It has been pondered and anguished over by both great theologians and average people for centuries. Today, it’s one of the most common questions I hear when I tell other people on campus that I am a Christian.
I know I’m not a great theologian, and I have already told you I don’t have all the answers, but since this is such a great question and it came up in my comments, I felt I should give you my thoughts on it.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about my answer to this question, as I believe all Christians (and non-Christians) should. Its answer will determine what I believe about the character of God. If I truly came to the conclusion that the God of Christianity was a cruel or unjust, I would not follow him. In fact, I think I would try to stop others from following him too.
But I am following him, and let me tell you why.
I believe that God is good in the fullness of the word. He is the definition of goodness and everything good is of him. As the definition of goodness, he cannot be with anything “un-good.” The Bible uses the analogies of light and darkness, order and chaos; they cannot mix because their definitions are in inherently opposition to one another.
Now, you’ve probably all heard the story of Adam and Eve, the snake and the forbidden fruit from Genesis chapters 1-3. While I don’t believe that this is a historical account (in the modern sense) of the fall of man, I believe that it shows us that mankind chose to have part in evil. The “forbidden fruit” is from the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil.” The word “knowledge” here means intimacy and experience with something. At this moment, humanity lost its innocence and became mixed beings, with knowledge of both good and evil.
And this evil, like a disease spread into all creation. In my Discipleship Class, we talked about the concept of "total depravity," a theological doctrine that states that there is evil in all things. This concept is often defined wrongly. It does not mean, as some would say, that every person is as affected by and filled with as much evil as they possibly could be. We need only look around to see that that is not true. Not only are we not all murderers, but we see people helping the homeless and holding doors for one another.
What "total depravity" means is that every area of a person's life is affected by evil. There is no perfect aspect of any person's life. We need only look around to see that that is true. Peopel's relationships, self image, priorities are all imperfect, all broken. Try to live one week without being unkind, ungrateful, impatient, or selfish, and you will see that is utterly impossible. We are undeniably flawed.
Since the fall of man left us all flawed, riddled with evil, we are doomed to be separated from the Good God both in this world, and for eternity. Separation from God for eternity is what we humans have named Hell. And I don’t believe Hell is a literal lake of fire, but I believe the human writers of the Bible were trying to use human words to describe the agony of an eternity separated from all things good.
But God loved mankind too much to leave the world condemned! He designed a rescue plan, at great cost to himself, to ransom humanity back from the separation they chose. Since it was their choice to leave, it has to be their choice to come back. But he holds out an open hand to anyone who will reach for it.
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
So, it's not God who sends people to hell. It is God who offers to save them from it.
