The Necessity of Hell

Last week I watched some programs that were recorded about 10 years ago that dealt with the subject of if God is loving why does He allow so much pain and suffering? In other words, why is there so much evil in our world? Why won’t He stop it – like now?! 

One of the programs within the 8-part series dealt with the reality of hell. The host John Ankerberg asked his studio guest Norman Geisler why hell is necessary. Norman  who has authored numerous books on defending the Christian Faith provided three answers.  

1. 1. Hell is a prison sentence for those who breaks God’s laws.  God must execute His justice against evildoers. Just like criminals who breaks the laws here on earth are sent to prison once convicted, God eternally punishes those who reject Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement for their sins in hell. Hell is where unrepentant departed souls dwell before they are resurrected to face the Great White Judgment in Revelation 201.  

2. 2. God is loving and He will not force anyone into Heaven.  God will not violate man’s choice to be with Him or not. That is the second  reason why hell is necessary – because of God’s love. 

3. 3. Heaven is worse than hell for the unrepentant sinner. Norman explained that having the unsaved in heaven for eternity would not be a blessing but a curse. Why? An example he gave was you have people who hate to worship in church for an hour. What if they were forced to worship God for an eternity in heaven when they hate it because they hate God? Heaven for the unconverted is an impossibility. 

The first two reasons I was aware of. The third reason was/is new insight for me. So, for those of who read this article and you need reasons for the existence of hell, these are three valid reasons why God created it.  

 

God has made it clear in His word that He does not take pleasure when the wicked die. God would prefer the wicked repent (Ezekiel 33:11). God also declared that He is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) - that is the heart of God for all men. However, because He has given man free will, we must choose life or death. Righteousness or unrighteousness. God sending a person to hell when they rebel is more loving than forcing one into heaven when they do not desire to be there. Why? God must allow for man to make the wrong choice if He wants to. No matter how tragic that wrong choice is. Not everything God desires for man will come to pass because of man choosing to rebel against Him. This breaks the heart of God. But because God is perfectly loving, He must execute His wrath against the wicked and punish them in hell for their willful rejection of Him. 

 

For God to reward the unrepentant with heaven would violate His own standard of justice and holiness. It would also nullify the need for hell in the first place. Also, it would have been useless to create man with choice since he is headed for heaven no matter what he does. Hell is necessary no matter how most dislike hearing about it. It is fair and as strange as it may sound loving of God (with painful regret but necessary) to send the unrighteous there to suffer because the Lord will honor the most dishonorable choice man can make - rejecting Jesus Christ – mankind's only savior. 

Is God Capricious?

 To know the true and living God is the greatest of all blessings. Proverbs 9:10 says, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” To know God truly is to understand His nature; what brings Him joy, and what angers Him. For any relationship to be deep and intimate, one must learn about the one they claim to love. As believers we know the Lord. It must be an ongoing love affair with our Savior. The more we know Him, the more we understand His ways – how perfect they are- how imperfect and sinful we are. The closer we get to the Lord, the more our wretchedness is revealed to us. 

This should provide us with great comfort. Why? Because, despite our weaknesses, God still loves us, and delights in being our Father. He forgave our sins when we first trusted in Christ for our salvation, and He continually forgives our sins when we disobey now.  

What extraordinary grace! 

Sadly, most of the world is blinded to the goodness of God. As a result of this blindness, they have concluded the God of the Bible is a monster. Why? Well, look at all of the evil in our world today. The crime, murder of innocent children. Infants dying of diseases. The Coronavirus pandemic. Extreme poverty and homelessness and starvation. How can anyone say God is good when all this evil is prevailing in the world. Why doesn’t God stop all this madness?  

Because of all of the above, many have concluded that God is not loving, or all powerful. They say God does not care, and/or He does not have the power to do anything about it. But if He is powerful enough to get rid of all this evil and suffering and it continues, then He is capricious1. What is even worse there are those that say God is responsible for the world’s mess because He created it this way. In other words, God in his anger created a world of evil so that we would live in misery and pain. 

You see, those who do not know God have come up and will continue to say things that are antithetical to God’s nature – lies! You see why it is so important to study the Bible and know what God has revealed about Himself?  

In 2 Corinthians 3-4 we read this, “and if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” 

My Lord is not capricious. Genesis 1:31 said God looked at everything He made it was very good. So now we must discover what went so wrong. Why is the world the way it is? 

The Bible provides the answer. Our world is in ruin morally because of the disobedience of our first parents Adam and Eve. When they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened (Genesis 3:7). They experienced guilt and shame for the first time ever. They brought sin into the world. 

Their sin nature was imputed2 to all their descendants (Romans 5:12). That means you and me. Why? Because we are all in the loins of Adam when He committed the initial sin of treachery against the Lord.  

Because of this act of rebellion against God, we are currently in the mess we are in. And mankind from that infamous day up until the present day has continued to rebel against God which incurs God’s wrath. It is amazing to me that sinful man pridefully blames God for the evil in the world when he is the one that commits the evil. Why is man demanding God get rid of evil when man loves his sin? Here is what I have discovered, sinful man is the ultimate hypocrite. He loves his sin because he believes it does no harm. But he hates the sin of others – that is repulsive to him; even God’s “sins” in his corrupt mind. 

I have said it before, if you want God to get rid of evil now, God will have to get rid of all of us right now! God has not destroyed evil yet because evil is in man and God is long suffering toward rebellious man. Not willing that anyone should perish, but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). 

God permitting evil and suffering is an ongoing act of mercy 

Even for the Christian the above declaration sounds ridiculous. How is all this pain and suffering and act of mercy by God? Because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God has provided the perfect and only solution for mankind’s sin – one MUST place their faith in the completed atoning work of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). When one does this, they are free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). Let me explain, free from sin because Jesus washed away your sins with His own blood. We are free from the law of death because we have now inherited eternal life. 

At this point someone may disagree and say “wait a minute! What you Christians are saying is not true. Everyone still dies when they believe so how can the Bible say you are free from the law of sin and death?” Because our sins have been removed forever in a forensic or judicial sense by Christ, we can never be judged guilty for them. Jesus took the guilty plea and was punished by the Father on our behalf (Isaiah 53:5). So, when a believer dies, it is a graduation into glory not a punishment. Paul said it this way, “for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). So why is death gain? 

Because when a believer dies, they are in presence of God. They literally see God the Father, Jesus Christ, the holy angels, and all the saints of God face to face in heaven. 

Death for the Christian is the manifestation of our hope being realized. The promises of God have been fulfilled. We have arrived at our final and eternal destination – glorification. When we know what God has and is doing for us, we do not get discouraged to the point of no hope. Why? Because God promised us that all of the pain and suffering the world is experiencing now will one day disappear. God will fix all that is broken. What man has ruined due his willful rebellion God will burn and make brand new (Revelation 21:1-5). 

Man’s rebellion is an affront to God. As a result, God reacts against that rebellion through causing and allowing pain, suffering, and death. God is arresting our attention to the fact that He is displeased. You see God could forgo His mercy and simply exercise His justice. If He did that, every human being would be sent straight to hell the moment they committed one sin. Thank God He allows the wickedness of man (for now) so that He can share His love for him in Jesus Christ so that we all can repent of their sins, believe the gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior before one die in their sins and is lost forever.