Christians believe that one day Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. The righteous will experience eternal life in God’s new creation. The wicked, on the other hand, will experience eternal death away from God’s presence in “Hell.”
The doctrine of Hell is by far one of the most disliked aspects of Christian theology, and skeptics have raised numerous objections to it.
Objection #1: A loving God would never torment people in Hell.
Response: If a man loves a woman, but she rejects his advances and refuses to have anything to do with him, she cannot benefit from his love. It is only if she agrees to enter into an intimate covenant relationship of marriage with him that she can benefit from his love. Similarly, if we reject God and God’s ways, we cannot benefit from His love. It is only if we enter into an intimate covenant relationship with God as members of His covenant people that we can benefit from His love.
Eternal death is not a punishment which God has arbitrarily chosen to inflict on the wicked for their sin; rather, eternal death is the natural and inevitable consequence of sin. Sin is not merely a matter of particular wrong actions which we have done in the past; sin is an unholy state of being. God is Holy Love, and those who have not been made holy through union with Christ cannot bear to be in God’s presence. Since the unholy cannot have union with God, who is eternal Life, they will inevitably experience eternal death.
Objection #2: The infinite torments of Hell are disproportionate to any finite sins human beings could commit during their short earthly lives. In fact, God should be more understanding and not punish us for our sins at all, since we are all just trying to do our best, given our human biology and experiences. Besides, it is pointless for God to punish us in Hell, since that future punishment cannot deter us or correct us.
Response: Most Christians have traditionally interpreted the Bible as teaching that the damned will experience eternal conscious torment. However, as I have argued in this previous theology post, it is at least as reasonable to interpret the Bible as teaching that the damned will experience a finite period of punishment before being annihilated. In any case, how can we possibly be certain that our sins are not that bad? It seems perfectly reasonable to claim that a sin against an infinite God merits an infinite punishment.
It is simply not true that we are all trying to do our best. Human beings often choose to do things which are evil, knowing very well that they are evil. In any case, even if we are “sincere” in thinking that some of our evil actions are good, these actions are still objectively evil. Our sins still prevent us from being in the presence of a Holy God. Thus, unless we are saved from our sin through Christ, we will experience eternal death as the natural consequence of our sin.
The prospect of the future torments of Hell certainly can deter people from their sin. There are many examples of people being motivated by a fear of Hell to repent of their sins and give their lives to Jesus. Once people are in Hell, of course, it cannot change their past life of wickedness. But when the God of Justice judges the world, He must, if He is just, both vindicate the righteous who have suffered unjustly and punish the wicked who have avoided the just consequences of their wickedness.
Objection #3: Christians claim that the distinction between the saved and the damned will be based on who believes in Jesus or not. But how can God blame unbelievers for sincerely not believing in Jesus, especially those who have never even heard of Him? Surely, once unbelievers actually see Jesus at the Final Judgment and spend some time in Hell, they will repent and put faith in Him, since “once people believe something different, they automatically change their lifestyle in keeping with that new belief.”[1]John W. Loftus, Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity, Revised and Expanded Edition (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2012), 449. It would be unjust for God not to give repentant people in Hell the opportunity to escape.
Response: As I have argued in this previous theology post, it is reasonable to believe that God does somehow give all people an opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel, including those who do not get the opportunity to hear it during their earthly lives. But this does not mean that everyone will repent and put faith in Christ. It is simply not true that once people are confronted with the truth, they automatically change their lifestyle. This requires an act of will. Even when confronted with the truth, we are perfectly capable of ignoring it. We are perfectly capable of self-deception. We are perfectly capable of perversely choosing wrong over right.
Even if God were to give the damned an eternal opportunity to repent, that would not mean that all of them would repent. Once someone has made a fundamental and ultimate decision to reject God, there is no going back. The damned do not want God. They do not want to be in God’s presence, and that is exactly what they get.
Objection #4: Why does God give people this drastic choice of loving God and having eternal life or rejecting God and experiencing eternal death? Why does God need our love? Why doesn’t God give people a third option so they can escape Hell more easily?
Response: God does not need our love. But we need to love God and be in communion with Him in order to live genuinely human lives and to be fully actualized. As C.S. Lewis put it, “It is not simply that God has arbitrarily made us such that He is our only good. Rather God is the only good of all creatures: and by necessity, each must find its good in that kind and degree of the fruition of God which is proper to its nature.”[2]C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain. Thus, the choice we are given between God or Hell is not a choice arbitrarily created by God. It is simply an inevitable result of the fact that we are part of God’s creation, a part which is able to freely choose to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. If we accept it, we will live forever as God intended, in a relationship of mutual love with God. If we reject it, we will experience complete destruction.