TRFG - Doubt 5 - How can a loving God send people to Hell?

The Challenge

I doubt the existence of a judgmental God who requires blood to pacify his wrath. Someone had to die before the Christian God would pardon us. But why can’t he just forgive? And then there are all those places in the Old Testament where God commands that people be slaughtered.

I have a problem with the doctrine of hell. The only God that is believable to me is a God of love. The Bible’s God is no more than a primitive deity who must be appeased with pain and suffering.

The Argument

Most Americans believe that individuals should come to their own beliefs independent of the teaching of any religious organization. In this culture, it is easy to agree with the idea of a loving God who accepts us as we are. However, it is extremely offensive to suggest that God would hold someone accountable for sincerely held, yet incorrect beliefs. They cannot fathom how a loving God could cast people into a fiery lake for all eternity.

Other people are concerned that the doctrine of divine judgement and Hell will lead believers to look down on unbelievers as inferior. They think that a Christian who believes in God’s judgement will inevitably view unbelievers as unequal and undeserving of civil-rights. They see it as too great of a contradiction to view people as both deserving equal civil liberties and divine judgement simultaneously.

The Response

Many people today envision God throwing people into Hell as they plead for mercy. While they fall into the abyss God yells “Too late! You had your chance! Now you will suffer!” However, this vision of Hell misrepresents the nature of evil.

To understand the issue, consider the story Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus.

And [the rich man] called 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.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:24-31, ESV)

Notice the blind arrogance displayed by the rich man. Although the roles between him and Lazarus are now reversed, he continues to try to boss Lazarus around. We also see that the rich man displays no remorse for his wrong-doing. Instead, he continues to demonstrate self-pity and justifies his behavior by saying that he (and his family) didn’t know enough to avoid the torment.

Most people agree that self-centeredness will ultimately lead to ruin. Perhaps you have seen how selfishness leads to bitterness, envy and self-isolation. This is common behavior for people struggling with addictions, for instance. The difference between the Christian and the atheist, is that the Christian believes that the soul of a person lives on forever. In some sense then, you can think of Hell as the continuation of the trajectory chosen by someone in this life. For all eternity, they continue to reject God as the ultimate source of satisfaction and meaning and thus continue a downward spiral of pride, self-pity, isolation, anger and resentment.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)

It is common for people in Western culture to have a problem with the idea of divine judgement. The idea of a God of love also exercising his wrath on unbelievers is too revolting for many people to accept. However, it should be noted that even the most loving people are sometimes filled with wrath. Further, this wrath can also be fueled by love. If you see someone harming themselves, your love, care and concern for them can cause you to become angry. Why would it be any different for God when he sees someone destroying himself by not seeking ultimate satisfaction and pleasure in him?

It should also be noted that while our culture has a problem with divine judgement, many cultures do not. Is the Western view of God (and his judgement) superior to that of another culture? If the Bible is absolute truth that transcends culture, we should expect it to offend every culture on some point.

Finally, to those who argue that they can only believe in a God of love, we can ask them the same questions as Keller. Where do you get the idea of a loving God? Where in nature do you see evidence for a God who’s defining attribute is love? In what religious text do you find described a personal God who intimately loves his creation? The only evidence for this is in the Bible and the Bible describes God as also being a God of judgement.

The Quotes

Sin separates us from from the presence of God, which is the source of all joy and indeed of all love, wisdom or good things of any sort. Tim Keller

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. C.S Lewis

Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others… but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God “sending us” to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE hell unless it is nipped in the bud. C.S. Lewis

Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it…. Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference…. God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer… which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being. Becky Pippert

If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence - that God would not be worthy of worship…. The only means of prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God…. My thesis that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many… in the West… Miroslav Volf

The Questions

Question 1 Josie explains, “The only God that is believable to me is a God of love. The Bible’s God is a primitive deity who must be appeased by pain and suffering.” How would you respond to Josie?

Question 2 Chris continues along the same vein, “It all seems barbaric to me; someone had to die before the the Christian God could pardon us. Why can’t God just forgive?”

Question 3 Jason wonders “What about all the death and suffering commanded by God in the Old Testament? It seems like the Bible describes two completely different gods.”

Question 4 How does the doctrine of Hell (and God’s judgement in general) help promote peace on earth today?