Does the God of Love Really Send People to Hell?

Amusing Ideas, but Wrong

Quite a lot of people believe there is a heaven where good people go when they die, but far fewer believe in the existence of hell. They joke about it, saying things like, "I wouldn't mind being sent there because most of my friends will be there and it would be one endless party." Satan, a.k.a. the Devil, is perceived as a figure of fun. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

Satan?
Heaven, on the other hand, is sometimes thought of as a place in the sky where you spend eternity sitting on fluffy white clouds, with a halo over your head and playing a harp. In other words, heaven is perceived by some as a place of endless boredom. How wrong the public perception has become. Nowhere in the Bible is heaven described in this way.

What the Bible says about Heaven

One of the first things to happen to someone when they arrive in heaven is being presented with rewards accumulated there during their earthly lifetime for good deeds and acts of kindness they had done for their fellow human beings. As Jesus described it:

[Jesus said] "Give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."
Luke 18,22

"Whenever you did it for any brothers and sisters of mine, no matter how
unimportant they seemed, you did it for me."
Matthew 25,40

Jesus takes each of our acts of kindness to each other
as an act of kindness to Him too.

If you have ever been sneered at, laughed at, discriminated against,
or persecuted for being a Christian, that will be generously rewarded.

Jesus said to His followers, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you
and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Be happy about it! Be
very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven."
Matthew 5,11-12

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former
things have passed away.
Revelation 21,4

There will be alcohol in heaven, but if you don't want it, no problem. Nobody is made to feel awkward there.

Shortly before He was crucified Jesus told His Disciples, "I will not drink wine again
until the day I drink it anew with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”
Matthew 26,29

Another event that awaits us when we arrive in heaven is being given our own personal mansion. After Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, He spent a considerable time with His Disciples. One of the things He told them was

"In My Father's house [i.e. heaven] there are many mansions. If that were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?"
John 14,2

There will be animals and children in heaven. What we are told very clearly is that the animals won't be dangerous.

The wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the
baby goat. The older calf and the one year old calf will be safe with the lion,
and a little child will lead them all.
Isaiah 11,6

There will be animals in heaven,
but they won't be aggressive
Heaven, or paradise, is a bright, happy place. However difficult your life on earth may have been, an eternity without worries, or ill-health, or enemies, or fear awaits you. You'll soon be meeting friends, old and recent, and making new ones. Older relatives who had passed on earlier will be there too. No doubt there will be plenty of happy reunions.

The Bible often talks about music and singing.

My heart is confident, O God. My heart is confident. I want to sing and make music.
Psalm 57,7

There will be good food in heaven. Sometimes there will be banquets and sometimes quiet personal meals for two.

Many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 8,11

Jesus said, "I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as
friends."
Revelation 3,20

We won't have to worry about illness in heaven. We'll have new bodies, though still recognisably our own, but without any of the former problems. After He'd been whipped and crucified, Jesus’ earthly body was in a poor state, but after He was buried and rose from the dead on Easter morning, He had a new body. Nevertheless, He was still the Jesus the disciples had known and loved for the previous three years. Whatever condition our bodies are in when we die, we'll possess the perfect version of them in heaven.

He [Jesus] will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body.
Philippians 3,21

When we arrive in heaven with our glorious new bodies, we will still have the gender we had on earth. Saint Matthew was a man in this life and is a man in heaven. In the same way, Saint Mary was a woman on earth and is still a woman in heaven. This leads on to the question as to whether there will be sex for pleasure in heaven. The Bible doesn't say directly, but as the sensual pleasures of eating, drinking and listening to music are obviously approved of, why not sex too? Sex wasn't a sin in the Garden Of Eden so why should it be a sin in heaven? Like drinking wine, nobody will be under pressure to do what they don't want to, or it wouldn't be heaven for them.

Jesus said, "I have come in order that you might have life - life
in all its fullness."
John 10,10

Does this fit with the idea of heaven being full of people sitting on
clouds and playing harps? These days it is a good idea to be
careful where you get your information from. For matters to do
with Christianity, the Bible is the best place to look!
People in heaven will all treat each other with love, kindness and respect. There will be no crime and no natural disasters. To tell lies, or to bully someone will be unthinkable. Why would we ever want to hurt anyone? If you have a problem with that idea, perhaps heaven isn't for you.

We will have achieved the Christian lifestyle Jesus urged us to strive for when He walked the earth. Imagine what it will feel like knowing that everyone you meet loves you!

Why some People don't go to Heaven
Early humans evolved over many thousands of years to a stage where they were intelligent enough to comprehend spiritual and moral issues. The first two humans to have reached this height of development have been given the names Adam and Eve. At this point God gave them consciences, an awareness of His existence, and free will. From God's point of view Man had arrived.

We were given free will and the
responsibility that goes with it

All human societies have religion, morality and free will, unless they deliberately choose to stifle them, or if they have them taken away by their governments.

God's original plan was that humans would live together in harmony, prosperity and happiness. If bad luck were to befall any of them, others would do their best to help. If they asked for God's help, by praying to Him, He would be more than happy to help them. It's a good feeling, knowing you've got God on your side.

It was at this early stage that sin entered the scene, thanks to the Devil. This began to ruin everything. The Devil, in the way a snake would, crept and slithered into Adam and Eve's thoughts and started to persuade them to disobey God and behave dishonestly and selfishly. This was the beginning of the slippery downward slope that human society is still on.

Signs of the Devil's evil activities are everywhere,
but often people prefer to blame God when
bad things happen.
God's home is in heaven and originally He intended that whenever anyone died they would go to heaven to live with Him and with the others who had already arrived. The trouble was, once sin entered the equation, sinful people like me, you and everyone else, entering heaven would result in the whole place being polluted.

To resolve this He gave them commandments to live by, including the famous Ten Commandments. Sadly, instructions not to steal, or to murder, or to cheat, or to lie were soon being ignored.

Because God is fair, and in the interests of justice, people who got away with a lifetime of sins against their fellow human beings went to a place called Gehenna where they were punished in proportion to what they had done wrong. When they had paid for the misery they'd done to other people, and justice had been served, then their life was over and they perished. In Gehenna there was a fire that never went out. That's where they ended up.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6,23

Because God and His son Jesus both love us, and because everyone has their own sins, they decided that instead of each of us having to pay for the sins of a lifetime before we finally pass away, we would be given an opportunity to be saved.

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3,16

Jesus would voluntarily come down from heaven to live amongst us. He would teach us how to treat each other with kindness and love. He would introduce us to the Christian lifestyle.

Jesus knew that He would end up being savagely whipped and crucified. Nevertheless, of His own free will, He took the sins of the world onto Himself. He was punished for you and me. If that makes you feel immensely grateful, then you are a believer. If you are indifferent about it, or think the idea is stupid, then you're a nonbeliever.

Anyone who acknowleges Jesus’ sacrifice and becomes a follower is counted as being without sin when they die and will be welcomed to heaven. Jesus took our sins onto Himself when He voluntarily accepted crucifixion on our behalf. If you believe, you are saved.

Jesus took every believer's
sins onto Himself - that's
how much He loves us!

Because God is fair, He knew that people who had never heard of Jesus wouldn't know that He was their Saviour. For this reason God classed them as "a Law unto themselves" and they were judged according to whether they had lived obeying their God-given consciences, the way Christians are supposed to.

What the Bible says about Hell

Jesus compared hell to the treatment slaves had to endure in the Roman Empire. Nazareth and Jerusalem were under Roman rule at that time. He made the point that although hell is a miserable place to be, some sinners are far worse than others and are punished much more severely as a consequence. The harshness of your punishment is lessened by how good a person you were at heart and whether you knew what you were doing was wrong. Would you be happy to think of murderers, evil dictators and terrorists getting away with their crimes?

Unfortunately for us, we're all sinners to a greater or lesser extent and we all have to pay our dues in the end, unless our Redeemer or Saviour has done it for us. With a Roman slave in mind, this is what Jesus said:

"The slave who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t
carry out those instructions, will be severely punished, but the one who didn't
know, and then did something wrong, will be punished only lightly."
Luke 12,47-48

In other words, hell is not the same for everyone who finds themself spending eternity there.

Unlike heaven, which is a place of light and happiness, the Bible portrays hell as a place of darkness and despair.

The outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25,30

In a large garden useless dry weeds might be thrown on a bonfire which is never allowed to go out. Each batch of weeds goes up in smoke and is forgotten about.

As mentioned earlier, Jesus informed us that

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3,16

and He also compared the action of perishing with a farmer separating the valuable wheat from the chaff, which then went up in smoke in a fire that was never allowed to go out.

His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the
wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn up with a fire that never goes out.
Luke 3,17

God never sends anyone to hell
In the Bible we are told

God is love
1 John 4,8

If God loves us, why does Jesus warn us in the Bible to avoid hell at all costs? Surely our Father in heaven would never send any of His children there? After all, God created us and so of course He loves us.

In the next life there are two places you could go - the place where God lives, or the place where He doesn't live. In the one, the rules and standards of Christian living apply, while in the other they don't.

Would you prefer to live in surroundings where you treat everyone with kindness, love and respect, or would you prefer a place where you can behave just as you want? There you could tell people exactly what you think of them and not have to worry whether you're upsetting them. Of course the downside to this is that the people who had been there a long time would be experts at tormenting you!

In your lifetime you may have learnt very little about Christianity, but nevertheless you had strong negative opinions about Christians. Perhaps you couldn't quote anything that Jesus said, but were totally dismissive of His religion. Perhaps, without any evidence to support your ideas, you asserted that heaven and hell were myths. Ok, I respect your views, but with so much at stake, wouldn't it have been wise to check out Christianity while you still had time? Suppose you were wrong and after you've breathed your last breath you find the Christians were right all along? Where would that leave you?

Jesus said, "Whoever acknowledges me before others here on earth, I will
also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me
before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven."
Matthew 10,32

In other words, if you support Jesus, heaven awaits at the end of this life. On the other hand, if you are indifferent to Him, or, worse still, hostile to Him, wouldn't you be unsuited to an eternity in heaven? Perhaps He might judge that you would be better suited to be with other people who think the same way as you.

God doesn't send anyone away - He wants everyone to be with Him.
Not everyone wants to be with God though.

If you stand up for Jesus, on your judgment day He'll stand up for you. But if you deny Jesus, or attack Him, on your judgment day He will deny you. You will have to join all the others who behaved as you did.

As for whether God sends anyone to hell the answer is an emphatic No! He loves us, but because He loves us He wouldn't want to keep us in an environment which we might be scornful of. That wouldn't be good for anyone. No, people choose their own eternal future through a lifetime of what they say and do.

Of course there are some exceptional people who are not religious and are wonderful, kind, gifted people. They might not have been believers in Jesus, perhaps because they belonged to a different faith, or had been brought up in a materialistic environment. It would clearly be a massive injustice if they went to be with the Jesus-haters. What we need to remember is that Jesus is our final judge and, in the way a shepherd separates sheep from goats, He has the authority to decide what their destiny will be.

If during their lifetime someone changes their mind and decides to welcome Jesus into their life, He will welcome them with open arms and all the hurtful and disrespectful words they'd said about Him and His believers would be instantly forgiven and forgotten.

Many people have had so-called near death experiences. Typically, after a serious accident, or a heart attack, they are clinically dead for a few minutes and, thanks to modern medical resuscitation techniques, their body functions return to life. Fairly often these people are able to give vivid descriptions of what they consider to be a brief glimpse of either heaven or hell. If you'd like to read about these accounts, click here: Near Death Experiences