Objections Against the Doctrine of Hell--Hell Series

            I don’t know much about the details of a courtroom trial, but whenever I’ve seen one portrayed on TV, there always seems to be a dramatic moment when one lawyer stands up and says, “I OBJECT!!” They always say it with total disgust, too, as if their mom had just been insulted. I don’t know how accurate that is, but it does make for good TV.

            Well, as the doctrine of Hell has been tried in the court of public opinion over the years, many people have stood up to say, “I object!” Some of these objections have come from people who want to discredit Christianity, and some of them have come from people who embrace it but believe that the Church’s traditional understanding of Hell needs to be modified.

            Last week, I presented the traditional Christian understanding of Hell—that it is a place of punishment for those who have rejected God, and that those who wind up there will remain there forever. Today, we’ll start to discuss some objections that have been raised at various times against that idea. Then, in the next sermon, we’ll talk about two alternatives to the traditional view of Hell that have had the most influence within Christianity.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE OF HELL

1. IT IS A GROSSLY UNFAIR PUNISHMENT FOR SIN

            I think we can all agree that at first glance, Hell really does look like an over-reaction. Is it really fair for people to suffer forever for the sins they’ve committed? Maybe we’d say “yes” for Hitler or Osama Bin Laden, but what about Bob down the street? Could Hell really be a fair punishment for people who just commit “plain old” sins? I think the answer is yes, and let me make a couple of observations to tell you why.

            a. Since we are guilty of sin, we are not in a trustworthy position to decide what a fair punishment for it should be

            Think of it like this—if we allowed a group of convicted thieves to determine the punishment for robbery, don’t you think they would be more lenient than people who had never committed robbery? Of course they would, because we all have a natural tendency to downplay the severity of our choices. Even after we admit we’ve done wrong, we still try to come up with excuses about why our behavior really wasn’t that bad.

            We’re really just like the group of convicted thieves! We want to minimize the severity of sin because we are guilty of it, and when we talk about a punishment for it, we know that we’re talking about a punishment that we deserve. So naturally, we want to make that punishment less and less severe.

            Since we have this bias from the fact that we’re guilty of sin, we should acknowledge that and follow the lead of someone who is not guilty of sin—God Himself! He is the true judge of mankind, and if He says that Hell is a fitting punishment for sin, we should take His word for it, because our own opinion about it is not reliable.

            b. The fair punishment for a crime is relative to the kind of being against whom the crime is committed

            We follow this principle in our own laws in this country. Let me explain what I mean. If I torture and kill a bug, that’s not a crime; I wouldn’t face any punishment for that. However, if I torture and kill an animal, that’s a crime because we place animals on a higher level than bugs. But even the punishment for that crime isn’t as severe as if I would torture and kill a human being, because—once again—we’ve moved up another level. A human being is on a higher level than an animal.

            So as we move up from one level to another, the punishment becomes more severe each time. That principle would lead us to this conclusion—since God is the greatest of all beings, a crime against Him would deserve the most severe of all punishments. I think this principle reminds us how serious it is to sin against God, since He is a much greater kind of being than we are. A sin against Him deserves a very serious punishment, indeed, and if He—as an unbiased voice—says that Hell is that punishment, we should take His word for it.

2. IT VIOLATES THE IDEA OF GOD’S LOVE

            This is perhaps the most common objection today to the concept of Hell, and we usually hear it raised in the form of a question: “How could a loving God send someone to Hell?” To the modern American mind, putting those two ideas together just does not compute.

            Perhaps the reality we should remember at this point is that God is not only a loving God. He certainly is that, but His character has a perfect balance between traits like love, justice, holiness, mercy, and grace. We can see this perfect balance in the way that He has responded to our sin. God punishes sin—which reveals His justice—yet He has also made a way for us to avoid that punishment—which reveals His love, mercy, and grace.

            Think of the cross of Jesus as being like a set of scales that perfectly balance God’s justice and His love. God’s justice demands that sin be punished. That’s why Jesus had to die if we were to be forgiven; God couldn’t just pretend to look the other way while we scampered into Heaven. The price for sin had to be paid, but God’s love moved Him to pay the price Himself so that we could receive a pardon.

            The moral of the story is this—we cannot focus solely on God’s love in a discussion about something like Hell. The fact that we are tempted to reveals an imbalance within us. Think about it—how many people would get outraged over the idea that God’s holiness might be violated? Hardly anyone, and that’s because we have an imbalance within us that comes from our sin nature. Again, we want to minimize the severity of our sin and the reality of God’s justice because we are guilty.

3. IT VIOLATES THE CONCEPT OF THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD

            Some people have argued that Christianity’s traditional understanding of Hell portrays God as being a horrific child abuser. The reasoning goes something like this: “I could never enforce a punishment like Hell on one of my children, and God is even more merciful than I am, so surely God could not send one of His children to Hell.”

            I think this objection often comes from a sincere motivation to protect the character of God, but it overlooks one vital fact—according to the Bible, people who have not accepted Christ by faith do not have a father/child relationship with God. Only those who are born again can claim that kind of relationship with God. As John 1:11-12 says, [READ John 1:11-12; p. 576]. To whom did Jesus give the right to become children of God? Only to those who received Him by believing in His name.

            Those who do not accept Christ are considered to be children of Satan. We read this last week when we discussed the parable of the wheat and the tares (or weeds). When Jesus explained this parable in Matthew 13:38, he said, “the weeds are the sons of the evil one.” And in John 8, when Jesus was speaking to some people who had rejected Him, He said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires (8:44).”

            Now don’t think of unbelieving people as being willing followers of Satan, because they’re not—they are deceived, just as you and I were before God opened our eyes. But from God’s point of view, those who do not accept Christ are not part of His family. They are part of Satan’s family, and thus they are in danger of facing the same fate as Satan.

4. IT VIOLATES THE IDEA THAT GOD’S DISCIPLINE IS MEANT FOR CORRECTION

            Some have said that the idea of everlasting punishment in Hell is a misunderstanding of the purpose behind God’s punishment or discipline. They would not deny that some people will go to Hell, but their time there will not be everlasting. They will be reformed by God’s discipline and will eventually accept Christ.

            It is true that some passages in the Bible describe God’s discipline as being designed to correct and reform those who receive it. Hebrews 12 is probably the classic passage on this subject, but that passage also makes it clear that this corrective discipline is directed toward those who are children of God, and as we just learned, not everyone has a parent/child relationship with God.

            I think the Bible definitely teaches that God does carry out punishments that are final and that do not leave a possibility for correction afterward. That’s why God is waiting so patiently today before He wraps up His plan for this world. If God intends to give people in Hell a second chance to accept Him, why is He waiting to wrap up His plan for this world? By conservative estimates, scores of Christians are killed every day around the world because of their faith. Why does God allow this to continue? Why does God allow His people to continue to suffer? Why doesn’t He just wrap up His plan today and then give people in Hell their second chance? I think its because there will not be a second chance, and so God is patiently waiting today, to give people more and more time to repent before it is too late.

5. CERTAIN PEOPLE IN CHURCH HISTORY HAVE DEFENDED DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES ABOUT HELL; THEREFORE, IT IS LEGITIMATE TO HOLD TO A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE THAN THE TRADITIONAL ONE

            It is true that different people in church history have held to different perspectives about Hell than the traditional one. The most famous person to do so in the early church was a man named Origen, who was an influential teacher in Egypt during the early 200’s AD. More recently, a pastor in Michigan named Rob Bell wrote a book in 2011 entitled Love Wins, in which he defended a different perspective than the traditional Christian perspective on Hell.

            Those who agree with these teachers often try to say that there has never been universal agreement among Christians about Hell. I suppose that’s true if “universal” means “every person who has ever called themselves a Christian!” But there can be no doubt that the vast majority of people in every era who have worn the label “Christian” have believed in the traditional understanding of Hell—that it is a place of everlasting suffering for those who reject God.

            But the most important question is not, “What have people taught in the name of Christianity?” All kinds of ideas have been taught in the name of Christianity that we would never want to believe! For example, some people in the early days of Christianity called themselves Christians, but taught that Jesus wasn’t even a real human being—He was like a ghost who only looked like a real human being. We certainly don’t want to believe something like that!

            The most important question, of course, is, “What does the Bible teach?”  THAT is where we must take our stand, and I think we got a good snapshot of the Bible’s teaching on Hell last week. Next week, we will consider some different interpretations that have been suggested for some of the verses we have read, and I believe we will see that Christianity’s traditional understanding of Hell has become traditional because it is the correct interpretation of Scripture.

            For today, I hope you can see the importance of thinking clearly and deeply about what you believe. The spirit of our times calls for our feelings to govern our faith, and clear, deep thinking like what we’ve just done today is often pushed to the side. But there is a reason that the Bible repeatedly commands us to have discernment, which is the ability to make clear and accurate distinctions in your mind. Romans 12:2 simply states that this is the way to be transformed spiritually—“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

            Have you ever wondered if there’s a simple standard that could tell you whether you’re mature as a Christian? Not perfect, of course, but “grown-up”—no longer a baby in Christ? Well in fact, there is, and we find it in Heb. 5:14—“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

            To grow in Christ, we must put out some mental energy. That doesn’t mean you need to have a shelf full of books. The best plan is to make sure you read one book and think about it—the word of God! God’s Word teaches us how to distinguish between right and wrong, true and false, and we must let it train our minds.

Follow your heart? No. Exercise your mind instead.