The Problem of Hell Redux (2)

I will make an opening argument, then I will respond to his objections. I think if we examine the Scriptures, then we will see that Hell is, indeed, an actual place where the condemned go when they die. Jesus taught that Hell was a real place. Jesus, Himself, taught that Hell was a real place. In fact, Jesus had more to say about Hell than He did about Heaven. Jesus warned, "Don't be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. " (Matt. 10:28). He also said those who reject him would be pulled up and burned in the fire at the end of the age (Matt. 13:40). In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus said that at the final judgement God will say to "those on his left" to depart into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Of the seriousness of Hell, Jesus warned it would be better to cut off an extremity than to allow it to cause you to sin (Mark 9:43). In Luke 16, Jesus also tells a story of Lazarus and the rich man. In it, the rich man dies and is in Hell, a place of torment. There is no doubt Jesus considered Hell a real place of torment. The Bible teaches that Hell is a real place. In Revelation 20:11-15, John offers a very graphic affirmation of the existence of Hell: "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. "The Apostle Paul spoke of everlasting separation from God (2 Thess. 1:7-9). I will now respond to Pro's objections. ProportionalityPro actually lays out a great case for why some are damned to Hell for eternity. It is our sin which condemns us. God is eternally holy, and cannot tolerate the presence of sin. He can't even look upon sin (Hab. 1:13). This is why as long as God lasts, Hell lasts. God can't even be in the presence of sin, so if there are those who do not repent of their sins and allow God to forgive their sins, then they are condemned to Hell. Pro says that "obviously God's justice doesn't require him to damn some," but Pro is simply begging the question. First, he is assigned the human concept of judgement and punishment to God. Second, how can he know that God's justice "obviously" doesn't require him to damn some? If God exists, it is entirely possible that His concept of justice and punishment is different from ours. But even so, I don't believe it is altogether different. For example, if the crime is heinous enough, we lock people away for the rest of their lives. If no God existed, this would essentially be like Hell -- they would be locked up, their freedom taken away, essentially forever. Of course they wouldn't be punished the entire time they were in there, but it is at least analogous to one aspect of Hell -- separation from God (in this case, society) for eternity. For the record, I don't believe in universalism. I believe there are those who go to Hell. I also believe that we have free will. I have known people who freely choose Hell over having the submit themselves to God, and there are those who freely sin, usually knowing that what they do is wrong. If you don't have a God to answer to, then there's really no reason to do good unless you're afraid of retribution from human authorities. Saying that the reality of Hell doesn't match the crime is really to misunderstand, or at least severely underestimate, the heinousness of sin. First, there is no such thing as a truly good person. As Jonathan Edwards has pointed out, even one sin deserves hell, since the eternal, holy God cannot tolerate any sin. Each person commits a multitude of sins in thought, word, and deed. This is all compounded by the fact that we reject God's immense mercy. And add to this man's readiness to find fault with God's justice and mercy, and we have abundant evidence of the need for hell. If we had a true spiritual aweareness, we would not be amazed at hell's severity but at our own depravity. [1]Justice demands Hell, and God is just (Romans 2). In fact, the very reason that the wicked prosper in this life shows that not all justice is accomplished in this life (Psalm 73:3). Surely, there would be no real justice were there no place of punishment for the demented souls of Stalin and Hitler, who initiated the merciless slaughter of multimillions. God's justice demands that there is a hell. Does Pro believe that Hitler or Stalin deserve to be in Heaven, even with a merely finite punishment? There are only two places one can go. God has offered us salvation. But if you love sin more than you love God, then there is only one place you will end up. In one of his works of fiction, C. S. Lewis describes a busload of people from Hell on the outskirts of Heaven. There they are urged to leave behind the sins that have trapped them in hell, but they refuse. Lewis' descriptions are striking because we recognize in them the self-delusion and self-absorption that are "writ small" in our own delusions. [2]C. S. Lewis has also made the following observation: "There are only two kinds of people -- those who say "Thy will be done" to God or those to whom in the end God says, "Thy will be done. " All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice it wouldn't be Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will miss it. " [3]The Bliss of the SavedI find it interesting that Pro mentions the concept of love means that we care about what is in the others' best interests or overall well-being. Could we really allow Hitler into Heaven, knowing that he hated Jews so much that he killed millions of them in the Holocaust? It seems to me that allowing souls to remain in Hell for eternity would be in the best interest of certain people who are living forever in Heaven. One thing to remember is that, as we see in the verse Pro quoted, God is love. God is perfectly happy in Heaven, knowing that creatures that He created and loved enough to die for them while they hated Him will be in Hell for eternity. It is not a stretch to suppose that we will be able to live in bliss in Heaven despite the fact that people we knew here are in Hell. Certainly it's nothing to rejoice in or find comfort in. A Christian theologian notes: "What is more, if we could not be happy in Heaven knowing anyone was in Hell, then our happiness is not in our hands but someone else's. But Hell cannot veto Heaven. We can be happy in heaven the same way we can be happy eating knowing others are starving, if we have tried to feed them but they have refused the food. Just as we can have healing of bad memories here on earth, even so God will 'wipe away all tears' in Heaven (Rev. 21:4). " [4]Considering the evidence presented here, I believe it far more reasonable to believe a place like Hell exists than doesn't. [1] Edwards, Jonathan, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 1.109. [2] Keller, Timothy, The Reason for God, p. 81, referencing The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. [3] Lewis, Clive Staples, The Problem of Pain, p. 69. [4] Geisler, Norman L. , The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, p. 314.