In this chapter of the McLaren saga, I intend to simply address one thing, and so it may not take as long as the reviews of the other chapters. Or maybe it will. If somebody puts the nickel in, maybe I will just go off. This chapter is on why McLaren is “missional.”
And of course, one of the issues that comes up when we consider the Christian faith going out into the world is the fundamental question of why. What will happen if we don’t? Do they really need us to get there with our stirring message that “they were all doing great already?” This matter of hell is a question that McLaren not only does not want to answer, but gets decidedly peeved when people bring it up. “But what about heaven and hell? you ask. Is everybody in? My reply: Why do you consider me qualified to make this pronouncement? Isn’t this God’s business?” (p. 112).
Yes, it is God’s business. So let me add one other pertinent question. “Didn’t God write a book and tell us?” Nobody around here is maintaining that religious conservatives have the right to invent a doctrine of hell in order to satisfy their own sadism. And nobody is asking McLaren to provide a roster of elect and reprobate, who specifically is in and who out. God did not put that in His Scriptures, but He did put the fact of hell in His Scriptures. God wrote a book, and McLaren knows how to read. And so he should simply say, “Yes, the doctrine of hell is a predominant theme in the teaching of Jesus.” Jesus Christ is largely the one responsible for putting this particular ball in motion, and McLaren could do a little better than upbraid those Christians who can read (like he can) who are still kicking it around. The doctrine of hell is a fixed doctrine in the scriptural narrative (to use a good postmodern word), and some postmodern Christians need to learn how to read through this narrative without skipping over their icky parts.
Having said this, and having affirmed the existence of hell as a place of eternal conscious torment, and acknowledging that numerous people go there, I want to say that I affirm this precisely because Jesus is Lord, and not Mascot. This is not a doctrine that faithful Christians affirm because they get their jollies from contemplating what happens to those who go there. St. Paul confessed with tears that many were enemies of the cross of Christ.
And having said this, there is another element to the scriptural narrative that many conservative believers really have missed. No, not the reality of hell, but I believe most evangelicals are wrong about the comparative size of it. There are other sections in the scriptural narrative, sections that are just as clear as the portions that describe hell for us, and these sections really are mysteriously neglected. In Protestant history, this was not always the case, and I long for a return to a more generous and full view of what God’s declared plans for our planet actually are. But this generosity we long for is not a matter of sinful people deserving the gospel, because we don’t deserve the gospel. It is all sheer, unadulterated, everlasting, efficacious grace.
Jesus came to save the world, and when the thing is done, the world will in fact be saved. He didn’t come to give saving the world the old college try; He came to save the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He is the Savior of the world. He is the Light that enlightens every man. The earth will fill up with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. All ends of earth will turn back to the Lord, and remember Him, and be saved. When the ensign of Jesse is lifted up, all the nations will stream to Him. From east to west, the name of the Lord will be praised. The water flows out over the threshold of Ezekiel’s temple, and the whole world is destined for a gracious inundation. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. This is why Jesus told us to disciple the nations.
When God is done with His gracious intervention, the number of the saved is going to far exceed the number of the lost. Why? Because the human race deserves to be saved? No, because God is piling grace upon grace in this sorry mess of a world. Is the vast majority of humanity going to be saved because some squishy missionaries go native, and start wondering if the pagans have a thing or two to teach us? No, they will be saved because Jesus died for the sins of the world, and He did so efficaciously. Will the human race come to Christ because a bunch of spoiled emergent rich kids decided to give up on the outdated notion of objective truth? No, they will be saved because countless believing missionaries will go out preaching the objective truth that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, and yes, sorry, this sounds like a metanarrative because it is one, and He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, suffered, bled and died on the cross, was laid in a tomb, and three days later broke forth from that tomb. This happened in time, in history, and caused quite a bit of consternation the Sunday morning after it happened. You see, it happened on the first day of the week, an actual day of the week. We still have those, and we worship on that day precisely because it is not a truth contained within one of our little bounded narratives. This is not a local truth; it is the salvation of the world. It is the only possible salvation of the world, and it is the salvation that God promised would come to the world. This is Christ and Him crucified, and this is life from the dead for a world living in death.
And yes, McLaren is right when he sees that the evangelical church at large doesn’t believe this. But they don’t refuse to believe it because they are stingy. Every Christian heart would be delighted if this postmillennial vision were true, as I believe it is. I believe that this is the grace of God for our world with every bone in my body, even counting those little ones in the ear. But many of us have been taught that God does not intend to save the vast majority of the human race, and this is what they are convinced the Bible says. Because of our shared commitment to the objective revelation of God in Scripture, I would hope to convince my amill and premill brothers that we have some glorious times ahead of us as Christ is effectually brought to the nations. He really is the Desire of Nations.
But the instrument that God will use to do this great thing is the preaching of His everlasting, holy, infallible, righteous, merciful truth. Take away the objectivity and authority of that truth and you have taken away the only hope the nations could possibly have. And you may take away their gospel hope in the name of your “inclusion,” but you still have taken it away.