How Could a loving God
send people to Hell?
"How can a loving God send people to Hell? The very idea of ongoing
eternal torture is absolutely preposterous. Such uncivilized behavior
makes God less loving than human beings, for what parents would banish
their children forever?"
Of all the Biblical doctrines, this one bothers people the most and
with very understandable reasons. Nothing seems more vindictive than
punishment from which there is no release. In Chapter Four, I suggested
that deep inside, people actually agree with the standards of God as
set forth in the Bible, even though such agreement is not always
conscious or obvious. If this is true, it must also apply to the
unpopular notion of Hell.
A matter of justice
I am going to discuss Hell in a rather roundabout way by first bringing
up another major question frequently asked about God: "How can a loving
God allow suffering and evil in the world?" If we were to make a top
ten list of "God" questions, this one would certainly be found on the
high part of the chart, close to the subject of Hell. Now, here is
what’s interesting: These two separate concerns actually
contradict each other.
Years ago, at UC Santa Barbara, a foot patrol police officer who worked
for the campus’ surrounding college community, approached me
on
my way to our weekly large group Christian meeting. Since I was walking
and not driving, it was the first time I was ever stopped by a cop
without feeling nervous. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be the
uncomfortable one. This husky, uniformed fellow had visited our meeting
once before as a guest, sitting quietly in the back of the auditorium.
Since I had been the speaker that night, he recognized me today. His
greeting was polite but intense. As we walked together, it became
obvious that something important was on his mind. Finally the police
officer spoke up. "You know…I just gotta say this: There are
two
reasons I can’t believe in your God."
"Go on," I said.
"First of all, I cannot believe in a God who would send people to Hell.
Second, I find it impossible to accept a God who could just sit around
and watch the suffering of our world without doing something about it."
"Sir," I said, "are you aware that one of your objections actually
answers the other? On one hand, you object to a God who would sit back
passively and not hold people accountable for the evil in the world. On
the other hand, you object to the teaching which says that God will in
fact hold people accountable."
I continued by reminding him that we had actually met a long time ago,
before he even visited our fellowship. The woman next door to my house
called the police because her husband was beating her. As her drunk and
screaming husband sat handcuffed in the police car, this very kind
officer actually pleaded with the wife. "Mam, will you please, please,
file charges this time? It’s always the same. Your husband
beats
you and you call the police. We come to your house, pick him up and
bring him to jail. Then you come down to the station and drop the
charges. A few weeks later he beats you again and you call us again.
We’ve gone through this about seven times now. You make my
job
very difficult because I care about you, and I’m afraid that
one
of these evenings you are going to turn up dead! Your husband is
dangerous! He isn’t going to change! He needs to be locked
up!"
When I witnessed that conversation, I remember thinking about how
compassionate this police officer was, how he went beyond the call of
duty, out of genuine, heart felt concern. Talking to him now, a year
later, I commended him for this and reminded him that he was made in
the image of God, His personality and His convictions.
Our earthly court systems reveal how we honestly feel about a heavenly
court system. After all, if a human judge were to let a murderer or
rapist go free, would we not view him as a reckless and irresponsible
judge? In fact, would he not also be an unloving judge to put so many
innocent people at risk with his careless decision? Likewise, what kind
of judge would God be if He didn’t hold people accountable
for
the way they lived their lives? What kind of community would Heaven be
if God permitted evil people to live there? If sin were not removed
from paradise, it wouldn’t be much of a paradise. We must
think
of Hell as a prison which separates out wicked people, preventing them
from doing harm to others. When viewed this way, Hell paints the
picture of a just, and therefore, loving God.
Imagine a man like Hitler, who after the extermination of millions of
innocent people, took a few capsules and died a quick death so that the
allied armies on their way to Berlin could never take him to justice.
Isn’t there some measure of consolation in the belief that
Hitler
will actually have to stand accountable before God? Doesn’t
it
feel good to know that evil people will not really get away with
anything and that good will ultimately prevail?
"I can accept the idea of accountability, but isn’t eternal
punishment rather drastic? After all, we aren’t talking about
selected evil people deserving Hell, but rather, all people, according
to your Christian Gospel. Ok, we are imperfect, but do we really
deserve the same fate as those who actually commit murder?"
Jesus internalized the Ten Commandments. To Him, even having the
instinct of a murderer was a serious problem, whether we actually
commit the crime or not (Matt. 5:21-22). Quite frankly, we have grown
so accustomed to our "normal everyday sin" that we don’t view
it
the way God does. We may be aware that certain thoughts or actions are
wrong, but their utter repulsion is something we have difficulty seeing.
When I was in college, I had a part time job at a convalescent home,
one that was not very well kept up. The first day I arrived I felt as
though I wanted to stop breathing because there was a horrible stench.
For about a week I dreaded coming to work. As time went on the stench
bothered me less until eventually, I couldn’t even smell it
anymore. But this was not because the smell ever went away. Instead, I
had actually gotten used to it. We get used to our sins too.
Eternal punishment may still seem drastic. It’s certainly
drastic
to God. Why else would He have sent Jesus to atone for our sins?
Evidently God would prefer to spare us this punishment. If we still
reject His offer of forgiveness, what else can He do? If I am drowning
and somebody throws me a life preserver, I can still choose not to grab
hold of it, but that would not be the fault of the person who tried to
rescue me.
Something we choose for ourselves
"I protest!" the student shouted as he kicked our Christian book table.
"What seems to be the problem?" I asked.
"I protest your teaching. I think it is unfair that I am not going to
Heaven simply because I’m not a Christian."
"Friend, " I said, "you don’t want to go to Heaven."
He stopped short, looking very confused. "What do you mean I
don’t wanna go to Heaven?"
"I think you have a misconception of what Heaven will be like. Heaven
is not some big cloud where angels sit around and strum harps. Heaven
is not some island where native women fan you with palm branches and
stick grapes in your mouth. Heaven is a place where you will serve and
obey God for the rest of eternity. You don’t even want to
serve
and obey Him now. What makes you think you’ll want to do it
for
the rest of eternity? Hell is a place where you’ll be all by
yourself and nobody will tell you what to do."
I’ll never forget his reaction. After a second of pondering,
he
said. "That sounds fair."
More Questions
|
Have your own question?
questions@bobsiegel.net
This is a brief
excerpt from a larger book.
For a fuller treatment of this subject as well as a better context, see:
I’d Like To
Believe In Jesus, But…
(The harder, less frequently discussed questions)
By Bob Siegel
Published by CSN Books
Copyright © 2007 by Bob Siegel
All Rights Reserved
Published by
Campus Ambassador Press
Copyright © 1999 by Bob Siegel
All Rights Reserved
This article is not to be reproduced without written permission from
the author. |
