How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
2 Peter 3:8-13
Millions believe that God is loving and merciful, but also that He has condemned millions to suffer torment for all eternity. What do you believe? Light a match, then hold your finger in its tiny flame for five seconds. What happens? You'll likely scream involuntarily and suffer misery for several days from a painful burn. Perhaps you've seen a burn victim who was disfigured in some horrible accident, his flesh gnarled and misshapen. What would that kind of agony feel like for a year? A lifetime? An eternity? Most people find that horrifying, almost beyond imagination, that anyone might willingly torture another person in that way. And they ask, “How can a loving God send people to hell?”
Many have wrestled with that question, both laity and clergy alike. Pastor Rob Bell has written a book entitled, “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” In it, he wrestles with the question: Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity? He writes, “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.” Rob Bell reads Jesus’ warnings of divine punishment asmeant only for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and had very little to do with eternity. Thus, he denies the existence of hell and the teachings of Jesus and Scripture because he can’t imagine a loving God sending people to hell.
Why would God, who is full of mercy and grace, send people for eternity to a place of torment for disobeying Him or not trusting in Jesus, especially if they are good people? Is that fair? Is that right? The problem with this question is that we are appealing to what we perceive as fair. We’re looking at the issue from a human perspective, when we should be looking at it from God’s perspective. God determines what is right and fair, not us. He decides and that’s based on who He is, His character.
We learn three things about God’s character in Scripture. First, God is holy, "You shall be holy, for I am holy," 1 Peter 1:16 Holiness is incorruptibility, perfection, purity, and the inability to sin. It is perfect, without flaw, and that is the standard of all that is right and good. Second, God is love. "And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love." 1 John 4:16 God loves us and seeks our well-being and security. Because of his love, he wants the best for us. This is why God doesn’t desire anyone to go to hell, but that all come to repentance that they might spend eternity with Him. 2 Peter 3:9 Third, God is righteous. "God is a righteous judge.” Psalm 7:9 The words just and righteous are identical in the Bible. When we say that God is just, we’re saying that He always does what is right, what should be done, and that He does it consistently, without partiality or prejudice. God’s righteousness (or justice) is the natural expression of His holiness. If He is infinitely pure, then He must be opposed to all sin, because its against his nature, opposed to His good desires for us (His will) and to be exposed to sin would make him impure. And that opposition to sin must be demonstrated in His treatment of all His creatures. Thus, we are assured that His actions toward us are in perfect agreement with His holy nature.
When God created us, he did so in His own image. In fact, everything that God created is a reflection of His image and that includes the Law of God, because it comes out of who He is: holy, perfect, righteous, just and good. Therefore, the Law is the standard of perfection and if we do not keep it perfectly, then we have sinned against God. To break God's Law is to offend God. As with all laws, there are repercussions when broken because there is no Law that is without punishment. So when we break the Law, we fall under the judgment of the Law. Punishment comes not just because of what we have done but because we have offended an infinitely, holy, righteous and just God. There are three contributing factors to going to hell.
First is Original sin. God created us to be loved and be in relationship with Him. In the Garden of Eden, God lovingly provided everything they needed: food, safety and a place to live as well as an intimate relationship with their Creator. God gave them three simple commands (have children, tend the Garden, and don’t eat the fruit from the Tree at the center of the Garden). All they had to do was obey but they didn’t. The Creation story teaches us that God created human beings to be in a relationship with Him. But true love has to be freely given.
Second is Free will. God didn’t create people to go to Hell, and He didn’t create people to sin. But he did create free will, in both heaven and here on earth. Hell was created by God as a place of punishment for Satan and the other rebellious, fallen angels who rebelled against God seeking to take control of heaven. They lost the battle and then were cast from Heaven down to earth, where he continues his battle against God. The Scriptures prophecy a final battle at Armageddon where Satan and his fallen angels will be fully defeated and then cast into hell. So hell is not a place meant for us but rather for Satan and his fallen angels. God doesn’t want any of his children to go to hell. But he has given us free will. That's the way He made us in His image including the power to say “yes” or “no” to him. God gave us the power to reject our own Creator, and of course to take the consequences.
And there’s the problem. While God created human beings to be in a relationship with Him, He knows a true loving relationship has to be freely given or chosen. God wanted human beings to love Him freely and to make the choice to love him. But that required the choice to choose not to love Him, to rebel. In God’s love, he took the risk of becoming vulnerable and risking rejection by giving us the freedom to choose. And that is where hell comes into play for humanity. In our free will, many of us have chosen to eat of the Tree in the center of the Garden, we have chosen our will and our way as opposed to God’s will.
Third is God’s nature and character. Just as there are repercussions in this lifetime in every area of our life, whether that be to run a red light, lie to someone or kill someone, there are eternal repercussions as well. God must punish those who break His law because He loves them and it is the right thing to do. Just as a parent should punish a child for doing something wrong, so God must punish those who do wrong. If a parent didn’t, there would be chaos. And if God did not punish the person who does wrong, then there would be chaos and He would violate His character and be unjust and unrighteous. He would not only be breaking His own law, He would be denying his own character. If I handed you a gun and demanded you kill the person sitting next to you, would you do it? No. Why? Because it’s not “who you are” and it would contradict everything you believe and are in this life. In the same way, God cannot act contrary to His own character.
Does God send people to hell? In a word, “No.” Hell is the result of our choices. It is in free will that people choose to violate God’s will and with that comes a cost. In so many words, people choose Hell. That may not be what they are directly deciding but it is the repercussions of their decisions. The same is true for criminals, they chose incarceration through their decisions. God has done everything He possibly can to keep you out of Hell and still leave you as a person with free will. Now some Christians argue otherwise that it is in fact God who sends people to hell. Peculiar Pilgrim blog writes, “No one would choose to go into hell…Not one person would decide to enter an eternity of flaming torment over an eternity in heavenly bliss…. The Lord Jesus Christ, who will sit upon the throne of his glory (Matt 25:31-46) will judge the hearts and minds of every living person. Jesus will say to many on that day, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” (Mat 7:23) And thus, he blames God for sending us to hell. But when a criminal is sent to jail, we don’t blame the judge, do we? We blame the criminal. The judge isn’t responsible because he’s just following the law, in fact, his hands or decisions are bound or tied by the law. It was the criminal who broke the law and that’s why they were sent to jail. Likewise, God is bound by who he is, a holy, loving, righteous and just God and by His decision to give us free will and then not violate it by keeping us from making bad decisions. So it’s not God who sends us to hell but our decisions and the repercussions that we must live with.
Even if we accept hell as a reality, we often don’t think we’ll end up with that fate. Yet, because God is a perfect, holy and sinless, that is his standard to stand before him and be in His presence for eternity. Otherwise, we would defile God by our own sinfulness. The real question is not “Are we good enough for heaven?”, but “Are we perfect?” Romans 3:23 answers that question, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And yet, if we’re honest, we never consider the possibility that Hell is our fate. Randy Alcorn puts it this way: “Even if we may acknowledge Hell as a necessary and just punishment for evildoers….we rarely see ourselves as worthy of Hell. After all, we are not Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Bundy, or Dahmer.” Yet God says, “There is no one righteous, not even one….” Rom. 3:10 The existence and reality of eternal judgment for the person who does not repent is sobering, and no one really wants to contemplate it too deeply. But the person who rejects Christ and rebels against God’s will has only one eternal destiny. But God doesn’t leave us there in our sin. Instead, he opens the door to Jesus who died so that anyone who repents can be saved. So God is not to be blamed when an unrepentant, rebellious creature chooses a destructive path that leads to Hell. In fact, we all deserve hell due to our sinful nature that separates us from God, but thank God for Jesus.
God has done everything we need for us to avoid hell. He has provided us everything we need to know He exists. (Romans 1:19-20) says "...What may be known about God is plain to them [people], because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." He has given us His only son Jesus Christ so that no one would perish and everyone might be able to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 He has revealed his will in the Scriptures. Jesus repeatedly issued warnings that if we turn away from God in this life, we will be alienated from God eternally. He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us. “"And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness.” Romans 8:26 And in the cross to receive His grace and forgiveness offered us in Jesus Christ. What more could God do? A loving God seeks to rescue His children who are imperfect by offering us the free gift of grace (Romans 6:23). When we accept it, we are forgiven and we become perfect and holy in God’s eyes, because he no longer sees us but Jesus in us.
The good news is that if you haven’t repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus yet for salvation, there is still time to avoid the terrible fate that awaits those who rebel against the Creator. And there is time to tell your unbelieving friends or family members about the Gospel. We are not rescued from hell by our merit, or the good deeds we perform. We are rescued from God's wrath by the self-giving love and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (Rom. 5:8-9). For those who believe, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
