I am not a theologian and for that reason, I get frustrated when I don’t know the answers to specific questions raised about God. The title of this blog post is, ”Why would a good God send people to hell’? and I have had that question brought up many times and for years it has frustrated me. Why?
Because it is a great question! How could God allow that to happen? Good people in hell make no sense. But, over time, I have begun to understand more about God’s character, which in turn has clarified some answers.
When I want to get to the root of a “why” question, I go back to the source to find the answers. How could God allow good people to go to hell? To me, we need to begin with God and who HE is to try and answer this question.
A.W Tozer, a real theologian, said it this way, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”.
There must be reasons about His character and why He acts or behaves as He does rather than just what I see here on Earth. What I’ve discovered is some reasons cause God to be who He is.
Let’s start with Holy. If you really understand this word and how it applies to God, you will second-guess everything you do or say. I never really understood this word but yet when applied to God, our Creator, all the reasons are clarified. Here is what I mean; God is the most perfect and holy being in our universe and it is His perfect, holy, character that decides what is right and wrong. That perfection He puts forth into us is His morality and then into our world which is how humans are to behave.
In other words, that is how inherently we know that killing is bad and helping our neighbor is good. It is in our DNA. Yet why is there so much killing in this world? The answer is simple… Satan is still alive and operating as the prince of this world…for a time.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Satan is working just as hard to distract you from God as God is trying to get your attention.
Think of it this way: God’s absolute Holiness binds Him and compels Him to respond in a particular manner which means, simply put; GOD HATES sin. He hates to see it, smell it, or even be around it (read Mark 9:42-47). But yet you and I are His children and we absolutely reek of sin. We are born into it, and without the saving salvation of Jesus Christ, we actually stink to heaven.
Let me summarize quickly at this point:
1. We learned God is perfectly Holy
2. Holy means God must behave according to His perfect character.
3. Holy means God can’t be around sin.
Now, for those of you who did not know, God did solve the problem of sin for us by sending His blameless son Jesus, to take our place as a sacrifice for our sin committed.
So understand things this way, because God is holy, He MUST judge everyone according to His perfect character and because He is perfect, His judgments are fair and right.
Let’s keep going. As mentioned previously, Jesus came to this earth to solve the sin sacrifice issue for you and me but He is also the most loving person who ever lived, yet it is He who teaches us the most about the reality of hell and the consequences. Why would He do this?
Because Jesus knows Hell is a very real thing and He doesn’t want any of us to suffer the inevitable consequences of our rebellion against God.
Rebellion? What am I talking about?
Rebellion is having sin in your life and NOT doing anything about it…living in sin is rebellion against God…why? Because God is holy…
Do you see a pattern?
Heaven and Hell are or will be, defined by our relationship with God. Heaven means enjoying the amazing gifts of a Father and more importantly, being with Him. Hell is the absence of His blessings; love, communion, presence, beauty, etc.
Simply put; Heaven is being with our Holy God and Hell is being apart from Him.
Think about that for a moment. The closest thing to Heaven on earth is to have a relationship with Him and to feel His presence in our lives.
Hell on earth is the opposite of everything GOD.
So now that we understand a little more about the God we serve I must make this statement to you and ask this question;
Now that we truly understand how holy God is, we shouldn’t be asking the question why would a good God send people to hell…the real question should be…
How can God allow anyone into Heaven?
The bottom line…going to Heaven or Hell is a choice WE get to make while here on this earth.
God doesn’t send good people to Hell…they get to make that decision for themselves…
Until next time guys…
