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128 reviews for:
Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up
Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle
3.67 AVERAGE
128 reviews for:
Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We've Made Up
Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle
3.67 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Francis Chan takes us carefully, and compassionately, through a study of what the Bible and Jesus really said about Hell. Although this is a relatively short book it's still an excellent read; he covers differing opinions, and offers historical evidence as well as Biblical evidence to back up his conclusions. I also appreciated his honest thoughts and personal admissions about what he wanted to find. The tone of the book is friendly and low-key, almost as if he's sitting on the other side of your kitchen table, as he deals with this unpopular topic.
I didn’t disagree with anything in this book hence the 2 stars. However, I’m unclear who the intended audience is. The book’s first 4 chapters are by and large an effort to prove a real hell exists. I have never doubted the existence of hell, and I have not met many spiritual people who do. On the other end Chan suggested studying the original meaning of Greek words to understand passages on hell. However, the reader was not able to join that study at all. He simply defined the words again ‘based on the greek’. I felt like this book assumed too little of the reader. Readers can study theology not just be told what to believe. Chan did have a challenge to take hell more seriously which was good, but the overall lack of learning I experienced in this book frustrated me.
I really enjoyed this book. The conversation surrounding hell and universalism is truly fascinating and...sobering? I think its important to search for Truth and the perspective of others helps along the way - but ultimately, if we get knee-deep in the study ourselves, we'll have confidence in our convictions. So, as always, I take this book with gratefulness, but am encouraged to continue my personal study surrounding myself with like-thinkers and unalike-thinkers!
But it's good to have collected in one place many passages from the Bible that anyone who wants to believe in universal reconciliation must explain. And at least Chan is honest about not wanting to believe in
Also, in at least two places Chan mentions needing to keep the book to a reasonable length or not having time or space to discuss something more fully, but the whole thing (not counting the excerpt from another book at the end) is a paltry 176 pages, including end matter, with the first page of the preface numbered 11 and two and a half to four essentially blank pages between each consecutive pair of chapters (which seems like a scheme to inflate the page count so they could publish it more quickly), so
Edit (Wed 19 Jan 2022 06:18:02 AM CST): I thought I could read this on my second go-around with an open mind. I thought I might even be able to upgrade my rating from one star out of appreciation for Chan's honesty and commitment to finding the truth. But I found that I couldn't. It's not sufficiently rigorous, and more importantly, the God this book depicts is simply monstrous. I used to believe in that God. I don't any longer. Maybe one day I will again. But right now I can't. I even have to concede that this book may be essentially correct. But if it is, I cannot help being wrong. I suppose that might mean that I am reprobate. So it goes.
Anyway, with all that stuff fresh in my mind, now I'm ready to read [b:Universal Salvation?: The Current Debate|922535|Universal Salvation? The Current Debate|Robin Allinson Parry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348718239l/922535._SX50_.jpg|907561]. That should be more fun.
I have to confess: I don’t connect with Francis Chan as a writer. His writing is conversational in much the same way my voice to text text messages are conversational. I appreciate his dedication to the word of God – even if it doesn’t say what he wants it to say. I appreciate that he didn’t come at this book from a merely academic point of view, but rather With an understanding that this is a discussion about people and relationship with Almighty God and that their future is what stake.
At the beginning of the appendix he writes that these are some questions that have largely been brushed over in order to focus on the broader purposes of the book. However, I feel that the book would have benefited from these questions being addressed within the book itself. Also if you take into account spacing, blank pages, and the like, this would be a very short book. I feel like the publisher did everything they could to make sure it reached 200 pages. But in reality it could’ve been condensed to 100–no problem.
That being said, Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle come down on the side of hell as a real place, most likely with eternal conscious torment, and definitely no universalism.
At the beginning of the appendix he writes that these are some questions that have largely been brushed over in order to focus on the broader purposes of the book. However, I feel that the book would have benefited from these questions being addressed within the book itself. Also if you take into account spacing, blank pages, and the like, this would be a very short book. I feel like the publisher did everything they could to make sure it reached 200 pages. But in reality it could’ve been condensed to 100–no problem.
That being said, Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle come down on the side of hell as a real place, most likely with eternal conscious torment, and definitely no universalism.
The last half of the book is what salvaged the experience for me. It was outlined very well with Biblical evidence on what Hell is and what it says about who goes. However, I think this work is more for those who are brand new to the faith or who don’t consider themselves believers, as it’s very baseline understanding.
This book had a lot of good theological information, answered a lot of questions in a very clear cut and helpful way. My only issue with this book was it's slow pace. Hell is weighty topic, but the material was very dry at times. There were times it was hard to continue plowing through the book.
thoroughly biblical, deeply challenging and immensely convicting.
Those are the phrases that come to mind when summing up this book. Chan and Sprinkle do a great job of looking through the Bible for what it says about Hell, all the while making sure that we keep in mind that this topic is not just theological head knowledge, but it actually affects billions of people, because if hell is real, tonnes of people are heading there, but they don't have to because of Jesus' death on the cross and the free gift of God of mercy, grace and salvation.
Those are the phrases that come to mind when summing up this book. Chan and Sprinkle do a great job of looking through the Bible for what it says about Hell, all the while making sure that we keep in mind that this topic is not just theological head knowledge, but it actually affects billions of people, because if hell is real, tonnes of people are heading there, but they don't have to because of Jesus' death on the cross and the free gift of God of mercy, grace and salvation.
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Another greatly informative and thoughtfully written book by Francis Chan.