simple evidence of what the Bible says, they still have to use biblical criticism to find out just what the Bible does say.”2 He is right. Unless we are expert in the original tongues, we depend on armies of scholars who have translated the text for us. And what about those whose lives have been dedicated to painstakingly copying it or clarifying it through illuminating geography, history, culture, and so forth? Without theologians and other scholars, we would be completely disoriented in our trek through the pages of ancient cultures.
Theology shouldn’t elicit yawns, but gratitude and excitement. But what is the typical Bible reader’s approach to interpretation?
• Theology is viewed with suspicion (sometimes for good reason, but too often it’s a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater).
• We assume we already know what the passage means.
• Or we assume our tradition (church culture) has it right.
• Or we assume it doesn’t matter, or perhaps we dismiss the text as irrelevant to our modern age. (“It’s cultural.”)
• And if we bump into a possible discrepancy, we are asked to be patient, for God will make all things clear in time.
Moreover, most of us have only a sketchy knowledge of the Old Testament. Why would we think we could read just the last quarter of the Bible (the New Testament) without bothering to see how it connects to the first three quarters—and with nothing to guide us beyond common sense and local church tradition? Doesn’t sound like much of a method, does it? Surely we can do better. To ensure our eyes are open and we see God’s word clearly (Psalm 119:18), we must go back to the prophets.
Compared to most prophets and biblical authors, Isaiah’s language is highly descriptive and visionary, as opposed to the more straightforward writing of Nehemiah, the epistle penned by James, or the prophecies of Jeremiah. Its symbolic aspect makes it more interesting and yet also more complex. By virtue of its length—66 chapters—we are offered mountains of poetic and metaphorical material.
I reread Isaiah, with an eye on its symbolism, so that we can appreciate the scope of what Isaiah is doing. Several of these images are below; others—for the motivated reader—may be found in appendix A. For now, we will zoom in on three passages that will open a window into Isaiah’s thought and speech. Each passage relates to the destruction of an earthly kingdom. The prophecies were fulfilled long before the time of Christ.
The principles in Isaiah, as in all the books of the Bible, are timeless, though of course he was dealing with particular historical situations—Israel before and after the exile. Much was written in the eighth century BC.3 Isaiah is chock-full of poetry. In contemporary translations, you can usually distinguish prose and poetry at a glance, as verse is indented on alternate lines. Persons unfamiliar with poetry may misread the metaphors.
For our purposes, Isaiah also has the advantage of being a rich resource for New Testament passages relating to justice, reward and punishment, vindication of the saints, and tribulation for their opponents. The book of Revelation draws on many prophetic books, including Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, but Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament.4
See, the day of the LORD is coming
—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
and destroy the sinners within it.
The stars of heaven and their constellations
will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
and the moon will not give its light.
I will punish the world for its evil,
the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
I will make people scarcer than pure gold,
more rare than the gold of Ophir.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger (13:9-13).
If this were all Isaiah had written, one might be forgiven for believing he prophesied the end of the world. And yet context is king. Or maybe we should say that the king must be understood in context—he’s the king of Babylon (13:1,19). Divine punishment in the Bible is often executed through the agency of a foreign army—in this case the Medes (13:17). Babylon “fell” without a shot being fired. The Medo-Persian alliance simply took over. Nor was the city abandoned immediately.
How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit (14:12-15).
The Babylonian leader is compared to a falling star. The commonly heard assertion that the verse is about Satan is speculative, despite a possible echo of the tradition of the fall of Satan. This tradition was reinforced by the Latin version, where verse 12 renders “morning star” as “Lucifer” (light-bearer). The passage explicitly speaks of the king of Babylon (14:4). It is Babylon that will suffer destruction.
For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.
Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch,
her dust into burning sulfur;
her land will become blazing pitch!
It will not be quenched night or day;
its smoke will rise forever.
From generation to generation it will lie desolate;
no one will ever pass through it again.
The desert owl and screech owl will possess it;
the great owl and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom,
all her princes will vanish away.
Thorns will overrun her citadels,
nettles and brambles her strongholds.
She will become a haunt for jackals,
a home for owls (34:8-13).
The enemy is named—Edom (34:5-6). Notice how her destruction is described, and ask yourself whether this should be understood literally. (The answer is a firm no.) Her streams will turn to pitch, and her land to sulfur (34:9). Nothing could live in such an environment.
The smoke of her destruction was to rise forever, just like the smoke of burning Rome (Revelation 19:3). Jude 7 tells us that the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, frequently referred to in Scripture, is an example of eternal fire. Is Sodom still smoking? Is Edom still ablaze? Does Rome still burn? No, but the lesson remains forever. As we saw in the last chapter, when we read words like eternal, we must determine whether biblical writers meant eternal in the sense of a continuous action or state, or eternal in the sense of a consequence or result.
The smoke of her burning “will not be quenched night or day” (Isaiah 34:10), another phrase suggesting there is no respite. This too turns out to be a figure of speech. Paul worked and prayed night and day (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 3:10), though not literally. Even if the apostle had some sleepless nights (2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27), he still had to rest. The same phrase appears in Revelation 4:8; 7:15; 12:10; 20:10.
Despite the nonstop blaze, Edom is claimed by wild animals (Isaiah 34:11). The city is to become unsafe, wild, reverting from a state of order to one of disorder. Plants and animals will live there. No need to imagine a genetically modified jackal (verse 13); once the images are seen as figurative, the impossibility disappears.
Last, the passage speaks of Edom’s loss of political sovereignty (34:12), which is the real point of the doom oracle. God himself brought an end to the kingdom of Edom, shattering her illusion of self-sufficiency.5 Yet it continued to be inhabited. Even in Jesus’s time we find Idumea (the new name for Edom). Was she destroyed? Yes. Literally, as a wooden reading of Isaiah 34 might indicate? No. Then is the Scripture true? Of course. Where is the problem? There is none, unless the reader fails to appreciate the metaphorical language.
See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more (Isaiah 65:17-19).
Isaiah looks ahead to a day when Israel, now in exile in Persia, will return to her land. He foresees a political and spiritual golden age. In essence the prophet is saying, “It’s a whole new world” (figuratively, not literally). The Jews did return by edict of the Persian king (538 BC), and they experienced a sort of revival under Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, and Nehemiah (sixth and fifth centuries BC), but the golden age remained a lofty ideal. Ultimate fulfillment was to take place only through the kingdom of the Messiah, centuries later.
“They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.
“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind” (Isaiah 66:19-24).
Notice the very Jewish context of the passage. This is not the end of the world. The temple is standing (it has been rebuilt). Levites are serving there. The enemies of Israel have been incinerated, their smoldering corpses visible to all.
Notice too that the insentient corpses are consumed by worms after they are judged (see also 34:3). These enemies of God are no longer conscious. The dominant emotion elicited is not one of pity, but of disgust.
Thus we see that throughout the oracles of Isaiah, local events (touching Israel and the surrounding nations) may be pictured in poetic, even cosmic terms.6 Does this sound like a picture of heaven and hell? Of course not; there is a specific historical context and a specific fulfillment. To literalize is to misunderstand and to destroy the meaning.