TURNING IT OVER TO THE SADDUCEES

The Lutheran Church has discovered a sizeable percentage of their employees don't believe in many core teachings, including hell:

Nearly a fifth of the Evangelical Lutheran Church's employees have serious doubts about some of the religion's teachings. Most of the sceptics are the Church's own ministers.

In particular, they called into question the existence of Hell and the validity of the Apocalypse as described in the book of Revelations. They also had their doubts when it came to the virgin birth of Jesus and the existence of miracles.

The doubters did place their faith in the teachings most central to Christianity, such as the resurrection of Christ.

It always puzzled me why someone who believes in the resurrection would ever have a problem with the virgin birth or miracles. If God can bring someone back from the dead then surely He could provide for a virgin birth or the healing of the sick. And the same source I go to to learn about the resurrection tells me about the virgin birth and the other miracles.

Of course, when it comes to the doctrine of hell, it's always nicely convenient not to believe in it. And as for "Revelations" (or, as the Bible calls it, Revelation) it depends on whose reading of the so-called Apocalypse you're talking about. I don't endorse the silliness of "Left Behind" myself.