This is an interesting question, and one that is often not met with an answer that is true to God's revelation of himself in Scripture. The reality is that many preachers don't touch this question or even hell as a topic. They don't preach it, for it is politically incorrect and controversial, negative and not uplifting. "Preachers today try to air-condition hell," said Al Mohler. The reality is that the God of the Bible does warn us of the reality of hell; in fact, Jesus spoke often about hell and in specific terms. One of the big problems that exist today is the reality that man insists on ignoring what God has said regarding hell; they try to explain it away or downplay its reality, insisting that it can't be a real place or an eternal place or a place of torment. Well, according to the Bible and the teaching of Jesus it is a real place, an eternal place for those who are thrown into it, and it is a place of torment.
This brings us back to the question at hand, and for that I appeal to the character of God and not man. Again, the problem is that we humans insist on judging ourselves against ourselves. In other words, when compared to many in the world we are "good." We can easily point to evil people such as Hitler or some mass murderer or terrorist and claim that we aren't that bad! In fact, compared to them we are good; plus, we are generally moral and law abiding. We must break the habit of judging "good" from a human standard and start judging it from God's. God's standard is perfection; He is perfectly holy. The mark we are to hit is His standard, and we all fall short of that mark. We all fail to achieve that standard and level, which is His perfection. The sad reality is that we all deserve hell when viewed from God's standard. And as a just and righteous God our sin can't simply be overlooked or brushed under the proverbial rug. God would not be loving if He did not uphold and remain true to His holiness, righteousness, and justice.
In His love He provided one to bear our sin and its curse- one who met His righteous requirements and standard of holy perfection. He sent His own Son Jesus Christ who lived a life of perfection and died in the place of sinners.
For more information on this topic and the question at hand I would refer you to www.albertmohler.com He posted a video of a sermon he gave dealing with this issue on his blog. I would recommend it; it is well worth a listen. And may I never shrink away from the doctrine of hell in my own preaching and teaching; I encourage any other pastor or teacher that might happen upon this to be true to the Word of God in this as well.
3 comments:
So, all of humanity is condemned from birth because we aren't meeting "God's standard."
There are quite a number of problems with this assertion, (beside the brazen claim to know what God thinks).
I've actually written an entire book on this topic--"Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell," (for anyone interested, you can get a free Ecopy of my book at my website: www.ricklannoye.com), but if I may, let me share just one of the many points I make in it.
Let's say you're right. That because of God's holy nature, he is required to condemn everyone to the worst sort of torture for eternity for even the smallest sin committed. Now, since God is all knowing, at some point (6001 years ago?), before he created humanity, he had to have known that he would be incapable of stopping himself from putting the Cosmic Blowtorch to most everyone he created, once they had the chance to do so.
Now, if God were pure evil, no problem! He might even enjoy watching billions of people shrieking in utter agony! But if God has a single shread of goodness (well, he's supposed to be the very author of goodness, presumably more good than the goodest person in the world), that goodness would have, at a minimum, asserted itself, and said, "Wait! You can't create people! If you do, you'll end up having to torture most to them, so, in order not to offend your infinite goodness, infinite caring and infinite love, you'll just have to forget it."
Now, I hope you understand that I am simply carrying out the line of your twisted logic just an extra step or two just so you can see how so very crooked it really is!
There is no Hell. It was a fable made up by wicked men, not God.
Thanks to Rick for his thoughts on this important issue. He brings up some good questions that I believe find their answer in the character of God. (but can't all be addressed in this sitting)
My first reaction and reply is that God chose to create man "in His image," which primarily refers to our volitional abilities. In other words, God could have certainly chosen not to create man with this capacity to choose. I believe that Rick is correct in pointing out that God did know the choices that man would make, yet He created man and allowed it to take place. Scripture teaches that God's plan for man's salvation came before man ever sinned; it took place "before the creation of the world" according to Ephesians 1. The assertion that God is a caustic, evil being who delights in suffering is not correct when viewed from the perspective of His provision of forgiveness through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, regarding the justice of God, the Bible is clear that hell will not be the same experience for all. We have good reason to believe that justice and accountability will be held in accordance to knowledge and opportunity. In fact, Jesus taught this very thing when he condemned those in particular cities who rejected Him. To sum up Jesus' statement; those who have been directly confronted with specific truth will be held accountable for that knowledge. (This doesn't let any man off the hook b/c Romans 1 teaches that all men are without excuse for rejecting God).
One last thought: God has revealed himself- in general and specific ways. I would encourage people to consider this and to see things through that lens.
More to follow later...
Tommy
I would like to offer another approach (someone may have beaten me to it). First, was the Jesus' death on the cross a "plan B?" The Bible says He was destined to the cross before the creation of the world (therefore it was not a "plan B"). I believe it can be demonstrated that God does all things for His glory (to reaveal Himself). Now we can ask a question: What about God is revealed by the existence of hell? Well, what if God wanted to display the intensity of his justice and hatred of sin (any form of rebellion and/or rejection of Him)? What would it take to display a holy God's hatred for sin? It would take a place/sphere of existence, whatever you want to call it like hell.
It is ironic that Rick cynically asserts you can't "know what God thinks" and then tells us what he thinks about hell. The straw man of Rick's argument is quite amusing as well (that God is sending people to hell for even the smallest sin committed).
And, I suppose I must ask where Rick gets his information about God and what he thinks.
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