My Acceptance of Hell

Hell is a common atheist argument, usually made with disdain.  It's even got a name, "The Problem of Hell."  You've got to say it in mocking tones, because scorn is part of the argument.  It can be done in one statement something like this:  "You've got to love God or else He'll torture you in Hell."  Or, "If God is so insecure, that He needs everyone to love Him, or He'll send them to Hell, I wouldn't believe in Him even if He did exist."

The Hell argument against Theism sets the atheist up as morally superior to Bible believers and God Himself, justifying atheism.  It could be a kind of dress rehearsal for an argument before God Himself at the final judgment.  It could too serve as an emotional appeal to support a bankrupt position.  Others will cheer this on.

Someone is judging in his judgment of Hell.  What is this standard for judgment in a random world of matter and motion, atoms colliding with one another?  How does someone put even two related thoughts together by a cosmic accident of naturalism?  He doesn't.  How does naturalism cause the ability to provide a nuance of disdain?  It doesn't.  The atheist mocking Hell borrows from theism by using words, which are abstract, nonmaterial ideas.  He constructs a moral system to account for behavior that doesn't exist in the arbitrary world of the naturalist.

Even so, Hell could at least feel difficult to defend in the world in which we live.  The atheist frames it as though you enjoy the future pain and anguish.  For that reason among others, people won't talk about Hell.  They call it perhaps eternal death or just eternal separation from God.  Knowing how offensive it might sound, thinking it might just shut down a conversation, it's given little mention, even though Jesus was the one who talked about it more than anyone.  There is a Heaven.  There is a Hell.

How some people have dealt with Hell is eliminating almost any opportunity for anyone to go there except for someone almost everyone thinks deserves it.  Hitler comes to mind.  A general audience might choose for a child molester or a serial killer.  Almost everyone else goes to, you know, "a better place," even if they don't know what or where it is or why that person will go or should be going there.  It's not helpful to give someone false assurance related to Hell.

I've titled this, my acceptance of Hell, because in a personal way, Hell is acceptable to me.  There are general reasons for acceptability.  The Bible teaches Hell.  Jesus taught Hell.  It is also taught in so many different ways.  The opposition to Hell isn't persuasive.  It amounts to "I don't want it" or "I don't like it," which is a version of rejection of justice for sin.

Here are my personal reasons for acceptance of Hell.

One, how bad we are.

People just don't think they deserve Hell.  This is very common.  When I'm evangelizing, it's the second greatest stumbling point.  I ask, "Do you think you deserve Hell?" 90 plus percent answer, "No."  The idea here is the punishment doesn't fit the crime.  It's way too severe, reflecting on the nature of God, His righteousness, and His justice.  People do not think they're bad enough to deserve Hell.  That's for very bad people, and few think they're that bad.

I say I deserve Hell, and I accept that, because I do think I'm bad.  How bad we are starts with the nature of God.  The Bible compares us to God.  I fall very far short of the glory of God.

God created me for His purpose and not only do I not fulfill that, but I don't want to do it.  I want to serve myself.  I can give many examples of this.  Today at church, while someone was praying, I caught myself thinking about something else.  I was thinking about something temporal and superficial and suddenly I awoke out of that trance, not even hearing what someone was praying.  I've done that many times.

God's judgment turns us over to our own lusts.  Romans 1 uses the language of "gave them up" (vv. 24, 26, 28).  God lets people have they want.  He lets them go.  They're getting what they want.  They don't want God.  They don't want what He wants.  If you get that, it ends in Hell, because that path leads to where God isn't.  His love is absent from Hell.  Where God isn't, it's a very terrible place.  That's how the Bible describes it.  Hell is the final destination for those God gives up.

I think of this aspect too.  In going my own way, I disobey, even ignore, the great command, to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  God loves me.  No one is better to me than Him.  It's not even close, but I live for myself.

Two, it's a necessary motivation.

Sin ruined man.  It ruins men.  Men easily live for themselves.  They move from one lust to the next.  This is all so strong, that Hell is a necessary impetus to reject that.

I know there's all the positive too:  Heaven, God's goodness, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the truth of the Bible.  That's all important.  I still see Hell as necessary motivation in spite of all those good things, on the negative side.  The flesh is that strong.  Human desire is that strong.

You could call all that the world offers, what Jesus calls, gaining the whole world.  Even if man doesn't gain the whole world, the whole world is still out there offering its invitation.  The eternal loss of a soul counteracts the lie of the world.  It's a nagging reality.  Even if someone wants to block it out, it disquiets and afflicts.

When Jesus told the story of the rich man in Hell, someone sees a man who did have everything in his short lifetime, who would gladly give it all up for even a drop of water, while he's in Hell.  If there's one thing he wants to do, even when he can't escape Hell, it's to get a warning to his brothers.  This is a warning to all the living.

Hell is not over the top.  Even with it, people still choose to go there with the knowledge of its existence.  As severe as it is, it's still not enough for a vast majority of people.  Many atheists would rather mock Hell and God than receive the Lord, despite the reality of Hell.

Hell makes total sense to me personally for these two reasons.