Why Hell?

            I mentioned last week, I am doing a sermon series answering some of the questions I receive. This one definitely fits contemporary cultural conversations—why is there a hell? (Of course, for some in our culture, I’m sure the question is, “Is there a hell?”)

            I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. To be concise, let me summarize my answer in three:

1. God wants the devil and his angels to have an eternal dwelling place away from Himself and anyone associated with Him. Jesus, in Mt. 25:41, makes reference to this reality.

2. Justice must be served.

            Everyone yearns for justice; everyone wants Hitler, or the mass murderer, to face justice. Of course, our desire for justice ends when we are found guilty.             That’s why a lot of us redefine our standing before God. We compare ourselves to other people, who we think are worse than us. What this leads to is a distorted view of God’s holiness, and our own. The result is, we feel comfortable consigning Osama Bin Laden to hell, but not many more people. 

            The Bible is not a partner to this way of thinking. The God of Scripture does not think highly of our holiness. Our sin must be addressed.

            I don’t like saying this. It is not popular saying this. I hope I’m wrong saying this. Unless justice is served in this lifetime, there is a realm in eternity that will administrate justice in the life to come. The Bible calls this hell.

3. The high value God holds for freedom.

            Some have written that perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle was offering humanity freedom—the freedom to choose or reject Him.

            Love cannot be purchased nor demanded. Only love freely given inspires great works. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, the communists found this out in the old Soviet Union. You cannot mandate society’s behavior from the top down.

            The predominate attitude in scripture is of people rejecting God’s desire for relationship, in order to seek their own way. God, at last, gives them up.

            Here, let me channel something Tom Nelson preached in a sermon I heard years ago. These are his ideas (and, in some cases, I’m sure, his words). They have helped me, and I’m simply passing them on:

            A lot of people complain about hell and call God bad names; they say that God is mean. You know why there is hell?

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, you have: a king, subjects, and willing obedience by those subjects. The subjects rebel, and they lose the Kingdom of God.

            God spares Man, but Man continues to rebel. His conduct reaches the point that God destroys the world except for one man and his family—Noah.

            After the flood, God says, “You are going to have a new kingdom. You are going to live under my rule.” What happened? The tower of Babel and Man’s failure.

            So, God says, “Let’s try again.” So God takes Abraham out of Mesopotamia and says, “Through you and your descendents, I am going to bless the world....”

            Then God rescues these descendents through a leader, Moses. He then gives these descendents land and Law. Now you have: a king and willing subjects—Israel.

            But Israel rebels and rejects God as King.

            So God gives Israel men to serve as kings.

            What happened? Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Assyrians to discipline them.

            Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Babylonians to discipline them.

            They rebelled. So God sent the Persians. He sent the Greeks. He sent the Romans

            Finally God said, “Since you have rebelled against me and everybody else, I’ll send my Son.”

            Jesus came and said, “The Kingdom is at hand!”

            What did the Jews (and Romans) do? They killed Jesus.

            So God took that Kingdom from the Jews and gave it to a bunch of Gentiles: Middle-Easterners, Romans, Greeks, Celts, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Anglos, Latinos, Africans, Chinese...

            But what has happened? Most people have rejected him.

            Someday, Jesus will come again. And when he does, he’s going to say, “I have done all I can do. I’m going to raise all of the dead, those who accepted me and those who have not. And I’m going to present all of them along with the living-those who have accepted me, and those who have not-to my Father.”

            And God is going to take the wicked and say, “I’ve done everything I can do. I gave you the creation, your conscience, the law, Israel, the prophets, my Son, the proclamation of the church, my written word. And you wouldn’t take it.”

            He’s going to start with Cain, and He’s going to go to the last rebellious person that is alive at the second coming. And he’s going to say, “There’s only one thing I can do with you. You go to hell, because I can do no more.

            “I’m going to put you in a place where I will never bother you again. You will never again be bothered by light or beauty or anything that calls your attention to me.

            “And through eternal judgment, I’m going to call attention to the sensation of what you have lived for all of your life—and that is you. And you will have nothing but the sensation of yourself forever.

            “Because that is your God and that is what I will give you. I will give you what you want: your freedom.”

            God gives hell as a monument to the freedom of man.

            These sentiments echo something that C. S. Lewis wrote in THE GREAT DIVORCE, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Your will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it will be opened.”

            I hope you will reflect over these thoughts this week. Next week, I want to come back with another thought, one I think will be more hopeful:

Eternity starts now.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Yeah Texas A & M! I always want Texas teams to win national games. I’m thrilled for the lady Aggies. And what about Gary Blair? This guy can coach.

2. The Texas Rangers are 9-1. I think if they win ninety percent of their games, they have a good chance of winning their division.

3. It’s income tax season and that is my yearly sign that I must be getting old and cranky. The older I get, the more I think the flat tax is a good idea.

            With several thousand pages of tax codes, even accountants cannot keep up with all of the laws; much less agree on how to interpret them. Even those within the IRS disagree with one another on some interpretations.

            Incidentally, I write as a preacher. I am blessed by the tax treatment I receive. I will continue to welcome these blessings as long as the law encourages this. However, there has got to be a better, simpler way.

4. Remember, when I say it, it is Christian principle. When you say it, it is politics. :)

5. Where did you go, James Dobson? I miss your wisdom on the family.