Hell on Trial

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), the Scottish physician and author best known for his creation of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, once wrote, “Hell, I may say … has long dropped out of the thoughts of every reasonable man.” He would get a lot of support for that statement today, and not only from those outside of the Christian church. The idea that untold billions of human beings, including many who would have seemed decent, law-abiding citizens, will spend eternity exposed to God’s unrelenting anger, is simply unacceptable to many people. Even some holding high ecclesiastical office have rejected the idea. John Robinson (1919–1983) the liberal bishop of Woolwich, whose book Honest to God reduced the Creator to “the Ground of Being,” said of the idea, “[God] cannot endure that … and he will not.”

By far the most persistent attack on hell comes in the form of a question: how can a God of love send anyone to hell? The British philosopher and theologian John Hick (1922–2012) argued that hell was “totally incompatible with the idea of God as infinite love.” The argument here is perfectly straightforward: sending people to hell is not a loving thing to do, so a God of love could never do it. How do we answer that?

God’s love is beyond question, and 1 John 4:8 (“God is love”) confirms that love is an integral part of His very essence. Yet to isolate one of His attributes as a way of demolishing hell leaves us with a lopsided caricature of God. In fact, the dominant biblical attribute of God is not His love but His holiness; He is called by His “holy name” more than all other descriptions taken together. He has zero tolerance for sin. He is “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Hab. 1:13), a fundamental fact utterly ignored by today’s permissive society. The question hell’s undertakers should be asking is, how can a God of holiness allow anyone into heaven? As “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and as “nothing unclean will ever enter [heaven]” (Rev. 21:27), they face a difficult task.

There is a sense in which God sends nobody to hell, but that people send themselves there. God has revealed “his eternal power and divine nature … ever since the creation of the world” and all who reject this revelation are “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). There is no law forbidding people to acknowledge God’s existence, power, holiness, love, and goodness, or to live in ways that “honor him as God” (v. 21). People have an option—and countless millions opt out of giving God His rightful place, not realizing that in doing so they are “storing up wrath” for the day “when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed” (2:5). J.I. Packer pinpoints this tragic truth: “Nobody stands under the wrath of God save those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications; nothing more, and equally nothing less.” C.S. Lewis adds the chilling comment, “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.”

Others reject the biblical picture of hell by saying that though God hates sin, He loves the sinner, and so could never condemn anyone to eternal punishment. But is this the case? I have traced thirty-three places in Scripture where God’s hatred is expressed. In twelve He is said to hate sinners’ actions (including the practice of false religion) but in the other twenty-one instances He is said to hate the sinner. One example covers all the others: we are told that “[God’s] soul hates the wicked” (Ps. 11:5).

Although God shows His love by pouring out His common grace on all people—“He makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45)—we dare not confuse this with the saving grace that enables sinners to see their desperate danger and to turn to God in repentance and faith. Those who see God’s love as eliminating hell are ignoring God’s justice and the fundamental fact that He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). As Packer says, “It is not possible to argue that a God who is love cannot also be a God who condemns and punishes the disobedient.”

Many reject biblical teaching on hell by claiming that condemning all unforgiven sinners to eternal punishment in hell violates the principle that a penalty should always fit the crime. How, they ask, can God punish a mere earthly lifetime of sin with suffering that lasts forever? Surely those who lead reasonably respectable lives will not be treated in the same way as mass murderers, rapists, child abusers, and the like? Both questions have straightforward answers. In the first case, time spent committing a crime is usually irrelevant in determining the sentence. For example, a violent, life-threatening assault may be over in less than a minute, but would less than a minute in jail be the right sentence for such a crime? In the second case, there are no “little sins,” because there is no little God to sin against.

The decisive issues are the nature of God and the nature of the sin, and every sin, without exception, is an offense against the majesty and authority of our Creator. What is more, even a highly respectable person has broken what Jesus called the most important of God’s commandments—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30)—and is therefore guilty of committing the greatest sin. The Bible makes it clear that there are degrees of punishment in hell—Jesus spoke of those who would receive “the greater condemnation” (Mark 12:40)—but no “respectable” sinner can take any comfort from this. Man’s failure to give to God “the glory due his name” (Ps. 29:2) is an infinite evil deserving infinite punishment, and as in hell there is no opportunity or inclination to repent, God’s justice requires that it go on forever.

Yet another attempt to tweak the Bible’s teaching on hell is the suggestion that when the Bible speaks of eternal punishment, it is the punishment that lasts forever, not the punishing; there comes a point at which God, in effect, says, “Enough is enough,” and ends the punishment by annihilating the sinner. But if annihilation is the goal of the suffering, what is the purpose of the suffering? This kind of scenario would condemn God as the supreme sadist. The suggestion also runs headlong into the Bible’s clear teaching that those in hell “have no rest day or night” (Rev. 14:11). In his book The Fire That Consumes, the Adventist author Edward Fudge comes to the curious conclusion that although the wicked “are not guaranteed rest during the day” and have “no certain hope that relief will come at night,” this “does not say within itself that the suffering lasts all day and all night.” This sounds suspiciously like special pleading, to say the least.

All other ways of trying to limit the duration of hell collide with the simple fact that in a single breath Jesus spoke of those who “will go away into eternal punishment” while the righteous will go into “eternal life.” In both cases “eternal” translates the identical Greek word—aiōnios. Why would Jesus use the same word to describe the “punishment” of the lost and the “life” of the saved if He meant that only one would be endless? More than fifteen hundred years ago, Augustine wrote, “To say that the life eternal shall be endless [but that] punishment eternal shall come to an end is the height of absurdity.”

Nobody can think properly about the fearful reality of hell (let alone preach on it) and remain emotionally and psychologically unaffected. Yet hell is good news. It confirms that God is eternally sovereign, and that He has the last word about human destiny. It vindicates God’s character, showing that He is utterly holy and just. It guards the new creation against the possibility of ever again being invaded by Satan or infected by sin, and ensures that the “new heavens and a new earth” will be a home “where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13) and where God’s redeemed family will live in His glorious presence forever. It assures all the redeemed that in glory “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

It could even be said that the Bible’s teaching on hell is good news for unconverted people. It alerts them to their appalling danger, and, in countless cases, leads sinners to seek the Savior and to find Him as He “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).

none of us are “good” by ourselves or by anything we do. you don’ t win prizes for following the law - ie merely doing what is expected of you.

those God considers “good” are those covered in the perfection of their Savior Jesus. His righteousness is imputed/credited to us and we are able to be considered “good” by God’s standard, because of Christ.

nope it doesn’t.

for those that never wanted anything to do with God when alive on earth, and thought how terrible and awful it would be to live according to God’s design as put forth in Scripture,

being forced to live in heaven, like that, for all eternity, would be hell for those people.

God doesn’t force Himself on people. He knocks at the door to get them to receive Him, in a number of ways, but if they don’ t want to, and want to stay separate from God, He respects them enough as people, not to force them to be with Him. He would rather all come to Him but it’s their decision.

it wouldn’t be a free choice, and what kind of God would He be, then?

if anything, the existence of Hell proves God doesn’t force people to accept Him if they don’t want to.

Where is your Scriptural support for that view? You would be wise to believe the Word of God and not vain philosophy. If the Bible isn’t your authority you have a religion of your own making.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
—Colossians 2:8

Also, where do you get the idea men stop sinning against God when they die? Do you suppose men in Hell suddenly love God with all their might? Do you believe God gives fallen men who have been cast into the pit a new nature free of sin?

But supposing men cannot sin in eternity, how long does it take a finite man to pay for a lifetime of crimes against an infinite being? Scripture suggests he can never pay that debt.

for those that never wanted anything to do with God when alive on earth, and thought how terrible and awful it would be to live according to God’s design as put forth in Scripture, being forced to live in heaven, like that, for all eternity, would be hell for those people.

Depends on what you mean by heaven. Scripture is instruction for getting into heaven. It is not a description of heaven, except in the most general of terms. Shall the discipline last forever? Is there no release even in heaven? Or is heaven what pleases each person? Or is heaven he perfect collective, where everyone wants the same thing at all times?

Another question is whether it is possible to experience God's love and reject it. Or whether those who reject God, do so because they have never experienced it. It would seem that God's love is desireable over all other things. If that is true, then experiencing God's love should end the desire for anything else. If it doesn't, then God's love is somehow deficient in desireability, which is impossible.

But if people sin for lack of experiencing God's love, then who's fault is that? Shall God punish people forever because they never experienced God? In the alternative, shall God punish people forever because they found God's love deficient?

All of this becomes infinitely less important if hell is not infinite. If hell is not infinite, the focus shifts to the infinitude of God's love.

Where is your Scriptural support for that view? You would be wise to believe the Word of God and not vain philosophy. If the Bible isn’t your authority you have a religion of your own making.

Which scripture? Which Bible? Do you think the differences between the various Christian Bibles is trivial? Are you willing to accept any Bible, from any denomination or translation, including Catholic and Protestant - it doesn't matter?

Of have you decided, upon your own personal contemplation, which Bible you believe is true, and which are false? And how is that not a religion of your own making? Because others agree with you? So the truth is subject to a vote?

We all stand alone before God. We do not do it as members of a church, or a congregation, or a family. We choose our beliefs, and we live them, and we are responsible for them. Even within the Bible you choose for yourself, which you believe is the standard foundation of religion, there is a history of people choosing this instead of that, throughout its history. Did they make their own religion, or were they inspired by God? If I choose this and not that, am I inspired by God? How would you know?

It always amazes me that people are not joyful over finding a path for themselves. No, it's never enough - it's always so important that others be wrong. And what are the accusations? The same as being carried out by the accusers themselves. Incredible.

“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” (John 6:45)

Believe as you will, I’ve been “taught of God” and I know there is only one way to salvation. Rather than forging your own path, you would be well-served to find that narrow way.

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (John 7:14)

You post as if we don’t have a reliable record of God’s Word. That’s far from true. I totally reject Catholicism. However, despite the subtle misinterpretations in their Bible, the narrow way of salvation is made plain in their text. Sadly, they reject it.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Why I Choose to Believe the Bible
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=530914253

Do you know the gospel?

The True Gospel
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=221101933219

Yes, I especially liked your specific textual references and Scriptural quotes, as well as the support you cited from the church fathers during the early centuries.

< /sarcasm>

Well it's really a matter of understanding priorities, isn't it? I mean, to look at the entire Bible and consider every line of it perfectly equal to every other line, would mean that there would be no way to understand the relationship of the teachings to each other. That's why people study the Bible and don't just read it, so that they can understand relative importance, and there by interpret its applications to life. Right?

But fortunately, Jesus specifically told us the most important part of the Bible. The part against which every other part has to be compared, in order to understand meaning. The part which cannot ever be contradicted, because it is the root, the most important part, and the guide for all the other parts.

Specifically, in Matthew 22:37-40: "Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Could there be any greater gift in Bible study? Being told by the Savior Himself what is the greatest commandment, from which all law hangs? Against which ALL other teachings bow, and are secondary, and must serve by their interpretations (including, specifically "the church fathers during the early centuries")?

I, for one, choose not to defy Jesus' direct command in understanding His teachings. And I assumed that because you are apparently a Bible scholar, you would also be well aware of this fundamental and absolute basis for ALL interpretation, and that therefore I would not have to quote it.

But I often assume too much of others.

< /notsarcasm>

Existence is Hell.

Life on Earth may be hellish a great deal of the time, but it is not hell. On Earth, you can still choose to help someone else, at the very least, even if you can no longer help yourself. And if nothing else is available, you can pray for people. And despite everything, love and goodness arise in the most unexpected times and places.

In hell the suffering is too intense for anything other than crying out to God in agony, if a person can even remember that. And there is no relief, and no break.

People have poor imaginations. It's quite a problem.

Well, you managed to get one scriptural text in a response that supports a non-Biblical POV.

Unfortunately for you, that quote by Christ does nothing to bolster your assertions regarding hell.

Maybe someday you’ll get serious regarding the Word of God.

And that truly is my hope.

Well, you managed to get one scriptural text in a response that supports a non-Biblical POV. Unfortunately for you, that quote by Christ does nothing to bolster your assertions regarding hell. Maybe someday you’ll get serious regarding the Word of God. And that truly is my hope.

Stuff your "true hope" and your brazen hypocrisy. Hope is for for people who reject the Word of God when it is presented to them. Or do you want to take the position that when Jesus said that that was the greatest commandment, He was mistaken? Who is not being "serious"? Or is that the phrase you use when people disagree with YOU? How annoying that must be, that they don't see that you ARE the Word of God.

Your trivialization and dismissal of the influence of what Jesus Himself named the greatest of all the commandments, and your inability to comprehend the influence of that fundamental definition on the rest of ALL of Biblical study, is a SERIOUS failing.

I "hope" you're actually speaking out of ignorance. Otherwise, some day you will discover to your horror that you will have hell to pay for your insolence in misleading Jesus' most precious teachings. What did He say about that? Oh yes: "whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

you forget that in heaven, we will be made perfect and we will no longer have a sin nature, we will not desire to do the things that we knew were wrong to enjoy while we were alive on earth as a sinner/saint. The struggles we have to fight our “old man” won’t occur because that part of us will be gone, and it will be an answer to our prayers and we will no longer have to fight against bad urges and desires.

as far as discipline goes there will be none because there won’t be a need for it. nobody who’s been cleansed and made perfect will need it because they will not have a sin nature anymore to be tempted and sin.

Given your posts you seem to have a very negative view on heaven and the afterlife. Maybe if you start out with the mindset/reference frame that God loves us, and is on our side, and give Him the benefit of the doubt, and you might as well as so far in your existence has He killed you? - instead of starting from a negative frame of reference focused on punishment and never-ending judgment (which is not what He’s all about), you might realize some different conclusions.

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