How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?

We yearn for justice.

While on vacation last week I saw the Netflix series on the Einsatzgruppen, the Nazi death squads that ventured into Eastern Europe to round up and murder some 90,000 Jews in Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and other places.

It was a sobering series; hard to fathom how a group of people could be so sadistic and full of hate, to actually attempt to exterminate an entire race.

The series taught that even when the defeat of the Nazis was apparent, they were still sending Jews to the concentration camps to be tortured and gassed.

What is most appalling is that out of the 3,000 perpetrators of such war crimes, only 200 of them were tried. Many of the murderers returned to their prewar jobs as constables and traffic cops.

There is something in us that cries for justice when we see such things. Where does this sense of justice come from? Is there a place for punishment when such behavior takes place here on earth? The answer is yes.

Today, we conclude our series on the questions raised in Rebecca McLaughlin's book, Confronting Christianity. This morning we consider the question: “How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?”

Let us first consider that...

Jesus often spoke of hell, God’s place for justice.

In our passage of Matthew 10, Jesus is preparing His disciples as they live in an unfriendly world. He says that they should be careful of the wolves in verse 16, which are also evil men in verse 17. He warns them of persecutors in verse 23. And finally, Jesus tells them that they will be delivered over to the authorities and will suffer because of their loyalty to Jesus.

But at this warning, he never advises them to be afraid. In fact he tells them not be be afraid, but rather be at peace in such times because the Holy Spirit will give them the words that they should say.

And finally, he puts it all in perspective, when He states in Matthew 10:28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Jesus spoke often of hell. He brought it up in his teachings and in his stories. One of those is the story of the Rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16:19-31. In it, Jesus gives vivid detail of the afterlife.

It is a place of great thirst and heat;

It is a place of loneliness and regret;

It is a place of longing to inform others to avoid. Lazarus wanted to inform his brothers.

Hell exists to make things equitable. Notice what Jesus said to Lazarus, who was in hell in Luke 16:25: “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

Hell is the destination of those who have been judged rightly. It is in complete agreement with Hebrews 9:27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

Just as Dr. Drake said last week, live for the line, not the dot. The fool is the one who lives for the dot, who thinks that this is all that there is. He did not hide its reality from His disciples. He informed them that it was a legitimate place and that He had come so that people would not fall under condemnation, and thus reside in hell.

Consider his words elsewhere in the gospels. For example, His statements in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5:22:

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

And in verse 29 of that same chapter, part of the Sermon on the Mount...

Matthew 5:29 ESV

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Now we are not to think that Jesus is advocating that we go around mutilating ourselves. But he is using hyperbole as a teaching instrument: an exaggerated statement to make a point. In other words, so serious is sin that it is better to be maimed and spiritually fit, than to be physically whole and live a life of sin.

For Jesus, hell was a real place. He spoke of it as the place where “the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.” (Mark 9:48). And so we should never deny hell’s existence.

The Bible lovingly informs us of hell and its necessity.

The truth is that many other places in the New Testament speaks of God’s judgment and hell in plain terms.

For example, He is the final place for those who are indifferent to Jesus and the goodness of God. Consider Revelation 20:11

Revelation 20:11–15 ESV

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Dr. J. Christy Wilson, who served for over 30 years in the country of Afghanistan, taught against annihilationism because he felt that it was a deterrent to missions. If there is no hell where there is everlasting torment, why care for the nations? But this is why we do missions, because we are loving and do not want any to perish, but for all to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, said:

“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

From a Biblical and theological standpoint, hell is necessary. The following are just a few of the reasons. First of all...

Hell is necessary because God is holy. As fallen human beings, we do not know the gravity of our sin. We think “well everyone’s doing it, so it’s okay.” But God is the determiner of right and wrong. And because he is that determiner, any transgression against His holy character is infinitely shameful and demands infinite punishment.

Kevin DeYoung rightly points out:

“God’s justice demands that sin and rebellion and idolatry not go unpunished. We often struggle to embrace God’s right to execute justice, but when the referee blown a call against our team, we’ll stand up and yell at the television. When our insurance company refuses to pay what the policy says they should, we’ll get downright indignant. We all have a sense of justice. But somehow we don’t think God can be concerned for justice when He is wronged.” (DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot, 35)

But this does not set well with many in western secular culture. Rebecca McLaughlin points out,

“We 21st century Westerners hate judgement. We fear being judgmental and blame horrific crimes on mental health problems, religious extremism or educational deficits. And yet, when we hear of callous murders, carefully planned terrorism, or systematic abuse, part of us still yearns for justice.” (McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity, 209).

But as we cannot make up our minds about justice, we must know that the God of the universe is infinitely aware of right and wrong. He observes every act of injustice and will one day judge every sin. 2 Chronicles 16:9 states: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth...” And Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Hell is necessary because God is holy. Secondly...

Hell exists because of sin. And sin exists because of us. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, as he was imprisoned in a Russian gulag, said:

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either- but right through every human heart.” (McLaughlin, 213)

Hell exists because of the injustice in the world. And injustice exists because of sin.

Jesus came to this world, so that we would not have to go to hell. And it is to that very condition that Jesus comes to this earth to minister to us and show us who the Father is. And that it was the Father who sent the Son into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Christ is the way out of hell, for He suffered the pains of hell for us when He died on the cross and uttered the words: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

But make no mistake. There will be a day of reckoning. Jesus followed up by saying in John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

Please understand that Jesus came so that you would not have to undergo the wrath of God for your sin. It is not God’s nature to be knee-jerk angry. Remember how the Lord describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

This description came after the people were delivered from Egypt; after they complained about the conditions; and after they turned their backs on God and worshipped the golden calf.

And He is slow to anger towards the nations. Remember it was hundreds of years before He chose to judge the Egyptians or the other nations, as in the Amorites, as we read in Genesis 15:16 “16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.””

CONCLUSION

And so the Bible plainly teaches that there is a hell. And it is highly advisable to avoid that place. And the only way to avoid that place is by trusting Christ. And that is what is beautiful about the Christian faith, is that it provides a way of avoiding the inevitable. Rebecca McLaughlin states:

“Christianity is like a searchlight. On the one hand, it confronts us with a God who sees our thoughts. He knows our hearts and our pretense, our words and our deeds. The parts we work so hard to hide are laid before him, and the one person with the right to judge has all the evidence. And yet the searchlight that could expose us as Fugitive criminals is trained on us as lost children. This God is looking for us, longing for us, calling to us to come home.” (McLaughlin, 214).