Jesus and the Other Place
What the Bible
really says about Hell
and the difference this makes
to our evangelism and pastoral care
Paul Hazelden
with a foreword by Roger Forster
I am asking for your help ...
A loving God – tormenting the lost?
What is the fate of those who reject God? Do you believe that your Heavenly Father will torment them for all eternity? Do you believe that the King Who commands you to love your enemies will inflict unending pain on His enemies?
Many Christians do believe this, and a great many other people reject the Christian gospel because they think the God we are inviting them to worship is a sadistic monster. Untold numbers of good, faithful followers of Jesus have suffered sleepless nights because they are tormented by the thought of the suffering being experienced by loved ones they have lost.
The people who believe in eternal torment generally do so because they think it is what the Bible teaches; when they read the Bible, because this is what they are expecting, they see eternal torment in many passages which talk about nothing of the sort.
Many Christians are both relieved and astonished when they discover that there is not a single passage of Scripture which teaches that people who reject God will suffer eternal torment – and there are many passages which explicitly tell a very different story.
It turns out that people are rejecting God on the basis of a doctrine which was not taught and not believed by Jesus, Peter, John, Paul or any of the early Church Fathers. Christians are struggling with their faith and struggling to talk about their faith because a message of love for the whole world has been turned into a message of love only for those who end up on the right side.
I have written a short, readable book, Jesus and the Other Place, about what the Bible actually tells us about Hell, and the difference this makes to our evangelism and pastoral care. People tell me it’s a good book, but it can still be improved. And that is where I need your help.
What do you think about eternal torment? Does the subject matter to you? If so, why? Do you have a personal story or anecdote you would be willing to share with me? And – if you have read the book – what do you think of it?
Please answer these questions, or as many as you are comfortable with, by following the link here: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6YGFNG9. Obviously, if you have any technical advice, I would also be very grateful to receive it - good contacts in the publishing world, advice on creating an ebook, recommendations about Print On Demand publishers to use (or avoid!) - anything like that. Again, thanks.
For a short time, you can download a copy of the latest draft of the book by following the links below.
Thank you very much for your help. I believe (as do many others) that the doctrine of eternal torment is a completely unnecessary barrier to the gospel for many people, and completely distorts the character of God. This topic matters. Whatever else you do, please pray.
One final detail: I am available to preach, talk or lead a discussion, at a Sunday service or other gathering. “What the Bible says about Heaven and Hell” is one possible topic. If you don’t have my contact details, you can use this form: http://mad-bristol.org.uk/contact/.
Background
A copy of Jesus and the Other Place has been sent to 34 people (possibly more - I don't always remember to add people to the list), plus a number of publishers. The feedback from the people has been uniformly encouraging; the feedback from the publishers to date has been uniformly discouraging.
Around 20 people have provided feedback, some of which has been quite extensive, and all of it has been helpful: I am very grateful for all of it. There has been a bit of disagreement about some details (mostly: which bits are more important than others, and in what order various bits of the content should appear) but there has been a high level of agreement about the style and overall content.
Feedback from the potential publishers, on the other hand, has been contradictory: it ought to be longer, or much shorter; it ought to include more of the technical details (references to other books, details of the Greek, Hebrew and historic context of the original writings) or it ought to cut out all the technical bits completely. There is, at present, no offer from a publisher, and I am reluctant to put in a lot more work in the hope that it will make the book more publishable, especially given the lack of agreement about what 'more publishable' actually means.
My fallback position is that I will release The Other Place as an electronic book, and maybe as a 'Print On Demand' paperback, if I can't find a publisher. But I plan to continue to look for a 'proper' publisher, for a little while at least: this is partly because it will give the work greater credibility, but more because the publisher will publicise it in ways that I cannot - I don't have the contacts or the time and money.
Request
I honestly don't know what to do next, so I'm asking you for your thoughts and opinions on the book, and on the subject it covers. Even if you have given me some feedback already, please can you fill in a very short response form? Thank you very much. You can find it here: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6YGFNG9.
Obviously, if you have any technical advice, I would also be very grateful to receive it - good contacts in the publishing world, advice on creating an ebook, recommendations about Print On Demand publishers to use (or avoid!) - anything like that. Again, thanks.
Download
If you would like to download the latest version of the book, for a short time you can do so here. When I get close to publishing - by whatever means - it will have to be removed. It is available in four formats: Word, OpenDocument (LibreOffice and OpenOffice), A4 PDF and A5 PDF. You can, of course, use either the Word or the OpenDocument file to print on any size paper you like. If you really want an electronic book format as well, let me know (and let me know the format) and I'll see what I can do.
I give you permission to download these files for your personal use. You can pass one or more of them on to friends and family as part of this exercise in gathering feedback and responses to the book and to the subject it covers: please ask them to fill in the response form too. Thank you.
The current version is 10.51, uploaded 16 July 2018.
The previous version was 9.22 (or 9.23 for the A5 PDF), uploaded 7 January 2018.
The previous version was 9.6, uploaded 5 December 2017.
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