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A review by nicholaspoe_
Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up by Francis Chan, Preston M. Sprinkle
4.0
As I'm studying about Hell, this book was incredibly important and grounding for me. It wasn't important because it shed brilliant new light on the doctrine that convinced me in either direction. In fact, I wish it would have spent more time examining eternal torment vs annihilationism. It was important to me because it grounded me in what hell means, what it points to, and why it is important.
It is so easy to get lost in the weeds of a doctrine. To get lost trying to intellectually understand something. This book re-grounded me in the idea that Hell is a real place. That real people can go to. It emphasized why the Biblical authors and Jesus were so concerned about this doctrine and why we should be too. Because people can actually go there. It showed how hell makes the cross shine brighter and forces us into dependence on the gospel.
It also was incredibly challenging, especially in the last two chapters. It confronted me with the idea that I'm not the potter and I have no right to say what the potter should do. It's easy to forget that when studying this doctrine because we all have ideas of what we would do if we were God and what is the fair thing to do. But we aren't the potter, we're the clay. It was far more convicting than I expected.
Because of the conviction of not reading my own sense of what I think God should do into this doctrine and the re-grounding of my study in why this doctrine is so important, this book was essential. I don't know if it will convince anyone of one view or the other, but I don't think it's any less important to read because of that.
It is so easy to get lost in the weeds of a doctrine. To get lost trying to intellectually understand something. This book re-grounded me in the idea that Hell is a real place. That real people can go to. It emphasized why the Biblical authors and Jesus were so concerned about this doctrine and why we should be too. Because people can actually go there. It showed how hell makes the cross shine brighter and forces us into dependence on the gospel.
It also was incredibly challenging, especially in the last two chapters. It confronted me with the idea that I'm not the potter and I have no right to say what the potter should do. It's easy to forget that when studying this doctrine because we all have ideas of what we would do if we were God and what is the fair thing to do. But we aren't the potter, we're the clay. It was far more convicting than I expected.
Because of the conviction of not reading my own sense of what I think God should do into this doctrine and the re-grounding of my study in why this doctrine is so important, this book was essential. I don't know if it will convince anyone of one view or the other, but I don't think it's any less important to read because of that.