More Women in Hell

The title of this post is not talking about the hell that many women find themselves in here on earth.  (My wife was just reading to me a few pages from Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls in which the author, Dr. Mary Pipher, remembers counseling an adolescent girl, who says, because of her father's abuse:  "He had lots of ways to break a person's spirit....  my home life was hell....  Dad brought a girlfriend home and Mom tried to kill herself.")  The hell in the title is the one that doctrine-conscious Christians are arguing over these days.  Doctrine is important, they say.  Which makes me wonder about women.  Does the Bible say anything about women in hell?


Well, they'll be saved in childbearing, says one verse.  Saved from hell?  Maybe not, says Andreas J. Köstenberger in his CBMW article, "Saved Through Childbearing? A Fresh Look at 1 Timothy 2:15 Points to Protection from Satan’s Deception."  He goes on to explain "saved" as "kept safe from the allurement of Satan" (who will go to the doctrinely-defined Hell) and "childbearing" as more, as also "adhering to, and finding fulfillment in, their Godgiven role centering on the family and the home":

1 Timothy 2:15 does not merely contain an obscure, situation-bound injunction for women in Timothy's Ephesus at the end of the first century A.D. It is grounded in the wise counsel of the Creator and pertains to the sphere of the outworking of our salvation in this life. How are women kept safe from the allurement of Satan? How are they to avoid falling into temptation as Eve, the mother of women, did? By adhering to, and finding fulfillment in, their Godgiven role centering on the family and the home.

So is there no biblical discussion of women in hell?  Isn't the doctrine of literal hell good for something?  Timothy Keller writes that it is:  "4. The doctrine of hell is important because it is the only way to know how much Jesus loved us and how much he did for us."  Isn't that why it was so very very important for Jesus to make this doctrine of literal hell very very clear to women?  Isn't that exactly how females knew how much Jesus loved them and how they were convinced of how much he did for them?  Didn't he sit them down and make them read his doctrines on literal Hell?

In correct doctrine, literal hell does contain more women than men.  But, to be sure, this is a literal reading of some teachers' doctrine.  (Isn't it all interpretation, this doctrine, this literal hell?)  Well, here it is, that so called correct doctrine:

MUHAMMAD:  commanded his male followers to beat their disobedient wives.  He gave men the right to beat their wives who persistently disobeyed them.

     Sura 4:34  "As those you fear may be rebellious admonish, banish them to their couches, and beat them."

            The above verse was revealed in connection with a woman who complained to Muhammad that her husband slapped her on the face, which was still marked by the slap.  At first Muhammad said to her "Get even with him", but then added 'Wait until I think about it". Later on the above verse was revealed, and Muhammad added, 'We (He and the woman) wanted one thing, Allah wanted another.

The Hadith also said much about women:

            Muhammad said that women are generally so evil, that they will make up the majority of people in to hell.  Continuing with Bukhari,

Vol. 1, #301:  "O women!  Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women).  They [women] asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle?"  He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands."

Bukhari Vol. 1, #28:  "The Prophet said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful."  It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" (or are they ungrateful to Allah?), he replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good done to them...."

Sahih Muslim says they are the minority in Paradise:

Volume 4, #6600:  "Imran Husain reported that Allah's messenger said:  Amongst the inmates of Paradise the women would form a minority."

            By putting these two Hadith together, we find that Muhammad said that women were the minority in Paradise, and the majority in hell.  Therefore it is not a statistical ratio due to the possibility that there are more women than men.  Muhammad viewed women as more sinful than men.  And the reason more women are in hell is because the women were ungrateful to their husbands!

Muhammad also declared that women are less intelligent than men:

Bukhari, Volume 1, #301:

            "...Then he (Muhammad) passed by the women and said, "O women, give alms as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)."  they asked, "Why is it so O Allah's messenger?"  He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands.  I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you.  A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you."  The women asked, "O Allah's messenger, what is deficient in our intelligence and religion?"  He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?"  They replied in the affirmative.  He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence....."

Oh right.  So hell is literal.  But only if it's in the bible, and only if Jesus uses it to show us his love by it.   So literal Hell doctrine is how love wins.  And, well, we'll just have to figure out how women are saved later.  In the mean time, they'll do better to be better in their homes (and don't worry if Father or Husband is making it hell for her).