How Can A Loving God Send People To Hell

Judgment

In our culture, divine judgment is one of Christianity’s most offensive doctrines.

In our culture, divine judgment is one of Christianity’s most offensive doctrines.

“The only God that is believable to me is a God of love. The Bible’s God is no more than a primitive deity who must be appeased with pain and suffering.”

Misconception 1: Love and wrath or anger can’t coexist

How can a God of love also be a God filled with wrath and anger? How would you answer that question?

All loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love.

All loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love.

In one of my after-service discussions a woman told me that the very idea of a judging God was offensive. I said, “Why aren’t you offended by the idea of a forgiving God?”

How can a God of love be also a God filled with wrath and anger? All loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite of but because of their love.

Example of someone hurting a loved one

People like the idea of a loving God, but not of a judging one

Example of a unjust judgmental verdict

Anger isn’t the opposite of love, hate is…and the final form of hate is indifference. -Becky Pippert

Anger isn’t the opposite of love, hate is…and the final form of hate is indifference.

Misconception 2: If you believe in a God of judgement, you will not approach enemies with a desire to reconcile with them

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment? Why?

If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence…that God would not be worthy of worship.

The only means of prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God.

Theologian Miroslav Volf reasons that it is the lack of belief in a God of vengeance that “secretly nourishes violence.” If I don’t believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation.

Theologian Miroslav Volf reasons that it is the lack of belief in a God of vengeance that “secretly nourishes violence.” If I don’t believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation.

Suppose we lived in a world without justice or consequences and someone killed a family member of yours. How would you respond?

What if that person was sentenced to prison for life or possibly even put on death row for their actions. What would your impulses be then?

In the end then, it is my belief in a God of justice and judgment that causes me to reconcile with my enemies in stead of enacting revenge on them.

Misconception 3: How judgment and Hell work

What is your understanding of how hell and judgment work?

Modern people inevitably think that hell works like this: God gives us time, but if we haven’t made the right choices by the end of our lives, he casts our souls into hell for all eternity. As the poor souls fall through space, they cry out for mercy, but God says “Too late, you had your chance! Now you will suffer!”

Read

In short, Hell is simply one’s freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.

Highlight vs. 19

People loved darkness over light

Lest their works should be exposed

Our eternal separation from God is rooted in a desire to act and identify independently of Him

In short, Hell is simply one’s freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.

There are only two kinds of people....those who say, “Thy will be done” to God or those to whom God in the end says, “Thy will be done.”

There are only two kinds of people....those who say, “Thy will be done” to God or those to whom God in the end says, “Thy will be done.” - C.S Lewis

“You think I’m wrong about these religious questions, and I think you are wrong. Why doesn’t that make you as narrow minded as me?”

Misconception 4: Where do people get the idea that God is love?

“The only God that is believable to me is a God of love. The Bible’s God is no more than a primitive deity who must be appeased with pain and suffering.”

What are your thoughts? Where do people get the idea that God is a God of love?

Can they look at life in the world today, or even in history, and say, “This proves that the God of the world is a God of love?”

With one breath people claim a loving God can’t exist when you look at what happens around you, and with the same breath

Can they look at the religious texts of the world (apart from the Bible) and conclude that God is a God of love?

It must be concluded that the source of the idea that God is Love is the Bible itself.

The belief in a God of pure love....who accepts everyone and judges no one…is a powerful act of faith. Not only is there no evidence for it in the natural order, but there is almost no historical, religious textual support for it outside of Christianity.

The belief in a God of pure love....who accepts everyone and judges no one…is a powerful act of faith. Not only is there no evidence for it in the natural order, but there is almost no historical, religious textual support for it outside of Christianity.

Sticky Note Question: Cameron

Who wrote the Bible?

Worship songs: Mike

Heres My Heart Lord

Love Came Down