Hell. How hot will it get? How loud will the screams be? Was Dante correct in suggesting there will be different levels there? Is the whole concept biblical anyway, or to put it another way is hell real? Tough questions and as yet I have few answers. But I have been doing some thinking and reading and being the clever sod that I am, I’ll get there. (Just in case you missed it, there was some irony in that last sentence.)

One book that briefly deals with the subject is Colin Gunton’s The Christian Faith – an introduction to some core Christian beliefs. He begins his treatment of hell with the story in Genesis 18 about Abraham’s intercession for Sodom when God had said he was going to destroy the place because of its sin. The upshot of the account is that God promised to save the city if there were ten righteous men to be found there. That is, the ten were not going to escape the city and then God destroys all the evil people left there, but for the sake of the ten he would save the whole community in spite of their evil.

It’s clear that Gunton sees the ten as a type in this story – and that we, followers of Jesus today, act in a similar priestly role in our nations and communities. ‘Could it be,’ he asks, ‘that so long as all the nations contain at least “ten” of the justified, their fellow citizens will in some way along with them all be perfected before the throne of grace?’ (page 166).

Of course in Genesis 19 Sodom gets zapped. But that was because all of its citizens were involved in the sin of intending to rape the visitors (19:4). Ten could not be found to act as priests for the rest.

Lots of questions flow from this. Any thoughts?