Introduction
The subject of hell isn’t spoken of that often, usually because preachers don’t want to speak about it and people don’t want to listen to anything on the subject. However, we all need to understand that Jesus isn’t just returning as a Saviour, but He is also returning as a Judge.
Some will be redeemed, and some will be shut out from the majesty of God and sent to everlasting destruction, and so, we need to understand that hell is part of the conclusion of the Biblical story.
Someone might say to you, ‘I just can’t believe in God and hell!’ I want to say you shouldn’t be able to believe in God if you didn’t believe in God because a God without a hell is a God without a justice.
Jesus spoke about hell on numerous occasions and whatever hell is, we don’t want to spend eternity there, but it seems to me that some people, even some Christians either don’t believe in a place called hell or don’t believe that God would condemn anyone to such a horrific place, Luke 12:4-5.
One of the most popular questions we hear in this day and age is this, how can a loving God send people to hell?
1. God doesn’t send people to hell, He simply honours their choice.
God has never forced us to choose Him, even when that means we would choose hell. All that find themselves in hell, choose it because God doesn’t send people to hell.
C.S. Lewis said one time, ‘There are only two kinds of people, in the end, those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those for whom God says in the end ‘Thy will be done.’
2. The phrase, ‘He sends people to hell,’ is another misconception, the word ‘people’ is neutral in your Bible and applied as innocent.
Nowhere does Scripture teach that innocent people are condemned, people don’t go to hell, sinners do.
So how can a loving God send people to hell?
He doesn’t, He simply honours their choice, a choice which needs to be made whilst we are still alive, Matthew 12:36. If you think about it, how can God judge anyone if they don’t know why they are being judged?
How can God judge anyone if they can’t remember anything that they’ve said or done whilst they were still alive?
In other words, those souls in heaven will know exactly why they are in heaven and those souls who end up in hell will know exactly why they are in hell. Everyone will remember who they are, and they will remember what they did or didn’t do whilst they were alive here on Earth.
But why? Why this heaven or hell?
Well, it’s certainly not because God loves some people but doesn’t love others. people’s different destinies are the inedible outcome of their different character, their different lifestyles, who they were, who they believed in, who they placed their confidence and hope in, and their different choices, 2 Corinthians 5:10.
Now that is a tough verse, but it’s true and the truth of the matter is that God doesn’t have a way of getting anybody into heaven if they have hell in their hearts. I don’t know much about hell, but whatever hell may be, it’s a burying ground of dead souls, souls that are dead in trespass and sin, Philippians 2:9-11.
There’s a time coming when everyone in heaven and on earth and every demon in hell is going to bow down and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, it’s just a question of when.
The good news is that nobody has to go to hell because God doesn’t want anyone going there, the question is, will you choose heaven now before it’s too late?
