Hell Beyond Hell, authored by medical-missionary Gerry Beauchemin, is an excellent book on God’s unconditional love, infinite mercy, and perfect justice. Due to its excellence, my endorsement is on the back of this book which cries out for a five-star rating. To begin with, the title is excellent in that it gives hope where almost all Christians have been indoctrinated that there is no hope for the vast majority of the human race whom God will judge, condemn, and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone wherein they will be tormented day and night forever and ever!
Richard Groves, a Roman Catholic, in his outstanding book, The American Book of Dying: Lessons in Healing Spiritual Pain, stated that hopelessness pain is a terminal condition for the human spirit. Such a sense of hopelessness, due to the false doctrine of eternal punishment, is what I have exposed with many real-life examples, as spiritual terrorism! Beauchemin wisely states that, far from hell being an absolutely hopeless existence in a state of eternal torture, the fire of hell is not literal and is for the purpose of correction which reveals God’s righteous judgment as implied in the subtitle. God, as a consuming fire, will consume sin which purifies sinners!
Beauchemin writes with clarity, conviction, compassion, and courage. He carefully, in great detail, cites relevant Biblical verses and lets the Holy Scriptures witness for themselves. He also uses the witness of the early church fathers: Irenaeus (130-200), Clement of Alexandria (150-215), Origen (185-254), Gregory of Nyssa (332-398 or 335-395), and other great early-church witnesses to the Biblical truth that evil will not continue forever and that God will become all in all. Gerry, likewise, uses the witness of the hymns of the church. Christians sing many songs about fire in a metaphorical sense: being baptized with fire, filled with fire, purged and refined by fire, trials by fire, saved by fire at the Judgment Seat of Christ, etc. but they lapse into soul-destroying literalism in regard to fire concerning judgment and God as fire. God, as fire, will thus destroy evil and reconcile the whole universe to God’s self! This is why the Gospel means Good News!
Gerry packed a great deal of valid information in 256 pages. His conclusion is that hell is a valid doctrine when the fire is properly understood to be metaphorical symbolizing purification. Conversely, hell is a false doctrine when the fire of hell is interpreted literally and is of eternal duration. The former would be God’s righteous judgment while the latter would clearly be unrighteous, unfair, and unjust especially for multitudes who have never heard the Gospel. This enlightening book also includes a section of frequently asked questions about hell which is comprehensive. This book is so good that it has my endorsement on the back of it.