God's ways are higher than our ways in Isaiah 55:6-9 is not an argument to defend an eternal punishing God, the context is God's everlasting abundant mercy. The deeper truth about hell is it's more about how we live right here and now than simply a bad place down and under some where. We often think of hell in one dimensional ways rather than the multi-leveled view of Scripture. Too often we preach hell like the Pharisees did than applying the warnings of hell to our own lives like Jesus told us to do. Hell exists because nobody can escape the purifying fire of God's holy love.
We usually think of hell as punishment or destruction rather than purification. Several of the early church fathers like Origen and Gregory of Nyssa viewed hell as medicinal because people resist the flames of God's love. It's not sinners that are destroyed but sin and evil itself that is destroyed in the end. We need to learn from the prophet who spoke of hell the most in the Bible and that was Jesus. Jesus used very colorful and shocking language to jolt people out of their spiritual slumber. Often the prophets spoke of God's anger or judgement burning forever against Israel but even that was only for a season and not forever (see Jer.17:4 & 30:3 for an example of this). Hell is not used by Jesus as a threat to outsiders but as a challenge to insiders.
Why do Bible interpreters take the flames of hell literally but cutting off body parts as metaphorically? The inconsistencies and selective uses of the Bible are staggering to say the least. The flames of hell may hurt like hell as they burn away all our false and deceptive ways within us and the many masks we hide behind but ultimately God's fiery presence is fitting us for heaven. When it comes to a hopeful universalism, do we have more confidence in the power of human sin or the power of divine grace?
Believing as Peter did in the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21) or Paul did in the reconciliation of all things (Col.1:20) or John did in the renewal of all things (Rev.21:5) does not limit or soften our purpose or mission to evangelize the whole world but should inspire us to preach fearlessly, love limitlessly, and obey unconditionally.
(reflections and excerpts from Heath Bradley Flames of Love)
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