Does the fact that God is love prove the non-existence of hell?Is sending people to eternal punishment an act of a loving person?In the article “Hell on the Bench,” John Blanchard helps us better understand the topic:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), the Scottish physician and writer best known for his upbringing of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, once wrote, “Hell, may I say [?], He has been out of the thoughts of any sensitive Today would receive much support for this statement, and not just the support of those outside the Christian church. The idea that billions of incalculable human beings (including many who seemed decent citizens and respected the law) Eternity exposed to God’s incessant anger is simply unacceptable to many people. Even some who have a high ecclesiastical function have already rejected the idea. John Robinson (1919-1983), the liberal bishop of Woolwich, London, whose book Honest to God reduced the Creator to the “level of being,” said of this idea:?[God] can’t stand it [?] And he won’t go?.
- By far the most persistent attack on hell comes in the form of a question: how can a loving God send someone to hell?The British philosopher and theologian John Hick (1922-2012) argued that hell was “totally incompatible with God’s idea of infinite love.
- “The argument here is perfectly simple: sending people to hell is not something that comes from love.
- So a loving God could never do it.
- How do we respond to that?.
There is no doubt about God’s love, and 1 John 4. 8 (“God is love”) confirms that love is an integral part of God’s very essence. However, isolating one of his attributes as a means of demolishing hell leaves us with an asymmetrical caricature of God. In fact, God’s dominant biblical attribute is not his love, but his holiness; is called by its “name” more than all the other descriptions put together. [?]
In a sense, God does not send anyone to hell, but it is the very people who are sent there.
J. I. Packer says
“No one remains under the wrath of God except those who choose Him. The essence of God’s action in anger is to give men what they choose, with all their implications, nothing more and nothing less?
C. S. Lewis adds:
“I easily believe that the condemned are, in a sense, rebels who triumph to the end; I think the gates of hell are locked from the inside.
Others reject the biblical portrait of hell by saying that although God hates sin, He loves the sinner, so he could never condemn anyone to eternal punishment, but would that be the case?
I have tracked 33 places in the scriptures where God’s wrath is expressed; in twelve places he is said to hate the actions of sinners (including the practice of false religion), but in the other 21, he is said to hate the sinner. The example covers all others: it is said that the soul of God hates those who love violence (Ps 11:5, A21).
Although God shows his love by spreading his common grace over all men, [?] We dare not confuse this with saving grace. [?]
Those who see God’s love as something that eliminates hell ignore God’s righteousness and the fundamental fact that he does not blame the culprit (Exodus 34. 7).
Some ask:
How can God punish the mere period of an earthly life of sin with suffering that lasts forever?
John Blanchard, after giving us some examples, replies
The decisive questions are the nature of God and the nature of sin, and all sin, without exception, is an offense against the majesty and authority of our Creator. [?]
The fact that man does not give God, the glory due to his name?(Sal 29:2) is an infinite evil that deserves infinite punishment, and because in hell there is no opportunity or desire to repent, God’s righteousness demands that it last forever. [?]
What about those who claim that, after a while, hell will disappear?
If annihilation is the goal of suffering, what is the purpose of suffering?Such a scenario would condemn God as the sadistic supreme. The suggestion also goes directly against the Bible’s clear teaching that those in hell have no rest, no day. no night? (Revelation 14. 11).
God is eternally sovereign, and [?] He has the last word about human destiny. [Hell] confirms God’s character, showing that he is completely holy and just.
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See the development of the full text by reading the full article at the following link:
This article is part of the February 2014 issue of Tabletalk magazine.
Translation: Alan Cristie. Review: Renata do Esperito Santo. © 2014 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: Hell on the Dock.