Southern Baptists affirm belief in ‘eternal’ hell

Southern Baptists delivered a group rebuttal to Michigan pastor Rob
Bell for writing a book that questions traditional views of hell.

Their
resolution, calling hell an "eternal, conscious punishment" for those
who do not accept Jesus, urges Southern Baptists "to proclaim faithfully
the depth and gravity of sin against a holy God, the reality of hell,
and the salvation of sinners by God's grace alone, through faith alone,
in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone."

Several leaders
at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Phoenix  in mid-June
coupled warnings about hell with pleas for evangelism—especially in
areas where there are no churches or missionaries. Statistical declines
in recent years have already spurred a focus on evangelism, and Bell's
book sparked calls for greater effort.

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"Is hell real? Is hell
forever? Did God really say sinners would perish in eternal torment
forever and ever?" asked pastor and author David Platt of Birmingham,
Alabama. "Oh, readers of Rob Bell and others like him, listen very
carefully, be very cautious, when anyone says, 'Did God really say
this?'"

Bell's book, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived,
released in March, criticizes the "misguided" view that "select
Christians" will live forever in heaven while the rest of humanity will
suffer eternal torment in a punishing hell. "At the center of the
Christian tradition since the first church has been the insistence that .
. . hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins," Bell wrote.

SBC
president Bryant Wright prayed that fellow Baptists would take to heart
the statement that they passed on hell. "Father, because the reality of
hell is so real, the permanent separation from you is so real, and our
hours here on this earth are so limited, we pray that you will give us a
fresh sense of conviction of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ," he
prayed right after the resolution was adopted June 15.

On the
first day of business, the nation's largest Protestant denomination
elected Fred Luter, a black pastor from New Orleans, as first vice
president, the second-highest office in the SBC. Luter is already being
talked about as a prime candidate for president next year. "It's a great
feeling," Luter said in an interview, comparing his election to the
accolades he received when he was tapped as the first African American
to give the convention sermon in 2001.

The mostly white
denomination, which traces its roots to Civil War-era defense of
slavery, voted June 14 on specific measures to increase the ethnic
diversity of its top leadership—which Luter cited as a genuine shift. "I
think the change is that the denomination is purposely at the point
where we know we have to open up the doors for more ethnics to be
involved in leadership roles in the convention," he said.

As for a
possible presidency, Luter said he's not campaigning. "I do hear the
people talking," he said. "They talk to me about it. But I've been
telling them, 'Let's just take this one day at a time, one year at a
time.'"

After heated debate, Southern Bap­tists adopted a
resolution that supports a path to citizenship for undocumented
immigrants but clearly states that they reject "amnesty." The statement
called for secure borders and "a just and compassionate path to legal
status, with appropriate restitutionary measures" for illegal immigrants
already in the U.S.

Some delegates said the language on "legal
status" was tantamount to amnesty, prompting an almost equally divided
vote over whether to remove it. In response, officials added language
that said: "This resolution is not to be construed as support for
amnesty for any undocumented immigrant."

In other business, the Baptists passed resolutions that:

• Decried
  public "speech or activities" that bring "shame upon the name of Christ
  and his gospel," citing individuals and groups who have protested
  funerals, burned Qur'ans and prayed for the deaths of public officials.
• Criticized
  any governmental "coercive measure," including restrictive zoning laws,
  that aim to limit religious speech or worship, and affirmed the liberty
  to "convert to another religion or to no religion."  —RNS