A Quick Response to Stephen Fry

At the moment, Stephen Fry is trending on Facebook. Why? Because He explained that he wouldn’t want to get into heaven, the home of “a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God.”

I don’t understand why so many people are surprised or shocked at his statement. In “Renovation of the Heart,” the late Dr. Dallas Willard writes: “Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent” (p. 57).

I think Stephen Fry would completely agree with this statement. Heaven is not attractive to him because his idea of God is not attractive to him. Why enter a place where there is a person you could not stand?

Now some people might concur with the preceding logic but question if any biblical evidence supports this assertion. Let me give three brief examples.

When God pours out judgment on the unrepentant, Revelation 16:9 states, “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”

In Rabbinic thought, the prevalent biblical expression, “gnashing of teeth,” used to describe the reaction to the experience of hell entails anger not anguish (p. 159 of “The Fire That Consumes” by William Edward Fudge).

In Luke 16:19-21, Jesus told a story about a rich man in hell. He pleads for water to cool his tongue and for someone to warn his family. Jesus does not tell us that he pleaded for mercy on his soul. He desired relief, not repentance.

Lastly, please note that I wrote that heaven is not attractive to Stephen Fry because of his idea of God. He may have some evidence that demands his reason to reject God, but that evidence might also be misconstrued or misinterpreted. From a Christian worldview, there is a link between our idyllic desires and the disappointments in this world.

It begins with Adam’s sin. Genesis 2:16 states, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Further Genesis 3:6 states, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Consequently, Adam through sin brought death, disease, and natural disasters upon humanity. Genesis 3:17 states, “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it;’ Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.’”

Until this day, we continue to ratify Adam’s sin through our own decisions and all of humanity continues to experience the curse on creation, suffer, and die. If God were to prevent children from getting cancer, God would be withdrawing our free choice and the steadfastness of His Word. Seeing the horror of rebellion should cause Stephen Fry not to hate God but sin.