“Shun all views of future punishment that would make
it appear less terrible.” Charles Spurgeon
When someone asks me a question I feel as though I
must answer it. I think it's the teacher in me who sees it as my duty. Yet
there is a question that a lot of Christians face that is one of those ‘impossible’
questions that Google can't readily answer and in order to answer it you have
to answer a lot of other questions too.
I
have done some research on this impossible question and I have some answers
from the bible and from smarter men than myself, that I believe to be profound
to my own faith, but I am also aware that I am limited in my understanding.
I
hope that in my answer I can show grace through my heartfelt honesty and not be
misunderstood to show a lack of compassion. The question, as it is often asked
to me, is: Why would a loving God send people to hell?
Freewill delusion
Growing
up, I was told, “God doesn't send people to hell; people send themselves there.”
Which seemed to assuage my curiosity at the time because it meant that God
wasn't to blame for the eternal suffering of others; they chose to be
without Him. My beliefs have since shifted and I feel as though to say that we
choose whether we go to heaven or hell would lessen the triumph of salvation.
Like
I once did, a lot of Christians believe that God gives them freewill to choose
Him or reject Him because this satisfies their view of God and they can “approve”
of His goodness.
But what if I was to tell you that
everyone has already rejected Jesus? Our choice was made from the time Adam and
Eve disobeyed God and took a bite from the forbidden fruit.
Slaves to sin
The
bible tells us that we were “slaves to sin1,” caught up in our own
desires and “by nature children of wrath2.” What that means is that
we are like a slave who does not want to be freed. We couldn't save ourselves
because we were already condemned by our very nature, but even worse we didn’t want to be saved.
Did
you always love and serve God? Did you always do what pleased Him? To stand
before God’s presence, one must be completely
without sin. Yet no one is completely righteous and if anyone says they have no
sin, they are deluded3.
God
saves
So how does God save a person who
doesn’t want to be saved?
The bible tells us that God saved us by
“the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit4.”
This means that He made it possible for us to cease being the person we were
and essentially rewired us to be able to understand and desire salvation.
Another way of saying this is that we have been given a new heart5.
With
a new heart that desires God, we are then able to have faith to accept His gift
of salvation that is offered to us freely.
But
is the faith our own? No. The bible reinforces the work of Jesus Christ (His
death and resurrection) by reminding us, “You have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God6.” Not
even the faith to believe in Jesus is our own doing!
The
Son of God took the sins of the world on Himself7 and suffered in
our place8 so that we could be justified before God9.
The
elect
Naturally the question then becomes: Who
does God save?
In
Ephesians 1:4-5 it says,
“Just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him in love He predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
intention of His will.”
Who is the “us” that this verse is
talking about? It's obvious that it's referring to Christians (followers of
Jesus Christ), but will everyone be saved? Some people would, at this point,
quote 1 Timothy 2:3-4 which says that God desires “all people” to be saved.
This verse, at first, seems as if God must then save every single man, because
God's will is never thwarted; however, the same phrase is used later when Paul
is talking about praying for “all people” and he doesn't mean every single man
who ever lived10. He goes on to list what he means by “all people.”
He means, not leaving any type of person out e.g. rulers as well as the common man.
It appeared that the Jews were that
chosen people that God was going to show mercy to; however, the LORD foretold,
“Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not
beloved I will call 'beloved.'” 11 In other words, the people whom
were once outside of His protection (Gentiles) will one day be included in His
family.
The sad truth is that not everyone will
be saved. Jesus Himself said, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that
leads to life, and those who find it are few.”12 He also said
there are many people who are called, but few people are actually chosen.13
Predestined
to perish?
When you discuss election, the
inevitable question that follows is: If God predestines those who will be
saved, does he then predestine for some to perish?
I
have had many discussions with other Christians about the extent of God's
control. Most Christians will agree that God is sovereign. Most Christians will
agree that God is in control of the world and that He has a plan. Most
Christians will agree that Satan has no power that God does not first give him
(after recalling the story of Job). Yet when you ask people if it was part of
God's plan that some would perish, they hit a wall and say that God has no
control over that.
The bible has no such hesitations about
whether God chooses some over others. It says, “God will have mercy on whomever
He will, and He hardens whomever He wills.”14 In a broader sense, in
the past, God chose the Jews as His people and everyone else was outside of His
covering. 15 There is also a more specific example of election that the
Apostle Paul draws our attention to in the story of Jacob and Esau. Before
either man had proven righteous or unrighteous, God predestined the elder to
serve the younger and He loved Jacob and hated Esau16. Not because
Jacob was better than Esau, because this was said before either of them were
born.
God
does not discriminate, but He does choose.
We
must keep in mind that all would have been lost if God had not
intervened.
Moral
accountability
A lot of people becry this reality and
demand: How can we be punished for sins that we had no choice but to commit
since we were born with a sinful nature?
The early church asked the same
question: “Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?”17
First of all, we know, through our conscience and our moral understanding, that
we are guilty. There’s no mistake about it. God predestined people to be saved
because He knew that we really would need
to be saved—and we only increase in sin throughout our lives. We needed to be
saved because we are sinners in Adam (our perfect representative chosen by
God), not because God forced us to be sinners. Adam sinned by his own free will,
not by divine coercion.
Granted, that was Adam's actions. Why
must we be punished for his sins?
One comparison would be to say that if
a man hired a hitman to kill someone, he is just as guilty for taking out the
contract as the person who pulled the trigger. The sinner says, “I am judged to
be guilty for a crime someone else committed because the other person acted in
my place.”18
Delayed
judgment
If you stop there, you might be tempted
to call God unjust, which would show a misunderstanding of what the 'just'
thing for God to do is. First of all, the bible reminds us that we
have no right to tell God what to do with His own creation.19 He is
the ruler over all and He could choose to do whatever He wants with us. God’s
actions are not unjust. He acts like an owner who has rights not only over
individuals but over the nations of the world.20
God created Adam, a perfect man, as a
representative of humanity who reflected His image. Given the choice, man
rejected God and tainted God's image. God could have destroyed all of mankind
by destroying Adam, which would have been the just thing to do since God is
righteous and He cannot ignore sin. Sin must be punished. Sin is so
detestable to God that He cannot be in the presence of a sinner without His
wrath condemning them.21
God told Moses that He could not reveal
His face to him or else he would die22—and Moses was considered to
be a righteous man. The prophet Isaiah's response upon seeing a vision of the
LORD was to proclaim, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have
seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”23 Job abhorred himself and
repented in dust and ashes.24 Peter fell down at the LORD's feet and
cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O LORD.”25 Not to
mention Paul's passionate plea, “Wretched man that I am! Who shall rescue me
from this body of death?”26
Without God's mercy, no one would be
able to see Him and live. Instead of unleashing His wrath right away though,
God had already prepared a plan where He could display not just His justice but
His incredible mercy and love—in that He would redeem an unworthy people. He
would delay and not rush His judgment, but would instead show patience.
“I
spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that
is not good, following their own devices.”27
Ultimately,
there are two ways we can respond to God's judgment. We can either say: “Oh I
wish God wouldn't be so harsh” or “Thank you God that You are fair.”28
Hell:
the punishment for sin
Even though God through His incredible
mercy chose to delay punishment to save people, those whom He has not
chosen—who have rejected Him and live willingly in their sin—will be punished.
So what is the punishment for those who are not in Christ Jesus?
Hell is spoken of as God's vengeance on
man for sin, for those who have not accepted His grace. It is described as an
eternal situation of suffering and away from all of God's good gifts.
“They
will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”29
Jesus spoke of hell, but referred to it
as a “lake of fire that burns with sulfur.”30 The eternal fire, or
the lake of fire, was originally prepared for the devil and his angels31;
however, Jesus said that those whom He does not know in the last days will be
cursed into the eternal fire.32
Jesus told parables about hell to
describe what it would be like. The character in the parable cries out, “Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in
water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”33 He
also used a parable about servants who had various degrees of punishments from
their master.34 This tells us that God is fair and that judgment
will take into account the severity of peoples sins.35
In answer to the belief that people
send themselves to hell, or that they are simply there because they choose to
be there, the bible makes it clear that it will not be a place where people
will want to be.
“There
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”36
“And
the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day
or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the
mark of its name.”37
So let's return to the “How could He?”
part of the original question. God is under no obligation to keep any of us a moment
from eternal destruction. We have infinitely offended God, even more than we
could ever offend an earthly King and “'tis nothing but his Hand that holds you
from falling into the fire every moment.”38
God certainly does send people to hell. He does pass sentence; and he
executes it. Indeed, worse than that, “God does not just send, He throws.”39
“If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of
life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”40
God is glorified in justice and mercy
So how could it be loving, for God to
send people—or throw people—into such a horrible place?
The question shouldn't be so much about
whether it's loving, but about
whether God is justified in doing so.
As the creator of the world and the one whom has been sinned against, He has every
right.
Yet a person might object, God is
supposed to be loving. Isn't this against His nature?
Not so. God is loving to hate people
who sin, because the sin is destroying them and destroying his good creation.41
Love, as demonstrated by Jesus, is about laying your life down for them. So Jesus
showed love even to the lost that while they (we) were still sinners, Christ
died for them (us).42 God also shows love in that he receives no
pleasure from punishing people.
"As
I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his evil way and live; turn back, turn back from
your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?"43
Although,
to say that He does not receive pleasure from it, does not mean that He regrets
His decision, as the bible also says,
“Therefore will I also deal in
Fury; mine Eye shall not spare, neither will I have Pity; and tho’ they
cry in mine Ears with a loud Voice, yet I will not bear them.”44
Hell
is eternal
There is still one question left. This
was the hardest question I faced. I’m still not convinced I have the answers to
it, nor do I find it a pleasant thought. In fact, it makes me shiver with
fright. Is hell eternal?
The short answer, I believe, is that
the only
way a sinner can turn from sin is by the work of the Spirit in them to change
them. So if God never changes a person, they will continue in sin and sin will
continue to be punished. In other words, “All wicked men’s pains and contrivance they use to
escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men,
don’t secure 'em from hell one moment.”45
There are many verses that talk about
the eternal aspect of hell.46 Some theologians argue that the
punishment will be a one time thing, known as annihilation, but that is not
biblical. If we question the severity of the punishment, perhaps it's because
we don't understand the severity of the sin.
Our
response
It's hard to imagine anyone in hell,
especially people we know in this present life. We imagine them as we see them
now on earth, still with traces of God in them because of common grace.
Perhaps, in hell they cease to be the people we once knew. The evil of their
sin will be revealed and they will be their true selves without God and any
goodness that is in them because of God.
Hell is a reality and it is severe. It
is the Christian's job to warn people out of love. Not to inflict fear, but to
draw people's gaze to Jesus, who is worthy of all our praise.
I urge you, instead of wondering
whether you were chosen or not, or whether you are heading towards heaven or
hell, to think about whether you are willing to repent and trust a God whom has
given all for the opportunity of your salvation. He does not want any
to be lost. He loves you with a love that none can comprehend and is willing to
pull you from the misery you are in. Will you let Him? Will you not have
compassion on your own life the way you cry for those who may be in hell? I
pray that you might know the love of the Saviour and how great it is to be part
of His family. Turn to Him with your questions, not away from Him because of
your questions. He is knocking on your heart and you have only to answer.
References
1. Romans 6:16,20; Matthew 6:24.
2. Ephesians 2:3
3. 1 John 1:8
4. Titus 3:5
5. Ezekiel 36:26
6. Ephesians 2:8
7. 1 John 2:2
8. 1 Peter 3:18
9. Romans 5:1
11.
Hosea 2:23
12.
Matthew
7:13-14
13.
Matthew
22:14
14.
Romans
9:18
15.
Exodus
19:5
16.
Genesis
25:23
17.
Romans 9:19
19.
Romans 9:20
20.
John Piper. (1981). The
Emergence of Sin and Misery. http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/the-emergence-of-sin-and-misery
21.
Psalm 5:4-6
22.
Exodus 33:20
23.
Isaiah 6:5
24.
Job 42:6
25.
Luke 5:8
26.
Romans 7:24
27.
Isaiah
65:2
28.
Wayne Grudem. (1994). Systematic
Theology, Chapter 32 'Election and Reprobation.'
29.
2 Thessalonians
1:9
30.
Revelation
19:20
31.
Matthew 25:41
32.
Matthew 7:23
33.
Luke 16:24
34.
Luke 12:42-48
35.
Wayne Grudem. (1994). Systematic
Theology, Chapter 32 'Election and Reprobation.'
36.
Matthew
8:12
37.
Revelation
14:11
38.
Jonathan Edwards. (1741). Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God.
39.
John Piper. (2009). How
Willingly Do People Go To Hell? Desiring God http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-willingly-do-people-go-to-hell
40.
Revelation 20:15
41.
Jonathan Parnell. (2014). Do You Love Your Enemies
Enough to Hate Them? Desiring God. http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/do-you-love-your-enemies-enough-to-hate-them
42.
Romans 5:8
43.
Ezekiel
33:11
44.
Ezekiel
8:18
45.
Jonathan Edwards. (1741). Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God.
46.
Isaiah 66:24; Daniel
12:1-2; Matthew 18:6-9; Matthew 25:31-46; Mark 9:42-48; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10;
Jude 7; Jude 13; Revelation 14:9-11; Revelation 20:10, 14-15.
