Critics of the God of the Bible ask how God can allow those he professes to love to go to Hell. The truth is, God does not make the choice. We do! If it were up to Him, we would all be in heaven (2 Peter 3.9, 1 Timothy 2.4, Matthew 23.27).
Many critics want the rewards of heaven, the ideal of peace – no death, no hatred, and so on -but they don’t want what it entails: accepting Jesus as Lord. They want the benefits of this world – to live in sin, to do as they please, to be god’s lords and kings of their own behavior and choices without consequence, and the benefits of the hereafter – but they don’t want the negatives of giving up self.
As Max Lucado wrote in Come Thirsty, they “spend a life telling God to leave you alone, and he will.” God does not send anyone to Hell, rather people by their own free will chose to be free of him! (2 Thessalonians 1.9). If they do not desire God in their life on earth neither do they in eternity. As C.S. Lewis said “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.” But God is the only source of good, so if you reject him, you get Hell.
Further, it would be against the nature of God to control the will of man and FORCE him, like a robot, to worship or choose him, to live with him for eternity. If a man wants distance from God in life, it would be a living Hell for him to be forced against his will to spend an eternity with his creator.
God has given all mankind, no matter how they have rejected him, or what sin they have done, a free ticket to heaven by his Grace through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Should we blame him because some use their own free will to reject his gift? It says nothing of God or his nature or desires. It speaks to the sinfulness of man.
God did not create Hell to punish mankind for rejecting him; he created it for the Devil and fallen angels (Matthew 25.4). Instead, Heaven was prepared for man (Matthew 25.34). Since God freely offers salvation to all mankind and desires all to be in Heaven, this seems logically consistent.
Hell
There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Romans 3: 10–12).
The first thing to understand about Hell is no innocent people go there. As God teaches in the Bible, only the sinful are condemned, not the innocent – and they condemn themselves (John 3:18). Many Christians point to figures like Hitler, rapists, and murderers, noting they often seem to escape justice in this life. If such individuals were to go unpunished, it would create a great imbalance; evil deeds would never be reconciled, and justice would not be served. This would imply God is unjust for allowing such evils to occur.
However, God is a just God who will not allow evils to go unpunished precisely because they are evil. A just and loving God cannot permit any acts of evil to remain unpunished. Unless the sinner finds grace, they must face justice—not because God does not desire their forgiveness, but because He must act in accordance with His nature of being infinitely holy, good, and just (1 John 1:5).
The demand that God should forgive such a man while he remains what he is, is based on a confusion between condoning and forgiving. To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness (C.S Lewis, The Problem of Pain).
We have all experienced abuse or mistreatment in some form throughout our lives, whether from family, friends, or enemies. We all feel anger when we witness someone getting away with wrongdoing or mistreating others. We all want justice for wrongs others do but wish to escape condemnation and/or justify our own actions. How much greater the reality, when the measuring stick of ‘wrongdoing’ is not based on the fickleness of mankind, but on the incomprehensible and infinite holiness of God himself?
Eternity on Earth?
Could God just allow us to live eternally on earth and avoid Hell all together? After all, death was brought into this world only after the original sin. It is not part of God’s plan but is, in fact, the enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26).
Death is indeed evil, but to continue in this fallen world eternally is far worse. And the justice of God cannot allow evil to go unpunished.
Imagine being eternally in a concentration camp or under torture with no hope of escape. Imagine a sickness or deformity without end. Wariness and weariness of the evils and decay of our world might drive us to hope for escape. From God’s perspective, this sin-sick fallen world is so far from his reality it should be driving us to his eternity.
In Genesis 3:22–24. God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden because if they ate the fruit of the tree of (everlasting) life, they would go on living forever as fallen, corrupt, sinful human beings. This was not God’s plan he would not accept evil to continue forever. Psalm 116:15 reads, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Likewise, Saint Francis wrote, “Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Bodily Death.” From this point of view, Death is a gift.
Never dying means missing out on experiencing paradise and life as God intended it to be. Without death, no one would truly face justice for their choices and actions. If individuals never faced the just consequences for their behavior, chaos would ensue, creating a Hell on Earth. While we often view death as a source of sadness—which it is—we fail to recognize those who pass away are being taken from a fallen world.
The righteous perishes, And no man takes it to heart; Merciful men are taken away, While no one considers That the righteous is taken away from evil (Isaiah. 57: 1).
What is Hell Like?
Hell is not all the same; in Dante’s famous Divine Comedy, he portrayed nine levels of Hell. The worst is the one held by popular imagination. There are, in fact, various degrees of punishment and severity in Hell (Matt 11 22-24, Romans 2.6, Acts 17.31, Mark 6.11). As Saint Augustine wrote, “The lot of the damned will be more tolerable than that of others.”
A typical portrayal of Hell depicts people suffering in flames for all eternity, but is this an accurate representation? As Christian apologist Paul Copan points out, it’s important to consider Hell was not created for humans but rather for fallen angels—spiritual beings not affected by physical fire. Therefore, fire is unlikely to serve as a “punishment” for those in Hell. Hell is often described as dark yet filled with flames (Matthew 8:12). If taken literally, this description seems contradictory; it suggests Hell is not solely a place of fire. Additionally, Mark 9:46 mentions both worms and fire. If Hell were entirely composed of fire, the worms would not survive. Fire is a metaphorical language of judgment, as seen in Deuteronomy 9 and other passages. God goes before Israel as a consuming fire, symbolizing His judgment. When He judges Canaan, He does not destroy them with fire, but His judgment is still present. (The argument above is taken from The Apologetics Study Bible.)
The question arises: how could God allow people to spend eternity in Hell? Isn’t that an incredibly long time? First, God is infinite. His holiness is infinite, his wrath against sin is infinite, and his judgment is infinite. Second, no, it is not time at all. Time itself is a creation (Genesis 1:1,5,14-19), and it too has been corrupted by sin (Romans 8:22), and is in need of redemption (Ephesians 5:16, Colossians 4:5). In the end its redemption is the same as ours – time as we know it will no longer exist once again.
In eternity, time does not flow endlessly as it does in our earthly experience. Furthermore, God created us to live eternally; we are not intended to perish. God is not nihilistic; we continue to be valuable in his sight whether we choose Heaven or Hell; he does not wish for the destruction of His creation. He does not simply erase us from existence.
God desires for people to make their own choices and use their free will to follow Him or not, because He is a God of love. He does not want forced or coerced obedience. While He longs for us to love and follow Him, it must be our choice, a decision we make willingly. Love requires a choice; you must choose to love rather than be compelled to do so. He seeks a relationship with us, but it must be reciprocal. Just as He chose us, He wants us to choose Him in return.
Featured: Christ’s Descent into Hell, by a Follower of Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1530-1560).
