Hell
How can a loving God allow a place like hell to exist?
And how can He send people there if He loves them?
These are certainly two of the most enduring and perplexing questions in history.
The first thing to understand is that God is simultaneously a God of perfect Love and perfect Justice. The answers to the above two questions do exist. Some of them are harsh, because justice can be harsh. But the Good News (that's what "Gospel" means, btw) is that God made a loving Plan called Salvation to keep us from having to be the object of justice. With His own sacrifice for us on the Cross, God went VERY far out of His way to call us Home to Heaven.
I could discuss this topic for days, but the most perfect illustration I have found is summed up in the following short story (in white)...
Imagine that you have committed a crime (that's what even the 'smallest' sin is) and you go before a judge to answer for it. The Judge (God) says to you "The law says that the fine for this crime is one trillion dollars. The fine must be paid or you must be put to death."
Of course, you will not be able to pay the fine. No one could. Yet God is a God of perfect Justice so the ruling must stand. The gavel slams down. Dejected, you turn to leave, resigned to your fate. As your accuser (that's one of the names for satan) happily cuffs you and starts to drag you out of the courtroom to his prison so he can execute your sentence; God stays the accuser's hand firmly, looks you in the eye and says "I will pay your fine myself. Though it will take all that I have to do so, I Am the only one who has what is required to save you. And I Am willing."
At that moment, you have a choice to make. You can allow God to Save you, but it will require that you humble yourself enough to admit that you cannot do this on your own. You will have to extend your hand and take His Gift. That's all He asks of you. If you cannot do this, and you refuse the check He offers you, then you can not fault God the Judge if your pride prevents you and you are executed.
Likewise, if you refuse the free gift of Salvation, then you cannot blame God if you end up in hell.
Free Will
Hell exists because we have free will. We are allowed to choose our own fate. The only way that God could eliminate hell would be to take away our free will...our very freedom to be ourselves. That would not be a loving thing for Him to do. We could have been created as automatons who love God because we are programmed to do so. But what satisfaction could God (or we) get from such a relationship? I could program my computer to tell me it loved me all day long, but it wouldn't compare at all to my wife's soul who chooses to love me.
Heaven is a Perfect Place
For Heaven to remain perfect, and be a place worth going to, only perfection can enter. None of us are perfect, so on our own we could never earn our way there through religion or morality or self-flagellation. We don't possess enough to even make payments on the entrance fee. But that's what religion tells us to try and do. Religion tells us that we have to earn our way, but we can't. Not ever. That's the bad news...or so it would seem.
The enemy wants us to believe in the futile path of religion because it will actually keep us from God. That's why God hates religion and satan actually likes it very much.
The Good News is that the One True Way to Heaven is as simple as our acceptance of God's Sacrifice for our sins on the Cross. That's why He did it...to pave the way for us to come Home to Heaven. All it takes is our acknowledgement of His Sacrifice. That's what Salvation means. How could He let you enter His Home if you had spent your life effectively scoffing at His ultimate Sacrifice for you? That's what you do when you deny the Truth of the Cross. Living your life in denial of it is a mockery of everything He has done for you. More than that, your denial keeps you from knowing Him. You don't let people you don't know into your home, and neither does God. In the Bible it says that there are people who will get to the entrance to Heaven and God will sadly say to them "depart from Me, for I never knew you." At that point, such people must go to hell - by default - because there is no other place to go. Yet that was YOUR choice.
After Salvation, we will still sin...but those sins are covered...forever. They are paid for in full, and we can live with the security of knowing that for sure. That's what the Bible tells us. Salvation - as opposed to its counterfeit, religion - is not "earned" favor with God, it is only His Grace (unmerited favor) that makes Salvation possible.
Need to know specifically how to reach that point? Then
please click here for the Salvation page
Concerning Evil Itself
This is a really great answer
to a question you may be asked or have asked. Did God create everything that
exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?
A
University professor at a well known institution of higher learning
challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that
exists?" A student bravely replied "Yes He did".
"God created everything?" the
professor asked. "Yessir, He certainly did." the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God
created everything, then God created evil. And since evil exists, and according
to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is
evil."
The student became quiet and did
not answer the professor's hypothetical definition. The professor, quite
pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that
the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand
and said, "May I ask you a question, professor?" "Of course", replied the
professor. The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of a question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been
cold?" The other students snickered at the young man's question.
The young man replied, "In fact
sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider
cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body, or object, is susceptible
to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body, or
matter, have or transmit energy.
Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter
becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not
exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.
The student continued,
"Professor, does darkness exist?" The professor responded, "Of course it
does."
The student replied, "Once again
you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the
absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use
Newton 's
prism to break
white light into many
colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure
darkness. A simple ray of light
can break into a world of darkness
and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure
the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by
man to describe what happens when there is no light present." Finally the
young man asked the professor, "Sir does evil exist?"
Now uncertain, the professor
responded, "Of course, as I have already said, we see it everyday. It is in the
daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and
violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but
evil.
To this the student replied,
"Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is
simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man
has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is
the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his
heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness
that comes when there is no light."
The professor sat down.
