Rob Bell, Hell, Thin Ice, and the "Scare 'Em" Strawman Fallacy

What prompted this line of thought was a recent news item that declared the ice on Lake Winnebago to be dreadfully thin at this season when the annual sturgeon run was at hand.  The yearly ice-shanty villages that dot the northern edge of this sizable lake seem threatened.  Those 100-200 lb. brutes of the depths seem to have been spared the fate of the spearer.  Growing up living near this lake had been my fondest boyhood memories, including fishing its shorelines, swimming its beaches, skipping stones onto its surface, and walking the ice.

I have considered the work of the evangelical Rob Bell in his recent book Love Wins, and his rationale for dismissing the realms of eternal punishment.  Hell, to Bell, seems inconsistent with the idea of a loving God, and even faced with the necessity of dealing with a perfectly just God, Hell would be overkill.  To many who flinch at the concept of Hell, the notions of annihilation or a temporary stay in the Inferno are palatable options.  The insistence on the reality of Hell is touted by some to be a loveless message, a strategy to hold people fear-bound in the pews or scare them into fellowship.  It is in treating this misconception that I turn to this topic, and neatly try to explain what the first paragraph of this blog has to do with the second.

I stated that I grew up near Lake Winnebago, the proud resident of Neenah, Wisconsin.  Check Google Earth to get the lay of this land.  This wonder of a lake is 30 miles north to south, six miles at its widest stretch, and is remarkably shallow for its dimensions, 21 feet at best.  Near my section of Lake Winnebago flows the Fox River south and north of Doty Island.  For me, it was a trick to be walking on the ice near this confluence of river and lake.  We had to be very wary in reading the ice.  The whiter, the thicker.  And never, ever go near sections of "black ice."  It had "thin" written all over it.  It had gotten to be a simple matter to determine how many inches of ice by viewing the particular shade of white, and we were quick to notice the graying of ice, an indication that warm weather was beginning to decay the ice.  We noted the evenings when the winds were strengthening in the transitional months of February and March, and we marveled at the heights of the ice jams that forced themselves on the western shores of the lake, 15 to 20 feet high.  Armed with that knowledge, it was rather safe for an ice savvy person to walk the ice.  As a boy, I swung far away from the suspicious ice near the entrance of the Fox River at Kimberly Point to walk to Doty Island.  Could one go through the ice on Winnebago?  Certainly, but such a one would not have been able to read the ice at that moment.

So what does this have to do with the fear factor in dealing with Hell?  Much.  To a Texan or a Floridian, the idea of walking on areas where there may be thin ice may be a fearsome concept, but perhaps also an idea that would not simply cross the mind.  To one uninfomed of walking on ice covered lakes, such people who do would appear to be terrible risk takers.  Except to the knowledgeable, such walking has no risks.  We become alert to the situations, and are safe.  In the same way, Hell is a reality to the one who takes Scriptures seriously, but not much of one.  Hell is a doctrine that the Bible teaches, and it should be taught.  But not as a scare tactic or to prompt stable and increased membership in the Church.  But as a truth with consequences, a fair warning, a lesson in walking the ice.  A danger that is there, but not threatening to the initiate.  To the Christian, Hell is for those who wish separation from God, a logical consequence for choosing poorly.  But what type of fellow would choose poorly if s/he would acknowledge a better option? If we all worry about getting to Heaven, the simple answer is to find out how one gains access there. 

Finding that answer may be the most pleasant one has in life.  No one fears going through the ice if they are smart about it.