Special Mid-Summer Bible Conversation on Hard Sayings in the Bible (Question 4 - Hell))

 

1.    Why does God send people to hell if He is a God of love? (note the emphasis)

For many years many Christians have been taught either directly or indirectly, that if we sin, God will send us to hell. What is hell? There are two definitions. 

• First, it is the definition of grave or the state of the dead. The Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus descended into hell at His death -see page 53 in the Book of Common Prayer. In this instance, the words “Hades” and “Sheol” are interchangeable with the word “hell”. 
• The second definition of hell is that it is eternal separation from God, an existence in complete darkness. The Bible uses the image of fire to represent complete destruction of any hope of life again in the “light”; in human experience the only persons who, by God’s Divine will, literally lived in a fire without a speck of smoke on them nor any singe of fire on them were Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, as recorded in Daniel chapter 3. Their being cast into the fiery furnace because they refused to worship the king. The king was so enraged (after all, he had conquered the entire nation and now here were 3 upstarts who thought that their wills were unconquerable), that he ordered the fire to be “cranked up” high to the highest heat level possible; the heat of the fire destroyed the very guards who cast them into the fire. Fire destroys completely; no one could reassemble ashes back to their original form. Thus, the Bible speaks of this definition of hell when it describes a permanent separation from God as the “lake of fire” or “eternal fire”. If you have ever been in a house fire where the heat escalates and the electricity fails, so that the black smoke all but eliminates a person’s ability to see their hand before their face, use that picture to understand what this permanent separation could look and feel like. Complete and eternal darkness.

So, the question: why does God send people to hell? The answer: God does not send people to hell.

The fact is, people are already condemned to go to hell because they are sinners, obeying the god of darkness (compare Ephesians 2:1-4). Because of that humanly irreversible sin condition and the rebellion attached to it, God’s wrath is naturally upon them – regardless of what they themselves, or anyone else says otherwise. But God, who in His great love and mercy for those created in His image, gave his only begotten Son as the means to escape the wrath. Let’s see that at Romans 5:6-11, and also the clearly spoken illustrative declaration by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46. As Jesus indicates, the lake of fire what we call hell, was created for the devil and his angels from before time because of their rebellion to God. Since the fall of man in the garden, we have been obliged to follow the king of all rebellion into the same fate as he and his demons because of our inherited sin and accompanying lifestyle and allegiance to the devil’s world system. Let's say that you are on a cruise ship and something happens that is causing the ship to slowly sink. The ship releases its lifeboats; the Coast Guard rushes to the scene with additional lifeboats. What is the purpose of the lifeboat? To rescue someone from certain death. Between the two rescue options, there are more than enough lifeboats to save everyone on board the cruise ship. What would you do: get into a lifeboat, or take your chances with the sinking ship? After all, all of your possessions that you brought on board are still in the cruise ship and maybe there is still time to run and grab them! Do you pass up a seat in the lifeboat in the hopes that you will be able to retrieve the precious items and get on one of the lifeboats when you reach the deck? That's the same scenario that faces all of us: God has made a provision for deliverance from the sinking ship through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, and accepting Him as Lord and Savior. He is the Lifeboat. Will you choose to accept Him, or will you cling to those things that give you pleasure, wealth, feel-good vibes, etc. and try the Lifeboat later? Or maybe you have already chosen...