Chemotherapy and the Redemptionist View of Hell

Chemotherapy and the Redemptionist View of Hell  

The title has piqued some interest huh? 

Now that I have your attention I would like to share some thoughts on a rather delicate conversation in Western Christianity. That is the doctrine of Ultimate Restoration, or apokatastasis, a doctrine that has been present in Christianity since the earliest fathers, most notably in the writings of Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and Isaac the Syrian. While I appreciate each of these individual’s works on the subject I will not wax poetic about their writings and attempt to summarize their views in hopes that you, reader, will come to appreciate and understand their belief. Instead, I will follow in the method of Jesus and use parables and metaphor in hopes to explain a higher truth. 

For those of you who may not have heard my testimony, in my late 20's I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Lymphoma. To say that my world was upended is an understatement, I was a (fairly) healthy young husband, father, and minister who worked in the mental health field. Things like that didn’t happen to people in my shoes. I mean, I was fairly certain my wife wasn’t the subject of a Lifetime movie and I was too old to be the protagonist in the tear-jerker young adult novels who has an incurable disease but learns about love along the way. I learned rather quickly, that life isn’t like you watch or read, and the realities can be much more intense, but that is for another time. Let's get back on track, shall we?

Like everything in life, I looked at this as an opportunity. I wanted to see what I could learn about God working even in affliction, and I’m happy to say, although it took a few years I can say this with authority. 

Chemotherapy is Hell.

No, really, let me explain..

 Chemotherapy is the best analogy I can give for the Redemptionist view of Hell. I know that is confusing to some, but hopefully it will make sense after reading further. To give a brief summary, this view suggests that Hell is a state in which, as George MacDonald says 

"It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God." 

The fire of God’s own Spirit acts as a refining fire (Zech 13:9) burning away the impurities and leaving us like pure gold. 

I can already hear it, “When is he getting to the point?” we’re almost there I promise, but first, I have to discuss chemo. 

 I’m eternally grateful to my care team and to the chemotherapy, it's because of them that I’m sitting here writing this, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it, some of the most intensely painful and worst days I’ve had occurred during this timeframe. You see, chemo doesn’t just attack the bad cells and leave the rest untouched, it hits everything in its path, causing many of the lovely symptoms portrayed in the media, as well as many you don’t hear about, to occur. I can elaborate on it, but I will spare you the details for now. All the while it was killing the cancer it was making me feel like I was going down with it. Cancer doesn’t die quietly. I’m happy to say that over time however, after some seriously aggressive treatment I was able to walk out cured and healthy.  

 Now, to piece together what I hope most of you have already have but as promised will do so in the form of a parable

 Two men of similar health and age went to see their Dr. Both had began smoking at 18 and had similar patterns of use. Their Drs. told both of them that if they did not change their habits they would develop cancer. One took this to heart, laid down the habit and began looking after his health, reversing years of damage and living a long and happy life. The other however, ignored this and continued. He eventually developed cancer and had to undergo the treatments for it. After much time and pain he was told the cancer was gone, but lamented the time he had lost and his decisions that had led him there. 

You see, Christ is the great Physician, healing us in the here and now when we come into relationship with him we experience that refining fire in the process (not moment) we call salvation. As we do so voluntarily it acts much differently for us than for those that are exposed to it as Hell. As scripture says, when someone you consider an enemy does good to you “it will heap burning coals on their head” (Romans 12:20). You see, God is working to heal those whose sickness has consumed them, and as such, must burn it out much like chemo does to cancer. It is not torture, but healing, that occurs as God works to separate the sickness from the person, despite the way it feels in the moment there is no malice in Him as he works. Just as a good Dr acts to heal their patients despite side effects so too does God work to bring about our ultimate healing, and in doing so brings us into himself. There could be no better end.