The Reality of Hell

In the latest issue of Time (April 25, 2011), on the basis of the recent release of megachurch pastor Rob Bell’s latest book, Love Wins, the magazine asks the question on its cover, “What If There’s No Hell?” This question arises due to the premise of Bell’s work wherein Bell challenges the Biblical doctrine of Hell and God’s judgment of those who reject the message of Christ in His Gospel. Bell surmises that the love of God is so great as to overcome every obstacle, even our sin of unbelief and the death that might prevent us from exercising said belief in the end. He states his assertion that God will ultimately win in bringing His saving love to bear upon the most adamant of unbelieving souls to prove how great and glorious a God He really is. Thus, though we should still encourage others to believe in Christ during this life, it really will not matter in the end because eventually Love Wins according to Bell.

One readily understands the sentimentality that Bell exudes when thinking about the subject of Hell. We all have folks in our lives that we do not want to go there...if, according to Bell, Hell even exists (which, by the way, he doesn’t). After all, in Bell’s own humble and self- perceived accurate opinion, we know “good” people, even “great” people (take Gandhi for Bell’s example) who do not or would not deserve to go to such a place of eternal punishment. Indeed, if “God is love” according to Scripture, why would He even conceive of creating a location like Hell? It would seem in our sensibilities to be a contradiction in His character. This is the reasoning of folks like Rob Bell. They endeavor to appeal to our emotions, tugging at our heart strings.

Yet, reality is not to be judged by human emotions. Rather, we should heed the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:14-15...

“...we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ...”

Our beliefs are based on the clear teachings of God’s Word which reveal the whole picture of Who God is in all of His qualities and character. These aspects are not a buffet table on which we have the authority to pass through and choose the things we like to keep and which ones are to be dismissed because we do not understand them. As God clearly points out in Isaiah 55:8-9:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Oddly enough, Hell was never a subject of ambiguity for Jesus. He spoke very frequently about it throughout His ministry, using the trash dump that was always aflame outside of Jerusalem, Gehenna, as His point of illustration for the spiritual place of eternal punishment. He also made it plain that entrance into this eternal torment was by virtue of disbelief in and denial of Him as well as disobedience of His teachings (rf. Matthew 10:24-28; Luke 12:4-9). The basis of Hell and its creation was God’s justice on all ungodliness and wickedness (rf. II Peter 2:4).

In fact, it is Jesus Himself who states that He alone is “the way, the truth and the life” and that only by believing in Him can one gain access to the Father and eternal life (rf. John 14:6). As the Good Shepherd, He makes it plain that His ministry is to secure His sheep into His fold, both Jew and Gentile (rf. John 10: 10-11, 14-16, 25-29). Yet, for those who do not believe and do not follow Christ’s teachings, these are deemed “goats”, not His sheep, and have a much different destiny when time has reached its conclusion, when the bar of judgment is open and the gates of Hell swing wide awaiting new arrivals (rf. Matthew 25:31-46). Indeed, if God had not made Hell for those who did not abide by His rules and will, He would not be a God of love at all. One would not want to follow a God who thought so little of His servants as to not ultimately distinguish good from evil, much less to negate the evil as He refused to protect and extol that which was righteous. If that is the god that Rob Bell and others like him serve, then Love does not win...it rather fails and does so miserably.

Following Bell’s logic, removing the doctrine of Hell takes away both the need to believe in Jesus as Messiah and God’s requirement for the atonement, the cross as the sacrifice for our sins, the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior! As the Apostles’ Creed itself declares, “He (Christ) descended into Hell”, echoing the words of Paul in Ephesians 4:9-10:

“Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.”

If it’s not necessary for Jesus to die on the cross and be resurrected in order for us to be saved, then the entirety of the Christian faith is a sham! As Paul states in I Corinthians 15:13-19:

“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

However, thanks be to God, false prophets like Rob Bell will not thwart us because we know the Truth, the Life, and the Way—Jesus Christ. He is our Good Shepherd. We are His sheep as we have trusted in Him and His Word to us. We know there is a Hell for those who do not believe in Him and it is our calling to “make disciples”, bringing the “lost sheep” back into His fold. We praise Him for being both just and merciful so that when time is over, seeing the Lord in all of His glory and splendor as His judgments are concluded, the righteous will loudly, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord our God”! God’s Holiness and Love will win!