I can’t tell you how difficult I
have found the doctrine of hell to accept.
I doubt I am the only Christian who feels this way. During a time of depression, I just could not
accept the idea that our God who is love, would send people to hell. A friend of mine packed in his faith over
this doctrine, and I feared that I was going to join him. The doctrine of hell nearly shattered my
faith. So, I wrote down some ideas to
help us think through this doctrine.
The first thing I want to say is
that it can be a godly thing to be disturbed about the doctrine of hell. You do not struggle with this doctrine on
your own. You struggle with Jesus, who
wept over Jerusalem when he considered the judgement that was coming to it, and
who reminded them that while God longed to gather them under his wing, they
were not willing (Matthew 23:37-39). You
struggle with the apostle Paul, who saw the unbelief of his people, the Jews,
and said that he felt great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart (Romans
9:2). There are times when it is
appropriate for the doctrine of hell to make us miserable!
The second thing I want to point
out is that while we speak of God sending people to hell, there is a sense in
which God is simply giving people what they choose. To people who don’t want to accept God’s
mercy and live for Christ as their king, God says, ‘have your way!’ The responsibility for going to hell is
placed squarely on the shoulders of the people who go there. Paul writes, ‘they perish because they refuse
to love the truth and so be saved’ (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Theologian, J. I. Packer, writes, ‘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 [and women] what they chose in all its implications.’ Indeed, given that heaven centres upon the
adoration of the person of Jesus, there is a sense in which heaven would feel
like hell for those who do not love the Saviour
Thirdly, hell stands as a
terrible testimony to the hardness of the human heart in the face of amazing
love. Jesus sincerely invites all people
to come to him (Matthew 11:28). God
takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but would rather they repent and
live (Ezekiel 33:11). Yet people
continue to try to justify themselves and refuse to come to Jesus in repentance
and faith. Jesus doesn’t seem to be
shocked by the existence of hell, but he is dismayed over people’s stubborn
refusal to come to him for rescue.
The thing that I find hardest to
accept about hell is the eternal nature of the suffering of people there. Some evangelical theologians in the last
century toyed with the idea of annihilation (that hell would be the ceasing of
our existence). I would be much more
comfortable to believe annihilation is true, but the evidence is against it
(e.g. Revelation 14:11). Don Carson
points out that hell is not simply an eternal punishment for a finite lifetime
of sin. Hell is a place where the cycle
of rebellion and punishment continues for ever—for all eternity people continue
to resist God and they continue to receive God’s justice.
Fifthly, hell is a place of
justice. Those is heaven will look at
the existence of hell and agree that the judge of this world has done what is
right (Genesis 18:24). Indeed, even
those in hell will not be able to deny that their punishment is just. It is interesting that there seems to be
different degrees of suffering in hell that take into account differing degrees
of hardness in the human heart (11:24). We
might not feel it, but it would actually be worse if God simply ignored human
sin. The alternative to a God who judges
is a God who does not care if justice is done.
Sixthly, I realised that I had
allowed my view of God to be distorted as I considered this doctrine. I saw hell as the judgement of a
mean-spirited and vindictive deity.
However, we have to remember that it is Jesus who warns us most
consistently about hell and Jesus who comes as the judge. Jesus was capable of holy indignation and
righteous anger, but he was never vindictive, cruel or mean.
Seventhly, one of the most
significant reasons we struggle to accept the concept of hell is that we have
not given serious thought to how serious a thing sin is. This struck me when we were looking at the
cross of Christ in small group. There
was the darkness for three hours in the middle of the afternoon, signifying
God’s great displeasure. There was the
punishment of the Son of God, paying a price of infinite value to win a people
to God. There were the haunting words,
‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ (Matthew 27:46). Look at the cross and you will see how
seriously God takes human sin. Look at
the cross and you will see how far God goes to recue people from hell.
The doctrine of hell will make no
sense to us until we can see that hell is what our sin deserves. While we try to defend and excuse our sin,
God’s judgements and justice will seem unfair.
But if we are honest about the evil that we see in our hearts, we will
know that we have reason to be amazed that Christ has rescued us from
hell. Jesus warned us of our danger, the
Holy Spirit convicted us of our guilt, and the Father delighted to accept us as
his children as we came in repentance and faith. And don’t give up believing that what God has
done for you, he is willing to do for a great multitude (Revelation 7:9).
Finally, the doctrine of hell should
motivate us to lovingly warn people of God’s judgement and rescue. Rico Tice explains, ‘For me, as I look at
Jesus' life and the way he treated people, I see the most loving man who ever
lived. Even people who were rejected by the rest of the world were deeply
loved by him. The reason that Jesus warns us about Hell is surely that he
loves us and does not want us to go there. He knows that if we reject God
throughout our lives then ultimately God will be right to reject us. He
knows that our sin, if left undealt with, will take us to a place of
unimaginable and unending suffering. He warns us, because he loves us.’
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