There are competing ideas about who God is and what He expects of us. Many people outside the Church have their own ideas about Him, often ideas which are not supported by the Bible. They take the little that they know and fill in the blanks out of their own imaginations, essentially creating an image of God that fits what they want Him to be, rather than what He is.
Part of the reason for this is pure ignorance. When you don’t really know who God is, but have heard a little, it’s natural to try and fill in the remainder. But sadly, these people often prefer their ignorance, because they are afraid of what they’ll find in the Bible. They don’t want to find out that they are wrong or that they might have to change. It’s much easier to change God, than to allow Him to change us.
Part of the common imagination about God is the idea that we all get to go to heaven. Put another way, they say that all roads lead to heaven. “After all,” they say, “a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell.”
There are two mistakes they are making with this declaration. The first is that God wouldn’t care about who He lets into heaven and the second is that God would send people to hell. Let me ask you; would you want someone in your home, who won’t obey your rules and who does things that you consider destructive? I know a lot of parents who would just love to kick their own kids out the door, because they don’t obey. Yet we expect God to allow us into His heaven, even if we don’t obey Him.
Why Would God Want us in His Heaven?
Most people are rather particular about who they will let into their homes, choosing to limit that pretty much to family and friends. They may go a bit farther, allowing some acquaintances in; but most of us wont’ allow anyone in our home who we don’t have a positive relationship with. Our home is something we reserve to ourselves and want to maintain that control.
Expecting someone to invite a total stranger into their home, without a very valid reason is unreasonable. Taking that a step further, expecting them to invite someone who is an enemy; someone who ridicules them; someone who causes them problems; or someone who has maligned them is even much more unreasonable. Yet saying that anyone can get into heaven is expecting that of God.
Yes, God is loving and yes, He is bigger than we are. God will forgive things that we never would. But that’s not the same as saying that God would open the doors of heaven to someone who is figuratively slapping Him in the face, while they are still slapping.
Heaven is God’s home; one which He willingly shares with His children. But that’s not the same as sharing it with those who aren’t His children; those who choose not to be His children. He doesn’t refuse salvation to any who ask; so, why should He allow those who haven’t asked or who haven’t received what He has freely offered, entrance into His home?
Does God Send People to Hell?
The bigger question is the second one; a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. Yes, God is a loving God; the Bible tells us so. But the way that the Bible defines love and the way that we define love aren’t necessary the same thing.
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. – 1 John 4:8
John goes on to repeat this same phrase, “God is love” later on in the same chapter (1 John 4:16), putting emphasis on the idea that God and love are inseparable. God does not exist outside his loving nature. But that nature and what we think of as love probably aren’t the same thing.
People today define love in one of two common ways. The first is romantic love, which is often nothing more than lust. There are a lot of people in the world today who can’t see beyond their lust, thinking that it is love. But even if we take those people out of the equation, romantic love at its finest isn’t the same as God’s love. He doesn’t have romantic feelings towards us and doesn’t expect us to have them towards Him.
The other definition of love is better described as “coddling,” an indulgent act, allowing the person to get away with anything. Whatever they do is right. The converse of that, not accepting what someone believes or does is now seen by society as hatred, even if we don’t see it because we are concerned for their safety. People have always liked the idea of God allowing them to do whatever they want to, without telling them “No.”
But that’s not a biblical definition of love; it’s a definition that makes God conform to our will, rather than asking us to conform to His will. Fortunately, the Bible gives us a clear definition of love, as God understands it.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself (boast), is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
It’s possible to twist that definition to just about anything one might want, if that’s their goal. For example, “bears all things” can be taken to mean that God “bears my idiosyncrasies” which are otherwise known as sin. Likewise, God “believing all things” can be twisted to mean that God believes in me, even though I don’t believe in Him. But we all know that such twisting of scripture doesn’t change its meaning, it’s merely an attempt for unrighteous people to try and paint themselves as righteous.
While God fulfills everything in that definition of love, it’s really not about what He is supposed to be doing, but rather about what we are. God doesn’t need to be told how to love any more than He needs others trying to redefine it for Him.
God also says that “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (Proverbs 13:24). That’s clearly not a picture of love where one is just giving the other person what they want. Children don’t want the rod of correction, although they all need it. So, there’s a definite aspect of love which has much more to offer people what they need, rather than what they want. This applies to God’s love towards us too, as He doesn’t always give us what we want; but will give us what we need. Sometimes, what we want will do us more harm than good and He has the wisdom to realize that.
How Do People End Up Going to Hell?
But just what does that have to do with people going to hell?
First of all, God doesn’t send anyone to hell, they’re going there on their own. Rather than sending them there, He’s trying to stop them. He has given us a way to get out of hell, a literal “get out of hell free card” if we are just willing to accept it. He sent His Son to die on the cross, so that we would not have to go to hell.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world though Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. – John 3:16-18
Verse 17 there is probably the best known, most quoted verse in the New Testament. But it’s the following two verses that we’re interested in right now. Verse 17 clearly states the purpose of Jesus Christ coming into the world – to save the world. At the same time, it says that He didn’t come to condemn the world. Sending people to Hell would definitely qualify as condemning the world. So, if He isn’t condemning them to Hell, who is? How are so many people going there?
Verse 18 answers that question for us, telling us that those who do not believe in Jesus are already condemned. How? They condemn themselves, by saying they want nothing to do with God. In other words, people are headed to Hell on their own and God is trying to stop them from going there. That’s why Jesus came and died on the cross.
Was Hell Created to Punish Us?
Hell was never created for man; but was created by God as a place to lock up the fallen archangel, Lucifer, who became Satan after his fall, along with the one-third of the angels who followed him in his rebellion. Knowing his ultimate destination, the devil is trying to take as many with him as he can. He’s not trying to do that because he particularly hates us, we’re not that important. Rather, he’s doing it because it is a way of striking out at God.
The Bible only gives us so much information about God; but the key thing is that Hell is a place apart from God’s presence. Since God is good and all good emanates from Him, any place which is outside His presence is clearly going to be evil. Just as cold is the lack of heat and darkness is the lack of light, evil is the lack of the presence of good.
The Bible speaks of Hell as a place of eternal torment (Revelation 14:11). In reality, all it would take is for people to find themselves there, after rejecting Christ’s atoning sacrifice in this life, for them to torment themselves with regret. There’s no need for God to create anything to torment them. For that matter, the image of devils and demons tormenting people in hell is a cartoon image; not a Biblical representation of what Hell is really like. However, one thing from that cartoon image of hell is true. That is, that the lowest part of hell is a lake of fire. It has been prepared there as a place for Satan and those who work with him to receive punishment. Others, who are sinners, shall join him there.
The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. – Revelations 20:11
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. – Revelations 20:15
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. – Revelations 21:8
Please note that all these people being talked about have been offered the saving grace of redemption through Jesus Christ and his death on the altar. It is their refusal to accept the atonement that has been made for them, which will cause them to go to Hell. They don’t want God, so they will go to where God is not. That means hell. Whether they actually end up in the Lake of Fire or some other part of Hell is not clear in the Bible.
Each of them could have chosen the way of salvation; even if it was never preached to them. There have been many times when missionaries made first contact with unreached people groups who knew the gospel message, without anyone preaching it to them. All they were missing was to know the name of Jesus. Once the missionaries supplied that, their faith was made whole.
King David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalms 19:1). Nature herself speaks of a creator God, so there is no reason not to know of His existence. Abraham looked for God, because He saw God’s handiwork. He didn’t come from a people who all worshiped Jehovah God. But God revealed Himself to Abraham, in response to Abraham’s faith. That’s the way it works and only those who believe get into God’s heaven.