Rethinking what I believe about Hell (Aug 2019, originally written 2018)

If you have ever struggled to reconcile a loving God with the concept of Hell, I hope you find this post helpful and encouraging.

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Reexamining what I believe about Hell

While my late wife Colleen was steadfast and unwavering in her belief that God loved her no matter what personal obstacles she faced, she struggled immensely in coming to terms with the concept of Hell. She loved others from the depths of her soul and to think of anyone she loved burning in agony in Hell for all eternity was so emotionally overwhelming for her to the point it caused deep, painful suffering for her soul.

My answer to help her was usually well, we never know what went through someone’s mind in the last minutes of their life, and so maybe there is still hope. Hope from what? That the person she so loved would be spared from being tortured and burned alive for all eternity? What if they did not cry out? How do we reconcile a loving God with what we have been taught about Hell? My answer seems so unsatisfying to me now as I reflect back on those conversations.

I decided to look more closely into the Bible, slow down and take some time to reflect to see what it actually says about Hell. I wish I had done this and written the post below while my late wife Colleen was still alive as I think it might have helped both of us find a more solid answer to this painful question. It is a complex topic and we will not all agree, and that is ok, but I write this post simply out of love for my late wife and to any who have like Colleen, struggled with this topic. I hope you will find the post below thought-provoking, heart expanding, and even encouraging. I know, how can a post on Hell ever be encouraging, but yes, I hope that is the result. If you do find it interesting or encouraging, please feel free to share this with others.

Hell Re-examined. Painful Questions, Hopeful answers

I read a post on Facebook where a man wrote something like this. “Christians talk about a loving God who is worthy of our worship, and yet this God burns people for all eternity in Hell just for disagreeing with him.”

Then the man wrote: “If I placed my children in a BBQ pit and watched them scream in agony as the flames burned them alive, I would be considered a psychopath, not a loving Father. How can anyone in their right mind worship a God like this?”

This is a very uncomfortable question for many Christians to address, but I think it is a critical one that can’t be ignored. I take no offense at the person that wrote this comment and in fact think they make a very compassionate argument here that must be addressed and thought through.

We all have to come to our own conclusions here, but as I study the Bible, I wanted to share some of my own conclusions on this issue. This is a complex topic and I can’t give an answer in a one sentence Facebook comment. This is long, but I hope if you read this all the way through you will find it interesting and even encouraging. If you do, feel free to share this with others.

Background, some popular beliefs about Hell:

1) Some like the Jehovah’s witnesses will resolve their discomfort here and say there is no actual Hell that people go to and they claim the bible does not support this idea, but rather they believe in a doctrine of annihilation where people who do not have Jesus as their savior simply cease to exist when they die and are not part of the resurrection to Eternal Life.

2) Others will say there is a Hell but there is no real suffering there. It is just a place set aside for those who decide they do not want to live with God under His house rules in Heaven so God mercifully provided another place for them to live for all eternity.

3) Still others will say that every single person that refuses to accept Jesus as their personal savior will have the exact same experience of spending all eternity in off the chart agony as their skin perpetually burns and is melting in the lake of fire. In Hell, this overwhelmingly excruciating agony will go on for all of eternity as a just punishment for them for daring to not trust in Jesus to save them and it does not matter if they were the vilest murderer like Adolph Hitler or served others throughout their life but failed to understand and to bow a knee to Jesus, they will all scream in the same wretched agony forever and share Satan’s exact fate. This last stance is what the Facebook writer was responding to and what most people believe the bible says about Hell.

What is the actual truth here? What does the Bible actually say about Hell and God’s eternal Judgement?

Is God a fair judge?

This is the first and most critical question that must be addressed before we venture further. People base entire theologies by plucking out a verse or two here or there and making a determination on it without considering context. This gets us into trouble and leads us to false conclusions in the Bible.

For example, “Prosperity theology” states that it is God’s will that none who come to Him should ever suffer and instead God wants to bless you with wealth, health, and happiness. Jim Baker used to preach this as a TV evangelist picking out a few verses (taken out of context) to justify this theology about God. He built his life on it and actually believed He was helping people when they gave Him millions of dollars that He used on himself since He believed their giving to Him would cause God to then in turn bless the giver financially and make them rich as well. This theology treats God like a genie in a lamp that we can control to get what we want out of God instead of submitting to God’s will and let Him shape us as He sees best.

It is my understanding that though He had been preaching for years on TV, It was only when Jim Baker was arrested for fraud and went to Prison that He actually started to read and study the Bible. He was shocked to find that most servants of God were not Rich. Only a very small portion like Job and Solomon were rich as far as money goes. He was also shocked to read that God allowed immense suffering to occur with many of those who served Him and whom God loved greatly.

God allowed Job to suffer greatly at the hands of Satan. Many of the Old Testament prophets were murdered in gruesome ways that God allowed and did not intervene. Most of Jesus disciples were brutally killed. Paul in the New Testament was beaten, shipwrecked, went without food and water, was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. Jesus himself was predicted to be allowed to suffer greatly in Isaiah (Ch 53) and it clearly states this was God’s will to allow this for through Jesus suffering at the hands of sinful humans, He was able to demonstrate His perfect submission to God the Father’s will and was able to demonstrate just how much God loves us as Jesus willing sacrifice on the cross and his death paid the eternal price of sin for all of us so that all of us could be saved to live eternally with God.

Paul notes God uses our suffering to produce endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope. I did not appreciate that fully until I went through years of suffering myself watching as my late wife Colleen slowly slipped away from me (I wrote about this in a prior letter, the one true hope). On the other side of that suffering, indeed my Hope in Jesus is stronger than it has even been and God used that suffering to make myself, my late wife Colleen, and our daughters more conformed to the character and image of Jesus. That is Gods ultimate purpose laid out in the bible as He cares more about our character than our comfort, and does not simply want to throw money at us and make us fat and temporarily happy, but then leave us without hope like Solomon.

So then, taking a broad view of the Bible, not a narrow one to only chose a single verse here and there and base an entire theology around it, what do we know about God’s character as a Judge?

1) God is a merciful Judge and reluctantly pronounces judgement only after exhausting all other avenues.

I addressed this in a prior letter “Is God Evil?” He gave the people of Sodom years and years and years to repent and turn away from their sin before finally and reluctantly bringing Judgement (Genesis 19). We see in Genesis 18 that God was willing to spare Sodom if he could find just 10 people that had not become so wicked as to believe rape and violence were acceptable. He was willing to save even ones as pathetic as Lot. In the end however, when the people of Sodom defiantly refused to repent and turn back to God, God was forced to act justly and end the cycle of children born into sexual abuse, to end the cycle of rape and violence, etc.

In Genesis chapter 6 we read about the flood. God waited till the last possible moment when only Noah and his family were left on the earth as people not completely wicked (Genesis 6). The others were murderers, rapist, violent and thought evil constantly but God still gave them up to a max of 120 years, and at bear minimum at least 40 years (estimate) to repent while Noah built the Ark. God would have relented like he did in the book of Jonah, yet they refused to repent so in the end God was forced to act justly and stop the cycle of sexual abuse of children, rape, murder, etc. God waited till the last possible moment to rescue Noah and his family. In both these cases, God reluctantly brought Judgement as a last means as He really wanted to extend Grace (As seen in Genesis Chapter 18).

2) God loves his enemies, takes no delight in their deaths and often treats them with kindness:

Mathew 5:44 (Jesus says) “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?”

Comment: Is this not truth. Does God not in fact bring sun and rain to help feed the wicked who curse His name just as He does those who love Him? We can look around and see the truth of this passage without ever needing to even open the bible.

Eze 33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?'

Comment: Contrary to popular opinion, bringing Judgement on people breaks the God of the bible’s heart. He takes no pleasure in the death of the most wicked person who has hated God with a passion. He loves His enemies and is rooting and hoping they will turn away from sin since sin harms them and others, but reluctantly, He is a just God and will in the end have to bring judgement at some point.

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Comment: After Jesus had been brutally tortured, spat on, mocked and shamed, and while He hung in extreme physical agony on the cross, He looked down at his enemies who mocked him and who laughed in great delight at His suffering and asked God the Father to forgive them. Jesus heart for his enemies is compassionate.

3) God makes distinctions on sin and does not simply give the same punishment out regardless of the offense:

According to the Bible all sin leads to death (“the wages of sin is death”, Romans 3:23), and thus we all have to deal with facing initial physical death, a penalty God has not removed from us (Jesus saved us from eternal punishment, but our initial penalty remains. We may not like this, but this is a penalty Jesus was also willing to suffer on our behalf so God does not demand more of us than He was willing to suffer.)

Does that mean then that God never makes any distinction among sin? I have heard people say that to God all sin is the same. Is that true? It is for sure true that all sin is harmful and thus God opposes it as sin hurts us. Lying leads to the death of trust, sexual immorality leads to the death of intimacy and can lead to physical death (Abortion), Bitterness and unforgiveness lead to the death of relationships, gossip leads to the death of character, greed leads to the death of compassion, Pride leads to the death of understanding, etc. This all seems true to me.

Does God not make any distinctions in sin and how to penalize them?

If we had a judge that gave us laws to kill everyone that commits any offense and treats all offenses the same under the law, I would argue that is not a fair judge. I.E. If someone was convicted of stealing a loaf of bread to feed their family vs Hitler, Stalin, Mao who murdered millions of people, if all received the same sentence, the death penalty, I do not believe any of us would truly in our hearts believe this was fair. In the same way, if none of the above believed in Jesus, and so God treated them all the same in eternity in Hell, with all experiencing the same level of punishment, most of us would think this is not a fair judgement.

What do we actually find laid out in God’s laws He gave to Israel in the Old Testament?

Lev 6:4-5 Punishment is whatever was stolen, must be paid back + 20 percent interest and then bring sin offering to God.

Lev 17:1-4 Punishment is banishment

Lev 17: 15 to 16 Punishment is a bath and basically a time out

Lev 20:9 to 16 Punishment is death

Deu 25:1-3 Punishment here is beating

Deu 25: 5-10 Punishment here is woman will spit in man’s face and he will be publically shamed

Deu 25: 11 to 12 Punishment is woman’s hand is cut off

The point here is not the severity of these punishments as that bogs us down into a side discussion on why God needed to set so strict of lines with Israel (which I covered in my prior letter “Is God Evil”).

The point is this Old Testament God did not have a one punishment fits all crimes approach here so it seems reasonable to conclude this God of the bible will not have a one punishment fits all approach for eternity.

4) God provided an answer for our salvation that is reasonable and fair.

I spoke of this in a past letter “Will there be any good people in Heaven?”. I think a review of that brings home the point that God’s provision for us to spend an eternity in Heaven (/ultimately on the new Earth) with Him is needed and is fair and not unreasonable.

Initial Conclusion on Is God a fair Judge: Seems to me the answer is yes. God judges with Grace and compassion, giving us all chance after chance to repent from our sin. He hates sin because it harms us and those around us. He only reluctantly brings punishment on those who refuse to repent and even then He still loves his enemies and tries to win them over with kindness and for their own good lead them to repentance as again, sin is harmful to them.

Jesus laid down his life to pay our eternal sin debt and does not make it difficult for us to be saved from eternal punishment as this is not what God wants for any of us. God longs to offer us grace and forgiveness. However, for those who will still not repent and turn to God for forgiveness, God is just and will not let the wicked go unpunished.

We would not think a judge is just who lets all defendants brought before him go without ever punishing any murderer like Hitler, etc. In the same way, God will bring judgement when needed. However, it does seem in his law God does make distinctions based on what the person did vs. what the specific consequence should be.

Now that we have a Baseline for God’s character as a Judge, we are ready to further explore the topic of Hell and place verses in the proper context so they fit overall with what we know about the biblical God’s character.

According to Jesus, when does Judgement begin and what is one example of what it looks like?

Luke 16:19 to 31: When we read the story Jesus tells about the Rich man and the beggar Lazarus, it strikes me this is not some type of allegory. Jesus gives real names, and is very descriptive in this story. Parable or not, I do not recall Jesus ever setting parables in fantasy settings (Did I miss the one on the Martian and the space goblin?)

It seems this is a real event that has occurred in the past as of the time Jesus tells this story. From this passage, we see the rich man was judged immediately upon his death. There was no delay and waiting room (God does not need a jury to confirm His Judgements, He is all knowing and just). No one could pray him into Paradise. His destination was determined at the time of his death. He was in Hades. In the same way, the beggar Lazarus also immediately went to Paradise; there was no delay to wait till the Final judgement in Revelations and no need to pray him into Paradise.

Side note: Paradise was a temporary holding place for people as Heaven was not yet an option since Jesus had not yet died on the cross to pay for our sin, nor risen from the dead yet to break the power of death and sin over us and allow us to live with God forever. This is where Jesus tells the thief on the cross He will meet him that very day (Luke 23:43). Later after Jesus rises from the dead and later ascends into Heaven, we read for those who trust in Jesus, when they die that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Co 5:6-8, I.E. In Heaven above with Jesus, not in paradise below). We see the Martyrs in Heaven in revelations (6:9-11) before we get to the final judgement, so this also lends to this conclusion.

To continue: There was a great chasm that separated those in Hades from those in Paradise / Abraham’s bosom and there was no way anyone in Paradise could cross over to Hades, nor could anyone from Hades cross over to Paradise. The sentence was fixed at the time of a person’s death.

I also notice something else remarkable here. Why was the Rich man in Hades?

Jesus does not say it was because He did not have enough knowledge about God (I.E. Knew the Bible), nor that He rejected Jesus directly since this was a past event and Jesus had not even been revealed at this point. He does not even point to a violation of Jewish ceremonial laws or anything to do directly with God that many legalists would point to. It seems to me based on what Jesus says that the man was in Hades because day after day, year after year, he walked past and callously ignored the suffering of the beggar Lazarus and did not once act on the prompting of God to be obedient to God and help others.

The result is because he rejected God’s call to love others as himself over and over and over again (Not a onetime missed opportunity, but a lifetime of consistent selfishness), and because he ignored the suffering of someone God had literally placed at his doorstep, it was Gods judgement that now this man would experience some of the physical suffering and discomfort that the beggar Lazarus had spent a lifetime experiencing. Just as Lazarus had suffered from heat as He had no roof over his head, from thirst and from hunger, now the rich man would experience this judgement himself for not caring and helping.

As for the suffering of the rich man, He did have deep burning thirst, was hot, etc. but I notice He was able to carry on a long conversation, to think, etc. so his agony did not reach a point we often hear described in Hell. His face and eyeballs were not melting as some horror images are often given and He was not in so much pain and suffering he could not even talk and carry on a conversation across the chasm. He was however able to see those enjoying the comfort of Paradise and this added to his regret and anguish on knowing what He was missing out on.

Now conversely, when I look at the beggar Lazarus, why did he end up on the Paradise side of the chasm?

I read nothing about the good works this beggar did, nor anything by which he earned his place on this side. Given he was a beggar, it is doubtful this man had a lot of knowledge about scripture, He had no idea who Jesus was since likely this past event occurred before Jesus took on human flesh and was born, He had likely not been baptized and I seriously doubt he perfectly followed all the laws of the Old Testament as that is pretty much impossible.

He was however likely someone that despite his suffering, loved God and tried to obey to the best of his abilities the laws of God written on his heart. The reality though is despite the beggar maybe being someone we might have considered a “good” person, compared to a Holy and Perfect God, He would not have measured up and under the Law, would not have met the requirement to be in Paradise.

The beggar was there because God is a loving and Merciful God and God extended the beggar grace. Since we see this example given by Jesus, I think we can take all the examples of children, the mentally ill, or the man that grew up on a deserted island and never heard about Jesus, etc. and understand that we can trust a loving, Gracious and Just God to make the right decisions in each individual case.

Does Jesus say all unrepentant sinners who rejected him will have the exact same sentence leveled against them?

Mathew 11:21 (Jesus says) Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22: Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23: And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Comment: Does this quote from Jesus not clearly indicate that during judgement there will be different levels of punishment?

I.E. hence the people of Sodom (who supported Gang Rape!) will actually come out better than those in Capernaum that saw Jesus perform miracles with their own eyes and still rejected him.

This description of different levels of Judgement fits in with what we know about God’s character as a judge from other passages of the bible and shows God will judge on a case by case basis.

But what about Revelations, where all unrepentant sinners are thrown into the lake of fire. That seems to indicate they all share the same punishment.

That is why we can’t read a single verse or portion of the bible and base our entire theology on this.

I normally interpret the bible very literally as in many places I think the bible is written as History, etc. For example, I know some disagree, but I personally do not believe the account of the flood is figurative and just meant to illustrate a moral point. I believe it actually happened the way it is laid out. The exact measurements of the Ark are given and to me at least, the account reads like history, not like simply a moral analogy. I understand that interpretation leads to difficult questions, but I think there are logical answers for those questions.

I read the first chapter of Genesis the same way as it is too detailed in the account of creation and in fact the order of creation listed in the first chapter of Genesis matches the order of events several scientists now acknowledge likely must have happened during the forming of the universe and life on earth.

However, there are indeed portions of the bible where we have to understand the language is often figurative, not literal, and revelations is one of those books.

I.E. Rev 1:6 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

No one should take this literally, that Jesus will literally gag and cough up a sword. God’s word is represented in the image of a two edged sword, this is not a literal sword.

In the same way, Fire in the bible is often figurative for judgement. As such, I conclude that while Hell is a real place, the lake of fire is more of a figurative description of it as a place of eternal judgement, not a place of literal fire. Also, Jesus already told us there would be different levels of punishment at the final judgement, so we need to take that knowledge with us when we read revelations and also fit it into Gods overall character and Judgement pattern in the Bible.

Conclusion: We all have to come to our own conclusions, but I am convinced Hell is a real place, it does exist and it is not a place I want to go. I may not like that it exists, but it is clear Jesus supports this so I believe it is true.

God is still the ruler of Hell (Contrary to popular opinion, those in Hell remain under God’s authority, like it or not) and for some specific individuals (like Satan, the AntiChrist, and those who knowingly worship Satan and the Anti-Christ), it will indeed be off the chart agony for all of eternity (Rev 14:9-11). For others like the Rich man we saw earlier, the suffering may not rise to that same level, but they will still have much sorrow and regret. (Mathew 8:12). Once sentenced to Hell, the sentence is eternal (Mathew 25:46). So, just as Heaven (and eventually life on the new earth) is eternal, so to is Hell.

However, as for the means of punishment itself within Hell, I find myself far more in agreement with Dante’s circles of Hell vision where there are different levels of punishment for different levels of offense, rather than many preachers vision of a one stop torture shop where all experience the exact same level of punishment, I.E. where a man who steals a loaf of bread is thrown into the exact same fire as Satan.

That vision to me is not consistent with what I see revealed in the Bible about Gods character, His Mercy, His love for His enemies, His justice and different sets of punishments, and with Jesus own words to state their will be differences on sentences handed out in Judgement and thus that God will judge each person on a case by case basis.

Also, I think the bible makes it very clear that without Jesus death on the cross, none of us would be allowed to go to Heaven and we are saved not through our own good deeds, but through our trust in Jesus and our trust in God’s good nature and His grace (John 3:16, Eph 2:8,9). As such, I find it biblically inconsistent to think that God will be so rigid in His judgement as to never extend any Grace. The Beggar was in Paradise, not Hades.

He was there not by his own works or goodness, but based on God’s grace and goodness. God is free to extend Mercy to whom He will thanks to Jesus sacrifice on the cross (you might want to read that last sentence again because it is awesome news!), and I believe there will be people in Heaven that some people find shocking they “made the cut” because we still think of Heaven as something people have to earn, rather than the biblical truth in that we can only gain eternal life in Heaven (/ on the new earth) through the mercy and grace of God.

The thief on the cross had lived a life apart from God and did nothing other than admit He was a sinner, and reach out to Jesus in Faith to save him and He was saved. So then, given all the evidence of Gods character in the Bible, I trust God to make fair, merciful and just judgements in each individual case when it comes to our eternal fates and I believe you can trust God as well.

God demonstrated his love to us all in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That is a God I can and do worship, admire and trust. Hope you find that truth as well and can rest in the Hope of Jesus.

Blessings to you and your families………………….

In the Calm, and in the Storm, God is good. Always………

P.S. I require no agreement to love people, so if you disagree with my conclusions here, that is ok. It is a complex issue and we will not all agree. One day we will all know for sure how this works. In the meantime, agree or disagree, I still love you and care about you as expressed in my prior letter “Derek”. I only write this as an encouragement and to point us all to the deep Love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. God loved us so much He was not content to leave us in Paradise, but Jesus died so we could be with Him for all eternity and our Heavenly Father could adopt us as His children. God’s love for us is overwhelming and in that we should rejoice.