by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
It’s often asked, “How can a sovereign, loving God send anyone to hell? How is that love?”
It’s a fair question.
What is heaven? What is hell?
The essence of giving is goodness and love that produced by a source for living.
What if hell is merely the absence of good… the absence of compassion and mercy? What if hell is free will gone mad? What if selfish thinking and behavior results in the opposite of giving, which is incessant taking? Taking produces all out greed, lust, jealousy, resentment, injustice, and ultimately hatred… until it is evil? No one is stronger than another. All of its inhabitants are starving and weak, in a constant state of decay. Everything and everyone is falling apart, but cannot die. The source for living, giving, and loving is gone forever.
You would find nothing that is good in hell. What if hell is best described as an existence without good, where evil is given free reign to breed, grow, expand, and abound, seeking to torment; to overwhelm and overcome everything in its path? And, if devils and demons exist, they would also suffer the constant torment of impartial, unadulterated evil; evil being the absence of anything good.
What if hell is the ugly, painful, miserable condition of this world without love in it at all?
What if hell is the light going out in an otherwise dark existence?
…And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:4 (NLT)
“The people who walk in great darkness have adjusted their eyes.” —John Eldredge
What if hell is the absence of God’s presence? What if hell is the absence of conviction concerning right and wrong… good and evil? What if hell is the survival of the fittest without any regard for who gets hurt?
When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (regarding) sin, because they do not believe in Me… When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. John 16:8, 9, 13 (NKJV)
What if hell is the absence of the truth that rescues us from what’s destructive within; truth that defends us against the bane of evil throughout?
While I have suggested this idea of what hell could be, I do not really know or understand what or where hell is. There are a great deal of people suffering in the world for one reason or another who feel like they are experiencing hell right now. There is so much hate and evil in the world. We all live in the world together. We carry the burden of injustice, entitlement, jealousy, and resentment, doing evil to one extent or another. Then what? We blame a sovereign, loving God for the consequences for our collective behavioral choices?
What if heaven is everything good and right… absolutely everything? You would find nothing bad or wrong in heaven. What if you could go to heaven until you did something wrong or bad and then, oops, to hell with you? Wouldn’t you be living in constant fear in what is supposed to be utopia—paradise? What kind of heaven would that be? So how can heaven remain without flaw with flawed people living there? What if a loving God had—has—a viable solution to such an unsolvable dilemma?
What if heaven is freedom from hatred and evil into all that is loving and good without measure? What if heaven is freedom from all displeasure, discomfort, disturbance, and disharmony into fulfilling peace and contentment? What if heaven is freedom from conflict, anxiety and stress into the experience of what is truly unconditional love between every single one of its inhabitants? Are you kidding me… who wouldn’t want that?
What if there was a sure way out of hell into heaven? What if the only condition to experience freedom into that kind of living is having a relationship with the most honest, sincere, compassionate, generous person that ever lived? What if that is all it costs? What… that’s too much?
Set Up
Why set conditions at all, right?
Conditions… standards… expectations… a convenient excuse to justify dismissing the matter of relationship with God. What about family relationships? What about romance? What about friendship? While some might like to believe the love in those relationships is without condition, be rest assured these relationships are absolutely conditional and loaded with expectation.
What about scholastic and professional relationships? No standards or expectations there? Are there no conditions to meet to get a good grade and diploma… or to keep your job, or to get a raise or promotion… or to get paid, for that matter? What about conditions for even healthy competition? Does everyone win, or do certain conditions have to be met?
People in relationship with each other expect honesty, trust and loyalty if they’re going to expect the best out of the relationship. Without necessary standards and conditions relationships are untenable, unmanageable, unstable, and then finally miserable until they fail and die. Parents expect to have trustworthy relationships with their children in order to trust them enough to bless them to the full with the best of their resources. Spouses expect undivided loyalty and commitment for their relationship to thrive. Otherwise, their relationship fails to survive.
Conditions and standards are essential and make sense in all relationships. Why would relationship with God be any different? The literature I read tells me that God doesn’t care about rules and religion. All God cares about is love in relationship… God with us, and us with each other. That’s it!
Why would God set it all up like that? I don’t know. Ask him! Because if that’s how it is, then that’s how it is. It doesn’t matter if we think relationship with the life-giver costs too much. It doesn’t matter if having a relationship with the creator of the universe who loves what he has created sounds unfair. The reality is that our world is in free-fall into self-indulgent entitlement, and evil and hatred have a clear advantage. If God is goodness and love, and this world is consumed with evil and hatred, the contrast between these realities couldn’t be more stark.
The set up is that God made a way of escape from whatever hell is. That’s where Jesus comes in to play. His death on the cross is a matter of historical fact. The only issue that for some reason is a problem for people, is whether or not his crucifixion was and is the sacrifice (payment) for sin. The fancy word for that is atonement. The word means reparation; satisfying the debt, reconciling us into right relationship with God, as though we had never sinned at all.
Is the resurrection of Jesus from the grave historical fact? How could it be?
What is historical fact is it was reported that Jesus appeared to a lot of people, including several hundred at one time, according to authenticated historical manuscripts. Who said that Jesus appeared and spoke to all of those people? Well, they did; at great cost since so many were imprisoned and executed for their testimony of what they experienced. These are the same people that had gone into hiding for their lives until having been empowered to speak out, having experienced their encounter with the risen Christ.
Remember, once you acknowledge the existence of the creator of life, who most call God (in some form or another), then the resurrection is entirely possible. The one who can generate life can most certainly regenerate life from death.
If Jesus died as the atonement for sin to rescue everyone of us from hell, because of sin, then it is up to you and me to accept that this is how it’s been set up. Selfish sin is the highway to hell (whatever hell is). Turning away from sin, and turning around to find out more about how to experience heaven in relationship with God, is the pathway to peace and freedom.
Which side are you on? You best make the right choice about it. Or else, just continue to live with what you already have until the hatred and the evil in the world catches up with you, if it hasn’t already.
To believe or not believe? Is there a creator? Does God exist? Is God alive? Does God matter? Is God involved in what happens here? Is God at all interested? Is God interested in me? Why believe in God? Why not believe in God?
What gets in the way of me believing in God? What do I risk if I am wrong about God one way or the other? What’s at stake, here?
What makes the most sense and what does not? What about all of this that is beyond explanation? What really is tipping the scales one way or the other?
The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 (NLT)
If you believe that God doesn’t exist, then I suppose you best pray that he does, and that heaven is real. Because the alternative is truly hopeless and worthy of every fear you’ve ever had.
How can you know that God is real… and that he knows you and loves you?
I suspect that those who do not believe in God, tend to not believe because they cannot believe in God. It isn’t that they don’t believe. They won’t believe. It isn’t so much that they resist believing in the existence of God as much as they refuse to believe in the existence of a bigger-than-life authority. After all, justice is ultimately about what’s comfortable, isn’t it? So, how can God exist if it makes me at all uncomfortable?
Why is it that those who don’t… I mean, won’t… believe in God are so passionate in their opposition? Why care so much about something if it doesn’t exist in the first place? Why care about being judged by those who believe in this “God” that doesn’t exist if they are the fools?
“No one… not even God… dare hold me accountable! No one… not even God… dare tell me what to do and what not to do. No one… not even God… dare dictate to me what is best for me. Who can know me better than I know me? Only I know what is best for me.”
Is that right? Where then lies the hope for any kind of mercy from this hell on earth? Where then lies the hope for redemption from imminent suffering and death? Where then lies the hope for anything more than this… or anything beyond this life? Where then lies the hope for a better life?
The Scriptures say, “If you hear his voice today, don’t be stubborn like those who rebelled.” Hebrews 3:15 (CEV)
Inmates at the prison I counseled at would talk about having an axe to grind with someone out there, and how they might seek revenge when they get out… that it would be worth it, even if they had to do life for the manner in which they acted out their vengeance. “It would be worth it?” I asked. “Worth it until when?” There was always someone in the therapy group who would reply, “Until you have to do life.” Then it matters. Then it matters big time.
That’s how it is about consequence. I can live like consequence doesn’t matter. Until when? When do I care most about consequence? When I have to experience consequence. Suffering the consequence… NOW I CARE!
“The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; everyone knows that something is wrong when they’re being hurt.” —C.S. Lewis
You might not be concerned about anything beyond this life at this time. But when will it matter? It will matter when it matters. Then it will matter big time. Thank God that he is indeed real and loves you. It’s good that God is paying attention. Because God is for you and not against you.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31 (NKJV)
“The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.” —Dr. Henry Cloud
It is wise to adjust your life to the truth. It is foolish to believe you can adjust the truth to your life.
Once concluding that God is real and alive, originator of all creation, the catalyst and life-giver to everything evolving and living, then everything after that is possible. If God created the heavens and the earth and all of the life contained therein, then something like the virgin birth and the resurrection of his son, Jesus, are unquestionably possible. If God continues to be invested and involved in what he has made and loves, it only makes sense to be on his side of things. If God is all that he is, and he is for me and with me, then who or what can prevail against me?
I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:35 (NKJV)
Once realizing that I was made to live by God, then I need understanding of what it means to live the life that he intended when he gave me life. I accept that I was afforded the favor to choose. Whether I choose wisely or foolishly, I decide. I was made to desire. I was made to love and be loved. I choose to believe that God is loving, and that he loves me. God’s love, once experienced, is most liberating.
With all that is happening in the universe and in the world, how do I know that God is interested in me and loves me? What if in the same way we love what we make and try to repair and restore what we’ve made when it breaks, God loves what he has made and repairs and restores what he’s made from it’s broken condition to whole once again? What if like loving parents that forgive their wayward children when they return, God forgives you and me when we go our way and then return to him?
“If God didn’t always exist then, well… what did?” concludes with Is God Necessary?
