This gospel story begins to give rise to some radical contrasts with the caricature. As we will see in the coming chapters, God is not the one who unleashes hell’s destruction; we are (chapter 2). Hell’s location is not “underground” but rather “outside the kingdom” (chapter 3). Hell is not a place God creates to torture people, but a power God excludes to protect the flourishing of the new creation (chapter 4). Its construction is not a chamber God locks from the outside, but a coffin we latch from the inside through our desire for freedom from God (chapters 5 and 6).
