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To the editor:
Interestingly the passage Pastor John Burke chose to quote (Rappahannock News, April 19) to prove that there is a literal hell informs us that the saved go to some place called “Abraham’s bosom,” when they pass away. Is that also a real and literal bosom?
Jesus was prone to speak in parables and was a great storyteller as well. A recent movie on television showed that a rendition of The Prodigal Son can be as enthralling nowadays as when it was first told! But no one would suggest that Jesus spoke of a real and literal son and his father, or that if you don’t do right you’ll end up eating literal pig husks.
His stories were used to illustrate a point. But Jesus didn’t make up wild, avantgarde fiction, rather he used everyday ideas held by people of the time. Hence, Abraham’s bosom and hell.
The point of the story is contained in the last lines and it is in the prophetic irony that someone would indeed come back from the dead and would not be believed. The Jews would believe neither their own prophets — who spoke of “the pit” or hell, nor Christ, who said that if he were “raised up” on the cross he would draw all men to him.
The child of God chooses eternal life. Perhaps early at five or six, or later, even after he or she is clinically dead. Five minutes after you “die” your mind may still be active, still making choices as it passes through dreams and visions not unlike that of being the rich man in hell or the poor man in Abraham’s bosom.
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