How Can A Loving God Send Anyone to Hell?

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.