How can a loving God send people to an eternal hell?

As the gospel was being proclaimed, a voice cried out from the back of the crowd, “If God is loving, how can He send anyone to Hell?” A few in the crowd nodded their heads in agreement with the question, which emboldened the heckler to strut back and forth in front of the open-air board as if he had just delivered the knockout blow to Christianity.

Eyes now locked onto me – how would I respond?

The question of God’s justice and Hell is a common one, so it is a question we need to know how to answer. Sadly, some try to soften the blow of God’s holy justice by downplaying the doctrine of Hell. They refuse to mention it or seek to explain it away as some form of non-conscious annihilation. Others simply answer the question by saying, “I don’t know!” Responding in such a manner demonstrates a lack of trust in the authority of God’s Word, and in some cases, it reveals a fear of man.

Martyn-Lloyd Jones said,

“If you do not like the doctrine of hell you are just disagreeing with Jesus Christ. He, the Son of God, believed in hell; and it is in His exposure of the true nature of sin that He teaches that sin ultimately lands men in hell.”

We need to stand firmly upon the Scripture, which teaches that God actively casts sinners into Hell (Luke 12:5), that it is conscious (Luke 16:19-31), and that it is eternal torment (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 14:11).

Back to the open-air. At its heart, the objection of the heckler was built upon twin misunderstandings of God’s holiness and love. He assumed that God, being love, would never punish anyone, and that sin wasn’t a big deal.

I commended the heckler for his question, then I began to answer:

“I’ve just met you, I don’t know you, and I may never see you again. But imagine I tell you a lie. What is the worst that would happen? At most, you’d walk away shaking your head at me. But what if I go home and then tell lies to my children? They aren’t going to trust me as a father, and I would create issues in my family. Then, if I told a lie to my wife, I would be in much more trouble! If I lie to the taxman, I will end up in court. If I lie to the judge, then I will be put in jail.

Each time, I did the same action – I told a lie. But the consequences and punishment increased based on the authority of the person I lied to. The same is true with God. All sin is vertical – all sin is primarily against Him. When we sin against the infinitely holy God, then there is an infinite punishment.

God, because He is loving, must punish wrongdoing. A good judge will always punish the guilty. The problem is we are all guilty of sin, so we all deserve Hell. But the good news is that God, in love, has provided a way of rescue. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died on the cross for sinners, He rose again, and now offers forgiveness to all those who repent and believe.”

The heckler listened and quietened down. What started out as an attempt to silence the gospel paved the way for us to share about God’s holiness and love. Hell is not a doctrine we can downplay or avoid; it is a truth we must handle carefully. We don’t want to be those ‘hell-fire preachers’ who revel in damning sinners. Instead, we should gently deal with this topic in light of God’s holiness, justice, and love. We should plead with sinners not to go to Hell, but instead turn to Christ and live. The loving God will cast sinners into Hell, but the loving God also offers forgiveness in this life to all who would believe.

This article by Josh Williamson was originally published in ‘In the Open’, the magazine of The Open-Air Mission, in the October–December 2024 issue.

_____