07.06.07
Why Would A Loving God Send Anyone To Hell?
An all “to familiar” question when sharing your faith is captured in the title of this article.
“Why do some Churches and Christians insist on preaching Hell?”
“If God is love, why would He send anyone to Hell?”
“Didn’t Jesus die for my sins, so why should I worry about it?”
Faithful Christians preach about Hell because Jesus did!
It is true that denominations and Christians alike will disagree on the interpretation of passages about hell but I will state a fact: The loving Savior, Jesus Christ, taught more about hell than any other person combined in the entire Bible.
To prove this, find a topical bible (these bibles categorize passages into various topics) and then turn to the topic of “Hell”, read each passage, and see for yourself who was responsible for bringing us the majority of our teaching on this subject.
To NOT teach others about hell would be to NOT teach the Doctrine of Christ.
To be honest, this god that people make up in their minds, the one that does not punish evil, is a god that is unjust and unholy and truly is unloving. I will explain this later, but for now, if these accusers would just stop and think they could see that their god is nothing like the God of the Bible.
In fact, most of the Bible has to be denied or ignored to make such a statement that “God won’t send anyone to hell.”
For example consider this passage:
Heb 10:26-3126 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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Let us reason together, if you truly love something, then in that love, you must hate other things. For example, I have beautiful children, fearfully and wonderfully made by God, and I love them immensely and that is why I hate when someone hurts them physically or emotionally. My love for them provokes my anger in such a time.
If you truly love the light then you will hate the darkness, for darkness is lights rival. If you love righteousness, you will hate unrighteousness.
Let me personalize this. Think about the people that you love, what if they were blatantly lied to, taken advantage of, beaten or raped, or worse, murdered. If any one of these crimes were committed against your loved ones you would cry out for justice.
Ah Justice! This is what is missing from this argument. Take their loved ones and exceedingly sin against them, (Blaspheme against them, dishonor them, commit adultery, unspeakable acts, etc) and now, yes, now we hear their cry for justice. Isn’t there going to be a punishment for these crimes, they say?
So the same is true with God and even greater are the Truths.
I must note that our love cannot even begin to compare to His love and the justice that mankind can conceive is not even close to the justice we will come to know if we do not repent and turn from our ways.
Luke 13:3
3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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So why then did Jesus die for us? There is not enough time in my short life to thoroughly answer that question but for this articles purpose I will give two reasons: It was for Love and for Justice.
LOVE:
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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And Justice:
Prov 17:15
15 He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
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You see according to the teachings of God, it is an “abomination” for Him or anyone else to justify the wicked. According to His own word, He cannot possibly justify our sins by saying “I will forget about all your transgressions and render no punishment at all.”
In other words, because of our wickedness, our sin, we owe a debt, and Justice has to be served if God is ”Just” (and He is). Someone has to be punished; to simply justify wickedness would be an “abomination” according to the book of Proverbs.
When Jesus died on the cross, crushed and abandoned by His own Father, Justice for your sin was served. Remember, Jesus had no sin.
2 Cor 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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His punishment was for your sin. You cannot accuse God of being unjust. All one has to do is look to the cross, look at what He did to His own Son if you question His justice.
Rom 3:24-26
Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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So now that it is clear, we come back to the love of Jesus. Jesus did not have to justify you but He chose to lay down His own life because He loves you.
John 10:17-18
17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
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So what does God want from us: He desires compassion, He looks to the one whose heart is broken and contrite. He asks you to repent and believe!
Isa 66:2
2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
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Mark 1:14-15
14 And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
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For the Truth of my King
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