“Do you know where you’ll go when you die?”
That was the question I was taught in my youth to ask others when sharing my faith (or “witnessing”). Winning souls for Christ and saving them from the “fires of Hell” was (we were taught) of the utmost importance.
During my childhood and early teen years, my parents and I attended a fundamentalist Baptist church in Fauquier County, Virginia. And I was also a student at a private Christian school in Fairfax, Virginia. We later moved to Fairfax County and worshipped at the church which hosted the school I attended.
Throughout my childhood and teen years, I was taught that the Bible was God’s Word and that Jesus was the only Way of salvation. And, yes, there was plenty of “hellfire and brimstone” to go around.
Many of you reading this today (especially those of you who didn’t grow up in church, especially in the pre-Internet American church days of door-to-door, soulwinning evangelism) will likely find the above confession to be alarming, if not repugnant.
Indeed, the doctrine of hell is among the most controversial beliefs of evangelical or fundamentalist Christianity today. I recently saw one commentator on Twitter who called belief in hell both “incomprehensibly stupid” and “vicious.”
It isn’t just atheists or agnostics who push back against the idea of hell. Lisa Beth Wright, a popular writer on the Medium platform, grew up in a Southern Baptist environment and still identifies as a Christian. In an article titled “If God Is Love — The Existence of Hell Is Obscene,” Wright says “the bottom line for me is this—I can’t believe in a loving God and a place of eternal torment at the same time.”
Dan Foster, a “progressive Christian” writer on Medium, says the very idea of hell is incompatible with love. He goes so far as to say that “the only way to truly love and follow Jesus is to ditch the notion of Hell altogether.”
How you see the issue of eternal punishment in hell comes down to your starting position. If you believe God is real, then you’ll want to know what God says about the subject. That will lead you to consulting the texts of your faith tradition. If you’re Muslim, you’ll like to the Quran. If you’re a Christian like me, you turn to the Bible.
In the Christian context, how you see the Bible also factors into your starting point. Many who identify as Christian (including the two Medium writers mentioned above) don’t necessarily embrace the Bible as the authoritative, inerrant word of the Living God. Therefore…
If you believe in God but don’t believe in the Bible, you’re likely to rely on your intuition, your experience, or your study of other sources.
And if you don’t believe in God, then you see religion as a human construct. And likewise, you see hell as a human construct. And you’re likely to strongly agree with the following observation by the outspoken atheist scientist Richard Dawkins:
Religion has been a powerful weapon in the hands of governments, in the hands of priests, in the hands of kings who have used it as a weapon to keep down the populace. It is a wonderful way of disciplining people and making them do what you want, to tell them that if they don’t do what you want they will, for example, go to Hell.
Speech by Richard Dawkins at the Syndney Writers’ Festival, September 8, 2007
And let’s be clear: Dawkins is correct. Governments and religious establishments have used religion, including the fear of punishment in the after-life, to manipulate and control people over the years.
It’s understandable that people are guarded and skeptical when it comes to the subject of hell.
For this reason, let me state very clearly: I want to convey only love and compassion to you. And I believe God loves you — regardless of your background, race, color, gender, orientation, beliefs, or any other factor. As a Christian, I believe in the sanctity of human life and the inherent sacred value of each and every human being. And, as a citizen of the United States, I support religious freedom.
The question, though, still remains:
Is Hell real?
Ultimately, our emotional concerns and doubts don’t determine truth. And our inability to understand something doesn’t change the reality of that something.
Again, it’s not my desire or intention to force my beliefs on anyone or scare anyone into accepting Christianity. I would prefer to lead with love and not fear. And certainly not anger. As a Christian and as a pastor, I try to put love front and center.
It’s God’s love that I want to emphasize and what I want to be associated with – not screaming at people about the fires of hell and damnation.
But…
I also want to be associated with what’s true and real. And if I ignore or downplay the truth in order to be more popular or socially palatable, am I not doing a disservice as a pastor and teacher of the Bible?
Given the realities of people’s short attention spans, I can’t go into deep theology with this post. It’s already getting a little too long. So, allow me to keep this as basic as possible and address this sensitive subject from a very high level and (hopefully) a practical one.
Here is my main contention:
If God is real and His attributes include love and justice, and if evil exists, then justice must be done for that evil — including on those committed to that evil.
This understanding of hell is not incompatible with love. Rather, it is necessary if love has any relevant or worthwhile meaning.
Virtually everyone who claims to believe in God associates God with love. The Bible certainly does. The Apostle John is explicit:
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
I John 4:7-8
“God is love.” You can’t get any clearer or more emphatic than that. And…
The Bible claims that God loves the world (see John 3:16). Yet…
There is evil in the world. So, I ask you….
How can God be a God of love if He allows intentional, wanton cruelty toward those He claims to love to go completely unpunished?
Since we know evil is real and evil isn’t always punished (at least not in consistent or what we would deem fair proportions) in this life, then…
There must be a reckoning of some kind in the after-life.
Indeed, it was in this very context that Paul gives this assurance to the church in Thessalonica:
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
II Thessalonians 1:7-9
The first century church was often under intense persecution – cultural, legal, political, and sometimes lethal persecution. And Paul is assuring them that God is just and there will be “vengeance.” Those who deserve it will be “punished with everlasting destruction.”
But… people often say… maybe I can understand barbaric monsters going to hell? But everyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus? That seems petty and unfair.
Their understanding of the Bible is a caricature. They see God depicted as some callous Deity peering imperiously from His Throne capriciously denying entrance into Heaven on technicalities. In reality…
We all fall short of God’s glory.
That’s not a technicality. It’s a fact.
Once you accept the fact that evil must be judged, then (to be intellectually consistent) you must accept that all evil — all sin — must be judged and punished. And well…
That means the entire human race is facing judgment, because…
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
This is the inescapable reality. There may be (I would say “are”) degrees of sin in this world, but all of us have sinned. All of us fall short of God’s glory. Therefore, all of us have things for which we must give an account and face judgment.
Every single one of us.
Please don’t dismiss the importance of this fact.
God exists. He is a God of love and justice. Evil exists. Therefore, evil must be judged. We all have some evil in us. Therefore, all of us must be judged.
These are the facts. They are inescapable — no matter how emotionally unsettling or inconvenient.
Therefore, it is not only logical, but inevitable, that some type of “hell” or punishment in the after-life exists. It has to. Otherwise, reality itself would make no sense.
I understand that Christians often preach and teach hell in an unloving, often cruel, manner. It seems that some professing Christians take a kind of gleeful enjoyment that certain people are destined for hell. It’s this tendency which led atheist writer Sam Harris to say the following:
As long as a Christian believes that only his baptized brethren will be saved on the Day of Judgment, he cannot possibly ‘respect’ the beliefs of others, for he knows that the flames of hell have been stoked by these very ideas and await their adherents even now.
Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Harris is correct when it comes to many (most?) Christians. That’s how many Christians see things, but remember that Jesus told us to “love your neighbor as yourself” and made no distinction based on which neighbors agree with our faith and which do not. Moreover, Peter tells us to “honour everyone” (I Peter 2:17a) and Paul tells us: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men” (Galatians 6:10a).
If Christians do what the Bible says, then it’s very possible to believe in sin, hell, salvation, and the Bible — and still love, respect, and honor those with whom we disagree. That is how it should be.
Even when those we deem wicked come against us, we are called to respond in love. Jesus says we are to “love your enemies,” and Paul says we must “overcome evil with good.” In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul wrote:
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:19-21
God’s love and compassion are seen in both the Old and New Testament — even when God’s wrath and judgment are in focus. For example, when Israel faced impending judgment, God spoke through His prophet, Ezekiel, pleading for them to repent. Here is God dictating what He wanted His prophet to say:
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11
In the New Testament, Peter likewise echoes this sentiment:
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
II Peter 3:9-10
Yes, judgment is coming. But God is “longsuffering.” He is patient. He is merciful. And He is “not willing that any should perish.”
There’s obviously a lot more to be said on this exceedingly important topic. For this article, I merely wanted to show that the existence of an eternal state of punishment is not only compatible with, but essential to, the Bible’s description of a God of love and justice.
Without punishment, there is no justice.
Of course, there is one exception — one ray of hope.
And that’s when God takes upon Himself the sins of the world and takes divine judgment in our place. To explain this, I give you the words of Jesus Himself. Here is John’s account of Jesus’ explanation of sin, punishment, and grace to religious leader named Nicodemus:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
John 3:3-21
The idea that Jesus is the Way of salvation is offensive to many, because it seems so exclusive. But truth, by its nature, is exclusive. What matters is not whether this offends you. What matters is…
Is it true?
Don’t think of this in terms of Christians drawing up rules to favor them and leave others out. I understand that is your view if you see religion or the Bible as a human construct, but I believe God is real (and the evidence for this is overwhelming). The supernatural is real. And it is in our best interests to pay attention.
If you are lost at sea and a boat comes up to rescue you, well…
That’s the boat available to rescue you.
You may not like the color of the boat. You may not like the design of the boat. You may have serious concerns about the people on the boat. You may feel like it’s unfair you are in that position at all. But none of that matters.
What matters is you’re lost at sea and a boat has come to rescue you.
Likewise, we are lost without God.
It’s not for us to determine truth. It’s for us to respond to it. And it’s not for us to judge God. It’s God who judges us. And who is choosing to show us grace.
God is opening His arms to you in His love, mercy, and compassion.
I’m not asking you to trust religion. I’m not asking you to trust Christianity. I’m asking you to trust Christ.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. But either way, I wish you nothing but the best in your spiritual journey. May God bless you as you reflect on His love, grace, and mercy.
