This is a mirror of "How Can A God Of Love Send People To Hell?" by Darwin Fish.
See also Wolves Who Teach God Does Not Send People To Hell.
The reason people are sent to hell is because God is a God of love. This may sound incorrect to the human mind, i but it is nonetheless the teaching of Scripture. For example, why did God kill the firstborn of Egypt? ii Psalm 136:10 says because His mercy endures forever. Why did the Lord destroy the Egyptian army in the Red Sea? Psalm 136:15 says because His mercy endures forever. Why did He strike down great kings? Because His mercy endures forever. iii Why did He slay famous kings? Because His mercy endures forever. iv Why did He kill Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan? Because His mercy endures forever. v Those who died in their wickedness went to hell. Yet, Psalm 136 begins with these words:
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. vi
It is good for God to slay the wicked and send them to hell. David knew this well, thus he wrote,
You therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations; Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. vii
Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! viii
The Lord has and will answer these prayers, ix because He is love; and love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. x
A Song of Love xi declares,
Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; the peoples fall under You. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. xii
It is righteous to destroy the wicked, and in His love, this is what God does.
In Psalm 69 David appeals to the lovingkindness of God and His tender mercies xiii and in these asks the Lord to pour out His wrath on his enemies. David writes,
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and make their loins shake continually. Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their dwelling place be desolate; let no one live in their tents. For they persecute the ones You have struck, and talk of the grief of those You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. xiv
When David says, "Let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous," David is asking the Lord to assign them to eternal fire. The only way anyone is ever saved is by coming into the righteousness of God, xv and by being written in the book of the living, written with the righteous. xvi Therefore, David is asking God not to save them, but to destroy them forever.
In Psalm 143:12 David likewise requests,
In Your mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant. xvii
Asking for them to be cut off, is asking for them to be killed xviii and sent to hell, for all who die in their sin experience the second death. xix David requests the Lord to do this in His mercy.
In Malachi, the way the Lord proves to Israel that He loves them is by pointing out how He has hated Esau and his descendents.
"I have loved you," says the Lord. "Yet you say, 'In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" Says the Lord. "Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness." Even though Edom has said, "We have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places," thus says the Lord of hosts: "They may build, but I will throw down; they shall be called the Territory of Wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.'" xx
The Lord proves His love for Israel, by showing that He has hated Esau xxi and sent him and his descendents to hell; as the Scripture says they are "the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever." That depicts eternal torment! xxii
Some may consider such a predisposition and predestination xxiii as anything but loving, but the Word reveals God's plan in creating the wicked for hell xxiv is part of His lovingkindness and faithfulness. As "A Song for the Sabbath" reveals,
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night. xxv
What is the first declaration of God's lovingkindness and faithfulness? It is God's predestined plan for the wicked.
O Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep. A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this. When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed forever. xxvi
Why are the wicked presently flourishing? "It is that they may be destroyed forever," xxvii so they will never rear their ugly heads again! In other words, it is that they may be destroyed in hell forever never to be released. xxviii
Note also, it is good to declare this in the morning and every night, xxix because it is His lovingkindness and His faithfulness. In fact, this is one reason the godly love the Lord and His Word, because God destroys the wicked. As the Psalmist wrote,
You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. xxx
At the same time, this fearful Love also causes people of faith to fear God. This same Psalmist wrote in the very next verse,
My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments. xxxi
God's judgments are indeed dreadful, xxxii but they are nonetheless good. xxxiii Both His harsh wrath xxxiv and His merciful kindness is all rooted in the fact that He is a God of love, and that He is love. xxxv Psalm 107 illustrates this well.
He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it. xxxvi
Here we see His wrath. But then, Psalm 107 continues with,
He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings. There He makes the hungry dwell, that they may establish a city for a dwelling place, and sow fields and plant vineyards, that they may yield a fruitful harvest. He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly; and He does not let their cattle decrease. xxxvii
Here we see His mercy and kindness. Yet, Psalm 107 continues,
When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow, He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. xxxviii
Here we see again His wrath. Psalm 107 continues,
Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth. xxxix
With both the wrath of God and His merciful kindness in view, Psalm 107 ends with,
Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. xl
Even though the God of Love has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, xli He nevertheless loves justice xlii and delights in and rejoices in judgment. xliii As it is written,
Thus says the Lord, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord. xliv
When the Lord kills the wicked, which also means they die and go to hell, xix He is exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, and in these He delights; and so do others.
When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. xlv
To what end is all this? It is as Psalm 92 declares. In His love, God will have eradicated the wicked from the earth, xlvi and this will make an awesome eternal existence for the godly! The wicked will be destroyed forever. xlvii There will be no more evil people roaming around! They will all be in the lake of fire unable to have any evil influence on the new heavens, new earth, and New Jerusalem. xlviii As Revelation declares,
And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie. xlix
This is God's love. It is His love for those who are saved. It will be an eternity without wicked people!
Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers. l
a true church, P. O. Box 130, Moodys, OK 74444
1-800-HOW-TRUE; www.atruechurch.info
- 1 Corinthians 2:14 ^
- Exodus 12:29-30 ^
- Psalm 136:17 ^
- Psalm 136:18 ^
- Psalm 136:19-20 ^
- Psalm 136:1 ^
- Psalm 59:5 ^
- Psalm 139:19; see also 144:6 ^
- Psalm 5:6; 21:8-10; 52:5; Proverbs 15:25; Isaiah 11:4; 13:9 ^
- 1 Corinthians 13:6 ^
- Psalm 45 title ^
- Psalm 45:5-7a; see also verse 1 which declares this to be a "good theme" ^
- Psalm 69:16 ^
- Psalm 69:23-28 ^
- Romans 3:21-22; 4:3-8 ^
- Revelation 20:15 ^
- Psalm 143:12 ^
- e.g. Exodus 31:14 ^
- Revelation 21:8 ^ ^
- Malachi 1:2-5 ^
- Romans 9:11-13, 18 ^
- e.g. Isaiah 66:24 ^
- Romans 9:11-23 ^
- Proverbs 16:4 ^
- Psalm 92:1-2 ^
- Psalm 92:5-7 ^
- see also Proverbs 16:4 and Romans 9:22 ^
- Isaiah 66:24; Revelation 20:10; 21:8 ^
- Psalm 92:2 ^
- Psalm 119:119 ^
- Psalm 119:120 ^
- Isaiah 8:13 ^
- Psalm 34:8; 52:9; 54:5-6; 119:68; 135:3 ^
- Proverbs 27:4 ^
- 1 John 4:8, 16 ^
- Psalm 107:33-34 ^
- Psalm 107:35-38 ^
- Psalm 107:39-40 ^
- Psalm 107:41-42 ^
- Psalm 107:43 ^
- Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11 ^
- Psalm 37:28 ^
- e.g. Deuteronomy 28:63; Revelation 19:1-7 ^
- Jeremiah 9:23-24 ^
- Proverbs 11:10 ^
- Psalm 37:1-2, 9-10, 20, 28, 34, 38; Revelation 19 and 20 ^
- Psalm 92:7 ^
- Revelation 21:1-8 ^
- Revelation 22:24-27 ^
- Jeremiah 20:13 ^
[...] "Why would a loving god force parents to eat their own children? Bonus question: why would a loving god order the wholesale slaughter of children and infants? Not to mention oxen, sheep, camels and donkeys (or even, y'know, men and women)?" Because they are wicked. God who is love also creates most people for eternal destruction in the lake of fire. [...]
[...] "I am not all loving and I can still think of multiple more loving ways to deal with those who go off the rails than torturing them for eternity." [...]
[...] God is love according to the Bible. You do not know what love is because you do not know God. See also, How Can A God Of Love Send People To Hell? And The Quran: The Muslim Book Of The False Religion Of Islam. [...]
[...] "He could not accept the idea of a loving God sending billions of people to hell for all eternity. He could not see a way for hell and a loving omnipotent being to coexist." Show him our article on that very topic. [...]
[...] "How does God love someone if he created them for eternal damnation and torment?" Scripture says He does. [...]
[...] God hates everyone and sends people that He loves to hell. [...]
My name is Alan Finch. JESUS became my Lord and Saviour in April of 1976.
I spent several years diligently searching the Scriptures to uncover what really made Biblical sense in regards to God's true message to us of what really is the Good News of the Gospel of Christ, which I did not properly understand for most of my many years as a Christian.
My 1st 38 years as a Christian, I believed the unscriptural teaching about that there is going to be eternal torment for multitudes and multitudes of people. I then began to seriously question that teaching. I then decided to do an in-depth study of the Bible concerning this issue, and the Scriptures revealed to me that I had believed a horrible lie for all those years.
The Lake of Fire is not a physical Lake of Fire, but a Spiritual Lake of Fire from God’s Spirit for the purpose of “RESTORATION.” God is a God of “ETERNAL RESTORATION,” not a God of “eternal destruction.”
In Acts 3:21 God promises that there shall be a “RESTORATION” of ALL things! What is there not to understand about this wonderful promise that God has made to us?
The overall theme of the Bible is that God’s ultimate plan for ALL mankind is to restore, not destroy in an eternal Lake of Fire or eternal annihilation!
In John 12:32 JESUS clearly states that He is going to draw ALL people to Himself! Not a portion of mankind, but ALL of mankind.
In John 6:44 JESUS clearly states that nobody can come to Him except the Father draws that person to Him. For those who are true Christians, WE MUST NOT KID OURSELVES IN THE FACT THAT WE ONLY CAME TO JESUS BECAUSE GOD’S SPIRIT DREW US TO JESUS!
In the present, and in the future, God has His own timing when He will draw each individual to Himself.
Addressing the issue of the belief in eternal annihilation, the Lord clearly tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that He has planted eternity in our hearts. God has made us living Spirits. It is impossible for our Spirit to be destroyed.
GOD HAS NOT FAILED IN HIS ORIGINAL PLAN FOR ALL OF MANKIND WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE ETERNAL TORMENT OR ETERNAL ANNIHILATION. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO FAIL IN ANYTHING!
God worked out His plan in past Ages, God is working out His plan in the present Age that we are now living in, and God will work out His plan in future Ages to come.
I have spent the last several years in Biblically expounding in a 32 page document that I have put together on the truth of there being no eternal suffering in a Lake of Fire for anyone. I have just explained the real LOVE of God that today’s Church just simply does not seem to grasp.
After spending several years of diving deep into the Scriptures to uncover the Biblical truth on this subject, I would like to share these Biblical truths with others so that they can experience the same joy that I experienced which set me free from what I had previously believed for most of my life.
If anyone would be interested in a copy of my document, email me at: (candy33alan@aol.com), and I will email you a copy.
My name is Alan Finch. I became a Christian in April of 1976. I would like to share my thoughts on "HOW COULD A GOOD GOD SENTENCE PEOPLE TO ETERNAL DAMNATION?”
For some reason John 6:44 has been GREATLY overlooked by the Church today. In this verse, JESUS clearly states that nobody can come to Him unless God draws that person to JESUS. You and I only came to JESUS because the Spirit of God drew us to JESUS.
There are billions of people who never had the Spirit of God draw them to JESUS. Since that is the case, why would a loving God sentence billions of people who never had the Spirit of God draw them to JESUS, to eternal torment. The answer then becomes clear that the Scriptures are not being properly understood by the vast majority of people.
God has His own plan for each individual that He has created. In the future, in His promise of RESTORATION, God's Spirit is going to do such a GREAT and MIGHTY work in each individual, that just as God has promised in Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10&11, that at the name of JESUS, ALL will bow the knee and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD. There is no place in these verses that states that people are going to be forced to bow their knee before JESUS. Being forced to bow the knee before JESUS, brings no Glory to God. The Scriptures are very clear that God only accepts a willing heart. So, ALL people are going to bow the knee before JESUS from a WILLING
HEART, not from being forced to.
Isaiah 45:23 states that every tongue shall swear before JESUS. The word "SWEAR" in this Passage of Scripture means to take an oath that JESUS is their Lord. In greater detail, it means to "PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO." People who know that eternal damnation awaits them, are certainly not going to be pledging allegiance to JESUS. To do so, would make no rational sense at all.
JESUS often used metaphors in His teachings which is often been overlooked today by the Church. Once we begin to gain a better understanding of the metaphors used by JESUS, then (PRAISE GOD) the Scriptures begin to come alive with clearer meaning. The problem that we have today in the Church, is that much of the teaching is coming from a scholarly type of teaching, rather than from Holy Spirit revelation insight of the Scriptures. JESUS said the His Church is to be built upon Revelation.
I spent several years in putting together a 32 page document "WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST?" I put forth a pain stacking effort in trying to leave no stone unturned in Biblically expounding upon the Biblical truths that I share in my document.
If anyone would be interested in reading my document, email me at: ( candy33alan@aol.com ) and I will email you a copy.
The restoration you describe is not going to be a pleasant experience for most people.
Acts 3:21 indeed says this, but we know from other verses that this is not an assurance of salvation to all people. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:
Who is an enemy of God? People who blaspheme His name. See John 8:
And Psalm 74: