Hell

I thought I'd start with something light, (I'm referring to the length of the book, not the topic!) reading Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle's, Erasing Hell: What God said about Eternity and the things we made up. 
The book has been described as "ground breaking."  While I have read larger tomes on the topic, the book is timely. With several references to Rob Bell's, Love Wins, the book serves as a needed counter-voice to our fingers-crossed hope that all will be saved.  Erasing Hell leaves us with no doubt that the bible takes hell seriously.
The line in the book that resonated with me most strongly was the reminder that "This is not just about doctrine; it's about destinies."  If we eliminate hell, or reduce it to some innocuous state of nothingness, we will be ignoring much biblical evidence to the contrary.  But perhaps even worse, if we deny hell, then we have minimized the work of Jesus.  Our alienation from God was so big, so all encompassing, and the destiny that awaited us was so horrific that God was prepared to pay the ultimate price to rescue his people from "that place."  Really, why would Jesus have willingly died such a torturous death if what awaited sinners was some nirvana-ish state of nothingness?

Hell - it is serious business. The Bible takes it seriously.  Jesus took it seriously.  So should we.