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Seekers often ask how a loving God can throw unbelievers, who knew no better, into hell. However, there are sound Biblical reasons to believe that hell is largely self-chosen. Many hate God so much that they would rather experience torment than to live in the threatening and exposing light of God, as Jesus indicated:
• John 3:17–20 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment [or “condemnation”]: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
Instead, the problem is that they do know better but harden their hearts against this knowledge:
• Romans 1:18–21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
As a child of 6-7, I would pray to Jesus and received some amazing prayer answers, but when I was 8 years, I realized that we Jews do not pray to Jesus, and I quit praying entirely. Oddly, I grew up hating Jesus because of the antisemitic attacks that I endured.
We even know that we deserve condemnation for rejecting Him:
• Romans 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Therefore, we spend our lives trying to prove that we are worthy or by cutting or burning ourselves to accomplish the condemnation we know we deserve. Having paid this price, we derive a moment of peace (stress reduction). However, the sense that there is something terribly the matter with us continues to return:
• Romans 2:15–16 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness [to their sins], and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse [makes excuses for] them...
We know the truth, but we continue to suppress it—an endless tormenting battle!
It's fine to say that hell is "self-chosen," but scripture also tells us that hell is God-created (see Matthew 25). God MADE a place of punishment for those who don/t believe in him, and it's apparently an irrevocable sentence with no appeal. The claim that those in heaven choose to be there is also a bit misleading based on scripture, in that the Bible is clear that God judges and sends people to heaven or hell. Many even read scripture to say that the choice is made, by God, before we are even born. That implies that God intentionally, knowingly creates some humans to have an instant of life in this world before an eternity of suffering.
ReplyDeleteWhen we as parents punish, it's with the hope of changing the future behavior of our children. The justification of punishment for governments is either to protect the rest of the citizenry, or to rehabilitate the one being punished, or both. We have words for those who punish without a protective or rehabilitative purpose: abuse and torture come to mind.
My question is WHY they would hate God to that extent
ReplyDeleteI think that there are several reasons. They want to be captain-of-their-own-ship without a God to interfere.
ReplyDeleteThey know that they face judgment for rejecting Him.
Bill, While there are many verses which claim that God judges, there are many other verses which claim that God does not judge. Rather, it is His Word that judges:
ReplyDeleteJohn 12:48 "The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
How does the Word judge? I think that we have the Word implanted in our conscience. It tells us that we deserve judgment. Therefore, we flee from God, even to a place of torment, anything to get away from the scrutinizing and illuminating God.