Thank you.

Theology can be quite confusing. Hot air, of course, rises but it also cools as it rises. At any rate dig deep enough and the heat will generally be hotter from the molten material than it can be from rising air, so physics can be confusing too.

It is my opinion that heaven and hell are metaphors as such they can have many meanings. Symbols of possibilities (what could be if we track this way of that). Symbols of realities (the consequences of tracking one way or another). Symbols of explanations for the unexplainable. You can explore what they mean for you, how they help you understand and experience God, meanings that may change over time.

The law of nature may require both a positive and negative, but, that does not mean that we are required to have both positive and negative events in our lives or in the way we live. Religion in the end is about relationships with God, with self with others. I believe that God calls us to loving just and righteous relationships (positive) for me this is God’s present immanence in the world
Christians often call in the work of the Holy Spirit or Christ within. Such callings toward the positive are conversely callings away from the negative. These are not so much science as they are morals and ethics. Confusing science with theology can be a slippery slope, as science has accepted norms for application developed over time. Theology is not science, although some would like to apply fundamental “laws” to God it just can’t be done and in the end leads to confusion. I believe that we live and breath and have our being in God. From our location we can only glimpse a small bit of God in nature and so science can only help us understand a small portion of God. I believe that science is the result of creation, a past immanence of God setting things in motion. Gravity. Earth. Day. Night. Life. Evolution. Etc.

The laws of nature are set. God does not mess with them for whatever reason –otherwise. In that respect I would agree that that part of God “cannot be changed.” But God changes in my view all the time. If God responds to our acts or our prayers that is change.

I believe that the bible is a Sacred text that points us toward God through the stories and echos of others’ experiences with God. The bible is not in my opinion God. It does not claim to be either God, nor does it claim to be infallible, or the words dictated by God. Humans in their own place and time told stories, wrote laws and they eventually got put together after translations and oral alterations. The words we read today are not even the words the original authors even put down. They are sometimes translations of translations of bits and pieces.

It can al be very confusing. In the end you get to believe what you want. I would not presume to cannot tell you what to think or what to believe. I will tell you that I think and believe that God is calling us all in every given moment to the ultimate Truth, that God is love and that we are to live in loving relationship with God, our self and others. I think hell is the symbol of the results of our
failures (together and alone) to answer that call, and that heaven is the symbol of what results when we answer that call!

Rev. Scott Elliott