The Word We Are Retiring.
Here is a verse a great many of you could recite from memory.
Psalm 139:8 (KJV)
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Now read it the way most modern Christians would hear it.
God is in hell.
Not looking in from a safe distance. Not passing through on His way somewhere else. There. Present. Making Himself known in the place most of us were raised to picture as a furnace of fire and torment, staffed by demons, ruled by the devil, and as far from God as a creature can possibly get.
If that is what the word means, the verse makes no sense at all. Let's trace the roots of the word and talk about why I think it should be retired from all theological usage.
Outstanding job!
Thank you!