Eliminating Satan and Hell
Affirming a Compassionate Creator-God
- Theology
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2014
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Publisher's Description
This book is written for millions of people who have been taught to fear the myths of Satan and Hell, and millions of others who reject the concepts and wish reassurances. When a Lutheran groom and his lovely Harvard-educated bride stood before me, would she eventually go to Hell because she is a Hindu and not a Christian? Is there really a Satan and a Hell, and is our Creator that cruel? It was then that Donald Emmel began his intensive study of the myths of Satan and Hell. Emmel's research reveals that through misunderstandings and mistranslations we have ended up with a cranky, punishing Creator that is not in the Hebrew canon, nor the Gospels, nor the authentic letters of Paul. Emmel concludes that Jesus and Paul retained the Hebrew canon's concepts of hassatan as an adversary working with God, and sheol and gehenna as places of death. In explaining our world today, we must not fly in the face of the vast scientific knowledge, which we utilize but which the ancient mythmakers did not. The ancient myths of Satan as a destructive god, and Hell as punishment for sinners, no longer have validity in the world we now embrace and should therefore be eliminated from our theologies.
Endorsements (3)
“Emmel's book offers an indispensable survey of the emergence of the concepts of Satan and hell as they appear in the writings of both the Old and New Testaments. By locating their origin in the myths that constructed the social and religious world of antiquity, Emmel discloses the contextual limitations of these mythical realities in their historical life-situation, and at the same time, their theological irrelevance for the world of today.”
“Don Emmel is waging a long-overdue battle against the devil and his lair. His research shows how original Hebrew teachings changed when they were translated into Greek and then Latin, and how, once entrenched into doctrine, a complete reversal of Jesus's theology came to be standard Christian orthodoxy. Emmel thinks it's time to correct the record. You will agree with him as you close the book.”
“Drawing on a wonderful pastoral sense and thorough scholarship, Emmel has helped free us from ideas of hell and Satan used to intimidate and control; and in the process has given a vision of a compassionate, loving God you and I can believe in.”
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