Answers to Tough Questions - Challenges from Skeptics

How could a loving God send people to hell?

Ravi Zacharias, the evangelist, says the first question he gets in India is, “Are you saying Gandhi is in hell?” In our pluralistic age, it is difficult for people to accept that God would send “good” people (like Gandhi) to hell. How could He do that if He is so loving? Here are some ways to answer that question.

Truth is truth no matter what you think of it. People most likely ask this question because the doctrine of hell is offensive to them, so they wish to deny its existence altogether. But imagine a driver who sees a curve ahead in the road and says, “I don’t like that curve so I am going to ignore it and go straight.” In doing so he goes right over a cliff. Truth is like a curve in the road—it does not change if you do not like it. No truth was ever altered by believing it was not true [Jack Bennett].

The Man of Love spoke most often about hell. Jesus is universally recognized as tremendously loving, yet he is the one who speaks most frequently about hell in the Bible. (See especially Matthew 25:31-46, the parable of the sheep and the goats.) Jesus’ recurring teaching about judgment and hell shows that these things are not inconsistent with tremendous love.

The “Divine tape recorder.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2). Think about it this way: every time you say or think a critical thought a little divine tape recorder silently records it. Day after day, all of your judgments and muttered curses slowly accumulate. Think of everything you have ever said about others, either to their faces or behind their backs. At judgment day, this tape will be played back to evaluate your life. Could God be fairer? Your own words will be your judge.

This could be why Paul writes, “every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). God’s justice will be so completely just, so perfect, that the whole courtroom will fall silent when his judgment is pronounced. No one will cry, “That’s not fair” [Dr. Tim Keller].

Do not judge the Judge. As Americans, we are so used to evaluating and voting that we think we can do that with God. But God has not made us to be little gods; though we are created in his image, we are His subordinates. He is the Creator and we are the created. He makes the rules, therefore He alone can judge. We have no right to judge Him, nor does He have to justify His judgments. God never tells Job why he permitted Satan to take his family away. Isaiah says, “Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor?” (Isaiah 40:13).

God is a merciful Judge. Time after time, Scripture demonstrates that God’s judgment is not overly harsh—in fact, it is repeatedly merciful. Consider David’s sin of counting the army of Israel. When the prophet of God confronted David, he gave David three choices: Three years of famine (nature), three months of war (man), or three days of the angel of death (God). David jumped at the chance to be judged directly by God. He said to the prophet Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men” (II Samuel 24:14).

The Consequences of Rejecting Divine Judgment. Implicit in the question, “How can a loving God send people to hell?” is that people are good and do not deserve such harsh punishment. Rabbi Kushner asks the famous question, Why do bad things happen to good people? He captures our society’s assumption that people are good and do not deserve to have bad things happen to them. This thinking causes people to look to God as though He owes us forgiveness almost like Santa Claus owes us toys. Given this idea of God, it is unthinkable that God would send anyone to hell. This, more than anything, underlies our culture’s dislike of hell.

Rabbi Kushner answers his question by saying that God cannot control evil. He is not all-powerful, but is swept along by forces larger than Himself-by the twin forces of good and evil, which are in eternal competition. (Philosophers call this idea dualism. Taoism is an eastern form of dualism.) In this scheme, you too are set adrift in a sea of chaos. You may pray to God if you want, but he might not be strong enough to help you. But, of course, Kushner underestimates the power of Almighty God. He is all-powerful, and He is all-good. He is able to conquer evil. So many people object to the existence of hell, but the existence of hell means that God will, one day, destroy evil completely and forever.

As Kushner underestimates God, he (and our culture) greatly overestimate the goodness of people. Instead of Kushner’s question, we should be asking, Why is God so patient with bad people? When Jesus is told of a report of an atrocity committed by Pilate, he says, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:2). Paul’s comments are similar: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are not good people to whom bad things happen. We are bad people to whom tremendous mercy and grace are shown by a loving God. Hell is where we deserve to go, and where we are sent only after we reject a lifetime of opportunity to submit to God in Christ Jesus.

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