One of the most common objections I hear when presenting the gospel to people is something like the following:
“But what about hell? I just can’t believe in a God who would send people to hell, especially people in remote parts of the world who have never had the chance to hear about him, or children.”
Basically, the picture presented in this argument is this:
God is a capricious, judgmental character who is remote and unknowable, and requires esoteric knowledge available to only a few for salvation. The unlucky majority that isn’t fortunate enough to have this knowledge will be thrown into hell without a chance. Human beings are basically decent characters trying their best who simply don’t deserve such an extreme punishment.
I wouldn’t believe in a God like this either. In fact, I don’t. Here’s why:
1. Every human being has access to the knowledge of God, because God has given it to them
The apostle Paul responded to just such an argument in a letter he wrote to the early church at Rome. The picture he paints is completely different; in fact, he turns this objection on its head:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)
Paul is saying that far from being a distant, remote Deity whose existence is impossible to prove and who can’t be known except by an elite few who have access to certain facts, God has made his existence and his character blindingly obvious to everyone. All around us, the heavens and the earth are simply SHOUTING his glory! It’s impossible to miss; there is nobody who has not seen and understood it.
Centuries before Paul, a Hebrew songwriter put it more poetically:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
(King David, Psalm 19:1-4)
Have you ever looked up at a starry night sky? Watched a sunset? Seen a mountain? A tree? A snowflake? Your own hand? Then you have seen the eternal power, divine nature, and unsurpassable wisdom of God. This includes every human being who has ever been born, whether they had access to a Bible or heard about Jesus. No one can plead ignorance.
2. Everyone has turned away from this knowledge of God
Paul goes on to explain why we are without excuse:
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles….They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:21-23, 25)
In a mind-bendingly foolish exchange, people choose to ignore the glory of God who has revealed himself through creation, and worship some form of his creation instead. This, of course, is not limited to falling down in front of a carved idol. Anything we live for that is not the Creator, including ourselves, is a form of worship. Anything we depend on for happiness, survival, sustenance, and success except God himself is what we worship. It may be science, our intellect, our looks, our physical fitness, relationships, work, drugs, sex—anything. Every single human being ever born has made this exchange. We’ve denied truth and traded it for a lie that enables us to live independently of God, looking to anything and everything else but him for life.
The results of this foolish tradeoff are chilling. Paul describes them this way:
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another….Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:42, 26-32)
The sin that makes both ourselves and others miserable, and society a hostile place, is the consequence of our abandonment of the knowledge of God. We tend to treat sinful behaviour as the problem, something that stands on its own. Paul tells us that it actually stems from the root cause of rejecting God and worshiping his creation instead. That is the problem; sin is the result.
As human beings, we tend to focus on behaviour. We like to think that we are relatively good compared to other people. If we don’t do outrageously bad things, and we try to be nice to others, we think we’re probably ok. However, God’s standard is far different. If we have failed to completely love, obey, and worship him as God from the moment we are conscious, we have failed to live up to the purpose for which he created us.
It’s a far darker picture of human beings than we like to paint of ourselves. Instead of God being the problem, suddenly we realize that we are the problem.
Paul goes further in the next chapter to argue that the Gentiles, who did not have God’s law given to the Jews, nonetheless know the righteous requirements of God. These requirements have been written in their conscience, and they understand them innately:
“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” (Romans 2:14-15)
Every human being ever born has an inbuilt sense of what is right and what is wrong, which begins operation very early. To be sure, this sense is imperfect, but nonetheless, when we do what is wrong, we know it. Nobody has ever lived up to even the standards of his or her own conscience; we all have the experience of guilt to tell us when we have crossed the line, even if we try to suppress it.
Paul sums up his dark picture of human failing with this conclusion:
We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.”…Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. (Romans 3:9-11, 19)
We start from the assumption that we are the innocent ones and God the guilty party. When we see things from God’s perspective, we realize that we are the guilty ones, and in fact, we’re all in pretty deep trouble. God would be completely just if he were to send us all to hell, no passing go, no collecting $200.
3. God did something about this, even though he didn’t have to
Fortunately, Paul doesn’t end the argument here. He goes on to tell us that although we are all guilty before God, bar none, God himself has provided the solution: the free gift of righteousness through his Son Jesus Christ, who was given as a blood sacrifice for the sins which were committed against him!
This is utterly mind-boggling. God, who is perfect in righteousness and never committed a single sin, created a human race which to a man rebelled against him and rejected him. In a stunning plot twist, instead of wiping us out, God decided to become one of his creation, lived thirty-three poverty-stricken years on earth, knew rejection, deprivation, and shame, and in the end was scourged and put to death at the hands of his own creation by perhaps the cruellest execution method ever devised, crucifixion. In his death, he took all of the guilt of the sins we committed against him and all of the wrath and separation from God that we rightly deserve—so that God could forgive us without violating his perfect justice, restore us to relationship with himself, and give us eternal life!
This is the story of the gospel as presented in the Bible. Anybody who accuses God of injustice has not comprehended the massive humility and injustice God suffered, in order to redeem those who hate him and by themselves would never move a step toward him. Not only that, it is a free gift offered to anyone and everyone who will believe. Debt wiped out; slate clean; gone free.
This is deep mercy. This is incomprehensible love. Anybody who truly understands this will not only accept it in a moment, but will spend eternity worshiping and glorifying God for it.
4. This argument fails to understand the heart of God
God is not an immovable, distant, angry, capricious Deity bent on sweeping all those who fail to escape by a technicality into Hell. Such an idea massively misunderstands the heart of God.
God is pictured in Scripture as a tender Shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to go off into the wilderness and fetch the one lost and throws a party when he finds it; a woman who carefully searches for her one lost coin and throws a party when she finds it; a loving Father who runs to meet the returning son who left him and squandered his inheritance, and throws a party (Luke 15). Jesus summed up his mission this way: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
Listen to God’s heart in sending Jesus:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
Listen to God’s heart for mankind:
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
“[God] wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4
“[J]udgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” (James 2:13)
God is perfectly just, and to those who persist in rejecting him, he will show his perfect justice. However, he’d far rather show mercy! God is not a sadist who delights in sending people to eternal punishment. God’s desire is that everyone will turn to him. Jesus was a divine mission sent from God in order to bring mankind back to himself. Jesus’ death and resurrection was God’s trump card, overturning sin, death, and hell in one fell swoop to clear the way for us to live forever with our Father.
5. This objection presents God in man’s debt, when the fact is, we are in God’s
Who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” (Romans 9:20)
At the heart of this objection to the gospel is the idea that God “owes” us something. He owes us, at the least, eternal life. If he can’t guarantee this to everyone, it’s better not to believe in his existence.
We’ve already discussed this, so we won’t go into it in detail, but the reality is in fact the opposite. It’s we who owe God thankfulness, love, worship, and obedience, and we have radically failed to discharge this debt.
Picture this: you meet someone with whom you fall deeply in love. In time you marry, and because of your love, you decide to have a child. You are model parents: you provide everything your child needs, from physical care to unconditional love and fair discipline. Yet from the time that child is old enough, he revolts against you. Instead of loving you, he takes every opportunity to demonstrate his hatred. Instead of enjoying his relationship with you, he ignores and rejects you and prefers to spend all his time in the company of others or out by himself. Instead of being grateful for your kindness as a parent, he takes what you give him but does not say thank you. He spurns you when you demonstrate your love for him, disobeys you at every opportunity, curses you, destroys your property, and is physically violent. He does not do anything you ask or help around the house and as soon as he’s old enough, he runs away to live on his own and never speaks to you again, pretending you are not his family.
Any parent would be heartbroken at such a treatment. Yet this is an accurate picture of how we have reacted to God.
We were created to love God. We were created to worship, obey, and live in relationship with him. Yet every one of us, from the time we were conscious, have failed to do so and instead have chosen other gods and other allegiances.
This is deeply humbling. We are used to thinking of ourselves as the centre of the universe, and God in our debt. God is very unapologetically at the centre of the universe, and we are his creation who were made for his glory and his pleasure. We exist for him, not the other way round.
6. This objection can be refined to “Well then, if faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation, what about people who have never heard of Jesus?”
This is a more difficult question. I do not claim to know all of the ins and outs of how God will judge the world; if I did, I would be God and not human. I know some facts that frame my thinking about this issue, and the rest I leave to God.
1) God is perfectly just
God’s character is total justice. God is not going to judge anyone unfairly. At the last day when everyone stands before him, no one is going to be able to charge him with unfairness or imperfect knowledge. No one is going to be able to say that God judged wrongly. No one is going to be able to present facts that he didn’t know in order to overturn his case.
God does not judge based on what people do not know about him. God judges based on what they do know, and what they have done with that knowledge. Jesus said, “To whom much has been given, much will be required.” The greater someone’s knowledge of God, the greater their punishment will be for rejecting it. One who has less knowledge will be judged less severely.
2) God is merciful
As we discussed before, God’s heart is mercy. Although he is just, mercy trumps justice for him. His desire is to show mercy.
3) We don’t deserve eternal life; we deserve God’s judgment
We all deserve banishment from God’s presence. That’s what hell is, and that’s what we’ve chosen on earth. God does not “owe” us anything; if he was to send every single one of us to hell, he would be perfectly righteous in doing so.
4) God is sovereign, and he is perfectly capable of revealing himself to anyone who seeks him
Again, listen to God’s heart:
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:12-14)
God reveals himself to those who are not even looking for him:
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’” (Isaiah 65:1)
God controls the destinies of every man so they will have opportunity to find him:
“From one man he [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)
There are many stories from the Muslim world of Muslims who are turning to Jesus because of dreams and visions they have had of him. In many cases, these people have never talked to a Christian or seen a Bible. I personally have met a Sudanese Arabic man who became a Christian as a result of hearing John 3:16 repeated in an audible voice three nights in a row. God can and will reveal himself to those whom he chooses, in whatever way he chooses. He is God, after all! He is looking for people more than people are looking for him.
7. What about children?
Again, my answer is two-fold: God is perfectly just, and God is merciful. The Bible simply doesn’t talk about what happens to children who may not be old enough to understand. Some theologians talk about an “age of accountability”, before which children are exempt from judgment. I think this may well be true, though I would not be dogmatic about it. In the end, I would say that I trust God’s mercy. It’s not possible for us as humans to be more merciful or more just than he is.
In conclusion, I would ask anyone presenting such an objection to read through the gospels in the Bible about the life of Jesus. God’s heart shines through again and again: the great story of the good news that God loves sinful human beings, desires reconciliation and relationship with them, and has done everything possible to make this happen. The Bible does not focus on hell, or on God’s judgment. It makes it clear that we deserve God’s wrath, but focuses its spotlight instead on the beauty and the glory of God’s plan to save us from it. That’s where the Story begins, but not where it ends. If you choose to step into it, you’ll spend all eternity celebrating it.