From the time we are brought into the world, a persons sense of justice is a part of their very being. A "moral code" written right into humanities DNA. Numerous studies have been done on the subject. A couple are here, or here. But really, we don't need scientists to tell us what we already know to be true. Simply watch two young children play together, and it becomes obvious that mankind has a natural tendency to want things to be fair. It's ingrained inside of us from the very beginning.
When it comes to believing in Hell, the place of eternal punishment for the wicked, it can be a little daunting for people to believe in such a place, because how in the hell(no pun intended) is that even fair? How is an eternal punishment fair, when we are born into sin in the first place, and live such a short existence comparatively speaking? If we are made in Gods image, how is it that we can see that eternal torment isn’t fair, and God can't? How does the existence of Hell coincide with our inborn moral code for things to be just and fair?
For most people who believe in hell that's simply the way things are. Accept it, or don’t. Usually those who believe in hell have been taught this from the time they were children, and never critically examined whether hell indeed does exist. In fact questioning the very existence of hell may lead you there by way of being labeled an apostate, or by questioning what has been taught as truth for centuries in Christianity, even to this very day. No wonder most Christians who believe in hell never really question it, because they are scared as hell(pun intended) to do so.
Evidently, if you are a Christian, living a godly life as best you can, and putting faith in Jesus sacrifice, then you don't need to fear spending eternity in hell, for the bible tells us Christians don't go there. You may feel bad for those who are not Christian, as they will apparently be down in hell being tortured for all eternity, but for you, as a Christian, all is good...koom by ya.
Yet, for many people searching for a God they can worship, simply accepting that hell exists doesn't pass their "moral code" of justice they were born with. In fact many atheists have become so because they feel that the Christian God is hypocritical, lacking love, and any sense of justice, by condemning for all eternity in a place of torment any persons who choose not to worship him. They are told that God is a God of love, and mercy, and yet are forced to believe in something that goes contrary to the essence of what God is. Contrary to their moral code of justice.
Does this sound right? Does it pass the sense of justice that YOU were born with...Is it fair? Surely the Bible must have the answers, so lets start from the beginning, and critically examine whether the existence of Hell is real.
Obviously if Hell is real, then God must have created it, and there must have been a reason to create Hell, for God does nothing without purpose.
Beginning with Gods creation account in Genesis there is no mention of Hell, yet we can gain insight into what Gods thoughts were as he created the universe and man.
Throughout the creative process, God saw that what he was doing was good, and after the sixth day, and ultimately creating man, the scriptures tell us:
“After that God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.” Ge 1:31
According to the scriptures God makes it clear that, so far, everything was good. Actually not just good, but 'very good'. Apparently, Hell had not been created yet. In fact, the word 'good' would be the last description you would give a place like Hell. Therefore, the belief in Hell at this point of creation would go completely contrary to what God told us, in that all was very good. So we must conclude that at this point of creation, Hell did not exist yet.
After the completion of the sixth day, God did this:
“. . .Thus the heavens and the earth and all their army came to their completion. 2 And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made. 3 And God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred, because on it he has been resting from all his work that God has created for the purpose of making.” Ge 2:1-3
So....God stopped creating after he saw that all things were good. It was now time to rest from his creative works, which he did by blessing the seventh day and making it a sacred day of rest. God has been resting from from his creation since the seventh day began. That is to say NOTHING has been created since that point, else he would be going against his own mandate of making the seventh day a day of rest. This means that Hell MUST have been created prior to the seventh day.
This presents a HUGE problem however. Why would God create Hell prior to the seventh day, unless he already knew that Adam & Eve were going to sin? If God had foreknowledge of the sin, it can be argued that Adam & Eve did not truly have free will to make the choice to eat the fruit or not, as it had already been seen in Gods eyes prior to the event. You could essentially say it was a rigged test in the first place, one destined to fail. Does that sound like a fair test? Is that just?
Many believe that God knows EVERYTHING, however the concept of foreknowledge of all events would mean that, prior to creating angels or earthling man, God exercised his powers and foresaw and foreknew all that would result from such creation, including the rebellion of one of his spirit sons, the subsequent rebellion of the first human pair in Eden (Ge 3:1-6; Joh 8:44), and all the bad consequences down to and beyond this present day. This would mean that all the wickedness that history has recorded (the crime and immorality, oppression and resultant suffering, lying and hypocrisy, false worship and idolatry, wars and death) once existed, before creation’s beginning, only in the mind of God, in the form of his foreknowledge of the future in all of its minutest details. In essence, everything is just a rerun of what God had already seen using his ability to know all things.
If the Creator of mankind had indeed exercised his power to foreknow all that history has seen since man’s creation, then the full weight of all the wickedness thereafter resulting was deliberately set in motion by God when he spoke the words: “Let us make man.” (Ge 1:26) These facts bring into question the reasonableness, and consistency, of believing in Hell as a part of creation; particularly so, since the disciple James shows that disorder and other vile things do not originate from God’s heavenly presence but are “earthly, animal, demonic” in source.—Jas 3:14-18.
If Hell is real, we must therefore conclude that it exists because God knew that mankind was going to fail in the first place, based on a rigged test, that was destined to failure. Wow, that doesn't sound like a very merciful and just God. No wonder atheists use this argument as a reason not to believe in a loving God, because it goes completely contrary to our inborn sense of justice. It also goes completely contrary to what the bible teaches us about God himself and his perfect love, mercy, wisdom, and justice.
After all, didn't God say 'everything is good' after he created man and woman at Gen 1:31? Yet, if we are to believe that Hell exists, it also means that things really weren't 'good' (Gen 1:31) in the first place, were they? Therefore a belief in the existence of hell forces us from the very beginning of the bible to believe something that goes contrary to what the bible teaches us about our Creator. It means that God was lying when he said 'everything is good'.
The belief in a Hell actually forces us to accept a different version of God that cannot be reconciled with what the bible teaches us about him. There must be another way to look at this that harmonizes with what the bible teaches us about God. Fortunately there is a better answer.
Before we continue on about whether Hell exists, it is essential that this understanding of God is clear. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal. These qualities are what make him God. Yet just because God is omnipotent, or all powerful, does not mean he must use use this ability at all times. God’s exercise of his might is not simply an unleashing of limitless power, but is constantly governed by his purpose and, where merited, tempered by his mercy.—Ne 9:31; Ps 78:38, 39; Jer 30:11; La 3:22; Eze 20:17. This view is consistent with the examples we see in the bible where God uses his power such as during the flood, or splitting the Red Sea. God clearly has control over his power to use at his discretion, when, where, and how much.
The same also holds true of his omniscience, or the all knowing of things. Yes, God has the ability to know all things if he chooses to see them, which is called prescience, yet just as he has the ability to control, or limit his power as he sees fit, his ability to foreknow or foresee all things that occur are at his discretion as well, and must conform to his purpose for which he created all things. His purpose for his creation included the giving of free will.
In order for free will to exist, God governs his use of foreknowledge, in particular the choices that we make. This allows us, his creation, to truly choose our own path without God predetermining our actions by the use of his ability to see all things in advance. By choosing not to use his ability to foreknow all things, this in turn gives us free moral agency to make our own choices, at the same time giving God the ability to hold his creation accountable to their actions. Based on this understanding, the following test given to Adam & Eve, one can say that it was a fair test because God did not look into their future to see what choice they would make, but simply laid out two choices, and waited for one of them to be made.
“. . .And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”” Ge 2:16-17
By limiting, or governing his ability to foresee whether the first human pair would sin or not, a true test of free will was given, and the fair consequences of their decisions could be given as well. If they listened they would gain eternal life in paradise. If they chose to disobey then they would positively die. This reasoning harmonizes with what we believe about our creator being perfect in justice, wisdom, and love(Ps 19:7, 22:31).
But what does this have to do with whether hell exists?
Consider...of all the sins committed by man, this first one committed by the couple would have to be regarded as the worst. For the couple was perfect prior to the sin, and the consequences of their actions not only led to their death, but the death of every human being born since. Considering the severity of the sin, if anybody deserved worse consequences than death, such as going to an eternal hell, would it not be Adam & Eve? Yet God simply stated that if they ate from the fruit they would die(Gen 2:17). He did not say you will die AND spend eternity being tortured in Hell.
We can see that the belief in Hell actually creates a contradiction by forcing us to believe that God knew the couple would sin in the first place, and thus created Hell to deal with those who would make the same decision that Adam & Eve made, which was to disobey God. However, as has been shown through solid reasoning, this belief goes contrary to what the Bible teaches us about what happened in the beginning.
There is a saying that 'the truth will never contradict itself', and based on that simple formula we must conclude that Hell does not exist because everything about it is a contradiction. It contradicts Gods characteristics of love, mercy, and justice. It contradicts that "all was good" in the first place. It contradicts the consequences of what God told Adam & Eve would happen in the garden if they disobeyed, in that they would simply die. To put it simply, Hell does not harmonize with the truth of the scriptures from the very beginning, it contradicts it.
Hell is clearly a contradiction and therefore cannot be truth.
Perhaps you have always believed in Hell, but couldn't reconcile how such a loving God could do such a thing to people. Hopefully, with this new reasoning you can begin to see that possibly Hell does not exist, perhaps there is more to what the bible is saying when it talks of eternal torment in a lake of fire. Rev 20:10,14-15
Be assured the bible makes it clear what is to happen to both the righteous AND the unrighteous. More articles will discuss why Hell does not exist, and bring more clarity and focus on Gods kingdom and why he truly is a God of love, mercy, and true justice.