How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?

Hell. Literally the bogeyman of Christianity. A place of torment, darkness and eternal damnation, far away from the paradise which is Heaven. A realm of the unfaithful, those who did not think the evidences provided were sufficient grounds to base their lives on one of millions of religions. Traditional Christianity believes that Hell, in all its horror, is real, yet claims the being who they worship is all loving. But how can this be so? Surely any being worthy of the title omnibenevolent would spare his creation the suffering of Hell? This controversial subject is swept under the carpet by many Christian institutions, with congregations never taught the true nature of Hell and thus leading  many of them to flounder in the face of questions by non-believers. Whilst I cannot offer a definitive point of view on such a vast topic, what I hope to do in this article is dis-spell prevalent myths about what Hell is in Christianity, and that both Hell and an all loving God are compatible.

The first thing to point out is that even if the sceptic demonstrates that the doctrine of Hell is incompatible with an all loving God, then it would show that the classical view of Hell is mistaken, not that of an all loving being existing. For example, eminent theologians such as Karl Barth, Marilyn Adams and Rob Bell have all claimed that in one way or another that God sends nobody to Hell, for they see it as somehow defying the all loving nature of God. So this is not an argument for non-belief, but rather an argument about whether traditional interpretations of Hell are consistent with Christian beliefs, which would still be secure if the doctrine of Hell is found inadequate.

Before examining whether Hell is incompatible with the Christian God, we need to define what it is. Since the middle ages, Hell has been portrayed as a fiery inferno, where after one dies, if you have been unfaithful to God you will be tortured for an eternity. Here's an illustration:

Not a nice place at all. I can't imagine one minute being nice, never mind all of time! And yet, God apparently sends people to this place of nightmares.

However, as many modern scholars have discovered, the English word Hell is a poor translation for the Hebrew word Sheol, the Aramaic Gehenna and the Greek Hades. Each are all different from the modern word Hell, and yet our the words used by the New Testament authors. Thus, an exposition of each will be helpful.

Sheol is a Hebrew term for the lower parts of the Earth or underworld where the departed are consigned (Proverbs 9:18) There they continue in a gloomy insubstantiality (Ecclesiastes 17:27-8) due to the human form being weakened by the separation of body and soul. Here they wait until judgement day, where the soul is reunited with a resurrection body.

Gehenna was a valley outside Jerusalem through which the road to Bethlehem runs. Children were once sacrificed there to the god Molech (Jeremiah 7:13) and later there was a continuous burning dump. Hence, it became to be an image for a place where the wicked would be condemned.

Hades is the Greek translation for the word Sheol, but has added connotations. It too was seen as a resting place for the dead in a shadowy existence (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Hades is not a place of torment in the Old Testament, except for its eternal boredom (Psalm 88:12) but in the New Testament, due to Hellenistic conceptions of Hades infiltrating Jewish thought, physical pain seems to be envisaged post-death for some (Luke 16:23) and for unrepentant sinners (Mark 9:48). However, when the purpose of God is fully achieved, both Death, the last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26,54) and Hades, where the already dead repose, will surrender their populations, with the establishment of the eternal reign of God.

So how does this all fit in with our subject area? Well, most people believe that on a Christian world view you die and then go to either Heaven or Hell. However, it is apparent that Christian doctrine does not agree. First, you go to Sheol, a place of weariness and forgetfulness, not of punishment of retribution. Rather, it is only after the judgement day, when souls are reunited with resurrection bodies that people will enter the realms of paradise of damnation. So a person still has time in the afterlife, and indeed, on judgement day, to affirm servitude to God. Thus, modern interpretations of Hell do not do justice to biblical thoughts on this issue, confusing Sheol, Gehenna and Hades  as one and the same.

But even if the doctrine of Hell is misunderstood and confused with Sheol, that still doesn't avoid the problem that on judgement day, even if many people convert to Christianity after seeing God's glory revealed, some will still reject him, and subsequently be placed in eternal damnation, suffering and torture. How can God, who is apparently all loving, allow this to happen?

Whether God is all loving or not, He is king of all creation. As a divine being, God is altogether unique compared to other objects and entities: He alone has omnipotence and omniscience, and is the source and sustainer of all things. Without Him, we would not exist at all. Thus, He has the divine right to will what He pleases and commands obedience from us. In virtue of the amount we owe Him, we should serve this being, regardless of what our thoughts and feelings are about His ethical practices. Just as the peasant repays the nobleman for letting him land through service, so too should we to the almighty force which sustains are very being. Creation is His domain, and we are privy to his wishes.

However, nobody, not even the most righteous of men and women, truly serve the divine authority. We all disobey His commands and laws, rebelling against his kingship by asserting our will over His. We act in a way which we want to, not in accordance with Him or any of His desires. Since we rebel against God, we have no right to the liberties, benefits and gifts he offers us through His kingdom, for to challenge his Kingship is to attack the domain which God rules. And as we have no right to God's Heaven, we deserve to abide in Hell, outside the kingdom of the divine.

An illustration is as follows: when William Wallace rebelled against Edward I of England, he forfeited the liberties Edward's kingdom offered him, seeking to replace it with his own. Therefore, Wallace forfeited his rights to the pleasures the English rule gave him by opposing it through rebellion. As such, he was denied those rights, in the case of medieval England, the right to life. In the same way, we have rebelled against God, seeking to destroy His authority and replace it with our own desires. This means that no human has a right to enter God's kingdom, Heaven, for we have rejected it: thus, we should be stripped of its riches and condemned to Hell, a fate we chose for ourselves by rebelling against the King of creation. Heaven is God's kingdom, and as rebels, there is no reason why we deserve to be let in, when we have rejected its very king. By rights, we should all be in Hell right now.


However, the Christian faith argues God has not abandoned us to this bleak and dismal fate. He, in an ultimate sacrifice, has given us a gift of grace which spares us this punishment. In effect, this is the crucifiction of Jesus: God's only Son sent to die for our sins. All we must do is affirm that God is king, and we will have accepted the offering of salvation and the gift of Jesus taking our deserved punishment and exile from God's kingdom for us. And this requires us to do no actions, no things of our own power, but just accept Jesus' sacrifice for us. The point is, whilst we all deserve to be in Hell, God has offered to take our punishment for us if we recant on our past claims to authority and respect his kingship over creation, and thus once more be allowed to reap the joys of Heaven. Repentance, trust in Christ and following God's moral commands are all acceptances of His rule over us, that we were wrong to flaunt his authority for our own. The death of Jesus was the greatest gift God has given us, for it is the chance to rejoin the kingdom and exist in Heaven, despite our open rebellion to the divine.

In conclusion, Hell is where we deserve to go, for rejecting God's authority over us. Through our sin, we have deliberately chosen to separate ourselves from Heaven and all its wealth and wonder. However, des[ite the fact God owes us nothing at all, He was willing to sacrifice Himself in the person of Jesus to allow the millions and billions of damned people throughout history a chance to reenter God's kingdom. He openly takes our punishment, if we are but happy to accept that He is King. And what's more, not only are there a multitude of convincing evidences for God's divine rule over humanity, but even in Sheol and at the judgement, when the evidence will clearly point towards God existing (for if judgement day happens, clearly atheism is false) men and women will still have the opportunity to repent of their rebellion and choose God as their king. As such, the only people who will reject God will do so for non-evidential reasons. Thus, the view that an all loving being cannot coexist with Hell is false, for God has shown himself to be all loving by being prepared to take on our punishments and exile from His kingdom in the person of Jesus, offer us Heaven and all we must do is accept this gift. Salvation could not be simpler or easier to attain, despite our sin. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the Christian God and the Doctrine of Hell, for rather than sending people there, God saves them from such a place.

All definitions are from the Oxford Dictionary of the Bible.
This blog is not arguing Christianity is true, but rather seeks to demonstrate that the Christian beliefs of God being all loving and Hell existing as coherent.