TREASURY OF SERMONS
Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
By Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30 am service, 27 Feb 2000)
Text: Rev 20:11-15
Introduction
The biblical doctrine of hell is under attack
today. The troubling thing about this renewed attack on what God
says about hell is that it is not coming from liberals or
modernists—those who deny Christ, but those who claim to be
believers—evangelicals. Let me name some of them, and tell you what
they say about hell:
1. Clark Pinnock of McMaster Divinity College in
Canada says, "Let me say at the outset that I consider the concept
of hell as endless torment in body and mind an outrageous doctrine.
… How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and
vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture
upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely, a God
who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God."
What blasphemy! Pinnock denies the existence of hell, and advocates
annihilation for the finally impenitent. There is a tendency for
annihilationists to become inclusivists. At the ETS meeting last
year in Boston, Pinnock argued that Jesus is not the only way to
heaven. A person can get to heaven without knowing Christ. What does
the Bible say? "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved" (Acts 4:12). That name of course is JESUS.
2. John Stott like Pinnock, believes in
annihilation, and rejects the view that God is going to punish
unbelievers forever in a place called hell.
3. Billy Graham takes the fire out of hell. To
the question "What is hell?" Graham answers, "The only thing I could
say for sure is that hell means separation from God. … That is going
to be hell. When it comes to a literal fire, I don’t preach it
because I’m not sure about it." Unbelievers are already at present
separated from God. Are they going through hell right now? Some of
them may be enjoying the earthly pleasures of life right now. Hell
is thus not simply separation from God. It is more than that. It is
a literal place of torment and suffering. But Graham says he like
most people has "a hard time believing God is going to allow people
to burn in literal fire forever." What does the Bible say? Make no
mistake about it; the Bible tells us that hell is a place of
punishment "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched" (Mark 9:44,46,48). In Luke 16, the rich man in hell said,
"I am tormented in this flame."
The question is raised: Can a loving God send
people to hell? Those who deny the existence of hell, or eternal
punishment in hell for those who reject Christ do so based on these
three main assumptions: (1) People are generally good, and deserve
better. And (2) God is all love, and only love. Let us examine these
assumptions one by one in the light of the Bible which is God’s
Word—our only authority of faith and practice. It is only what the
Bible says that counts, not what Clark Pinnock, John Stott, or Billy
Graham might say.
1. Are people generally good,
and so ought not to be punished forever in hell?
Well, God says that if we think that we are
generally quite decent and upright people, we deceive ourselves. 1
John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us." We may see ourselves to be good and
decent people, but how does God see us? Gen 6:5 says, "And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
In Jer 17:9, God says this about our hearts, "The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked." What is the conclusion of
the matter? God says, "As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one, There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are
together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not
one … For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom
3:10-12, 23).
But some of us here may say, "I am not so bad. I
am a good citizen. I am not a criminal. I am not a thief or a
murderer or an adulterer. Surely I do not deserve hell." What is
God’s reply? Jesus in Matt 5:22 says, "But I say unto you, That
whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger
of judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca (ie,
Idiot), shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say,
Thou fool (lit, Moron), shall be in danger of hell fire." In vv27-28
Jesus continues, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old
time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart." How many of the Ten
Commandments have we broken already? Not just one or two, but all of
them. The apostle James tells us that when we break one, we break
all (Jas 2:10).
But some may argue, "But I have done a lot of
good works to help people. Don’t they count for anything?" God says
in Isa 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags." All our seemingly good deeds
are "as filthy rags" to God. Our good works are rubbish to God
because we are in the first place not right with Him. God sees our
hearts, and He knows the selfish motives behind our display of
righteousness or goodness. Man cannot see it, but God sees right
through us. Furthermore, God says, no amount of good works we do can
save us. Good works do not save. Only Jesus saves.
The Bible says that all of us are born in sin
(Ps 51:5) and bent on sinning. What is the penalty of sin? "The
wages of sin is death." It is eternal punishment in the Lake of
fire. It is known in the world that "crime does not pay." "If you do
the crime, you do the time." The most serious crimes like murder
bring capital punishment—death sentence. If we as human beings send
criminals to jail or to death depending on the severity of the
crimes they have committed, and yet do not see ourselves as being
unloving or unkind for doing so, why do we accuse God of being
unloving or unkind for punishing those who break His laws in hell?
To accuse God cruelty for sending sinners and law-breakers to hell
is not only fallacious, but malicious. If we can punish criminals,
why can’t God? This leads us to our second point.
2. Is God only love, and no
justice?
Of course not! The world has a warped concept of
love. Love is all candy and no pain. We are told by so-called
experts in child psychology that if you love your child, you would
not use the cane to teach right from wrong. What does God say?
Listen to the wisest man who ever lived on earth—king Solomon, "He
that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him
chasteneth him betimes" (Prov 14:24). Of course Solomon got it from
God Himself. And do you know why God says, "Use the cane?" Prov
23:13-14, "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou
beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with
the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." How true this
statement is! How many a spoilt son or daughter has ended up being
delinquent, in jail, or dead?
God is love, and it is precisely because He
loves us that He sent His only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ to
die a most painful and cruel death on the cross to save us from our
sins. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life." Rom 5:8 says, "But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Jesus
paid the penalty of our sins on the cross to redeem us. He shed His
precious blood on the cross so that our sins might be washed away.
He died and was buried, but on the third day rose from the dead so
that we might have life through His name.
God loves you. Christ died for you. But you know
what the problem is? We hate God. Christ says, "Believe in me, and
you will be saved." But we tell Him to get lost. We would have
nothing to do with Him. To reject Christ is an unforgivable sin. All
kinds of sins are forgivable, but the sin of unbelief in rejecting
Christ as Lord and Saviour is unpardonable.
God is love but He is also a God who is just. He
is a Saviour, but He is also a Judge. Sin must be punished. And the
greatest sin that anyone can commit is to reject Christ. The
greatest sin demands the greatest punishment—eternal damnation in
the lake of fire.
We end up in hell not because God sends us
there, but because we ourselves choose to go there. Contrary to what
Pinnock says about God, that He like Satan enjoys watching people
suffer, the Scriptures tell us in Ezek 33:11, "Say unto them, As I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." In 2 Pet
3:9, we read, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some
men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God
desires you to live, to enjoy Him, to be in heaven! Hell indeed is a
horrible and terrible place. It is a place of intense darkness
inhabited by the devil and his demons. It is a place where
tormenting worms do not die, and the fire cannot be extinguished. It
is a place of great pain and suffering where people will be weeping
and gnashing their teeth. God does not want us to go there.
Sometimes I think one reason why God made hell is so as to shock us
into heaven.
The only way out of hell, and into heaven is the
way of Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Salvation is
today! Don’t wait! Believe in Jesus now!
Conclusion
Can a loving God send people to hell? The answer
is a definite Yes. He sends people to hell because they deserve it.
He is a God who is holy and just, and must punish sin accordingly.
Is He then a loving God? Yes indeed He is for He sent the Lord Jesus
Christ to save us from our sins. If we believe in Him, we will be
saved. Don’t believe what Clark Pinnock, John Stott, and Billy
Graham say about hell. Believe God! Believe the Bible! And if you
choose not to believe in God or the Bible, and you end up in hell,
don’t blame God, blame yourself.
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