Brian McLaren "Fourth, we should consider the possibility that many, and perhaps even all of Jesus’ hell-fire or end-of-the-universe statements refer not to postmortem judgment but to the very historic consequences of rejecting his kingdom message of reconciliation and peacemaking. The destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 67-70 seems to many people to fulfill much of what we have traditionally understood as hell."
blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2006/05/brian_mclarens_2.html
KingJames1 "To suggest that the same figurative usage pertains is to beg the question. Fourthly, the suggestion that we consider ‘the possibility’ that such language of judgment and fire be understood, not as postmortem damnation, but as the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 is, theoretically, good and fine. I have personally considered it, and find it untenable. But now who has ‘reduced’ the very ‘metaphorical language’ of Jesus on hell (certainly ‘Gehenna’ itself, as a designation of the place of judgment, is metaphorical or analogical) to a ‘concrete’ reality (i.e., the Roman destruction of the Temple)? Man, how unspiritual of McLaren!"
http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/912
