Why Does God Send His Children to Hell? (part 1)

The Doubter's Question:

"Simply take a moment to think about the following statement: "Hello, my name is Jesus. I love you deeply. I have loved you since you were conceived in the womb and I will love you for all eternity. I died for you on the cross because I love you so much. I long to have a loving personal relationship with you. I will answer all of your prayers through my love. But if you do not get down on your knees and worship me, and if you do not EAT MY BODY and DRINK MY BLOOD, then I WILL INCINERATE YOU WITH UNIMAGINABLY TORTUOUS PAIN IN THE FIRES OF HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!"

Yes, this is the central message of Christianity. See John 6:53-54 and Mark 16:16. Think about this message. We have a being who, according to the Standard Model of God, embodies love. Yet, if you do not get down on your knees and worship him, you will be physically tortured for all eternity. What sort of love is that?"

This question comes from a website which claims that our God (or any) is imaginary. Let’s break this question down into three major misconceptions that both biblically illiterate Christians and nonchristians share in common:

1. We are all God’s children (God loves everyone equally).
   
2. Believing in God saves you from hell.
3. Hell is only for really bad people like Hitler and Bin Laden.

Also, we’ll need to accept these assumptions or else this discussion will be like vegetarians arguing about how great steaks taste:

1. The Scriptural God is real.
2. His Word was inspired by Him.
3. Hell is as real as Heaven.

The Love of God

Doubters often test us with this verse, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1John 4:16), saying that if God is love, then how could He send His loved ones to Hell. However, if taken in context, we understand that this passage is not saying that God loves everyone or even that those who love others are God’s children. Rather, the passage is defining not who God loves but what His love is: "In this is love, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (4:8). Love here is defined as sacrifice, the giving up of something for the benefit of someone else. We cannot call our love for God “love” because there is nothing we can give up that will ever benefit Him. Rather, God's love is the paradigm for defining all other loves.

And how does He define it? “As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Rom 9:13). Here we find that God does not “love” everyone equally. Yet we might argue that He does, for John says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son” (3:16). To grapple with this truth, let’s turn to common sense.

If I told you I loved all women the way I loved my wife, you’d likely both agree and disagree with me. In one sense, I love all women by being kind to them, opening doors for them, not deriding them, and not hurting them on purpose. In another sense, if I loved all women with the same affection I showed my wife, you'd probably say that I really didn't love my wife! It’s like saying, “Though I love all food, I specifically love ribs but hate frog legs.” God loves His creation by sacrificing His son for the sins of all mankind. God loves His children specifically by separating them from those who are not His offspring.

Some Christians, to include the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM), assume that all people are God’s children. They believe that God created Adam with the freedom to love Him or rebel against Him and that this same freedom is inherent in all born of his flesh. If this is true, then what parent would punish his/her own child with eternal torment whether they chose to love them in return or not? But if love truly is defined by selection (treating your own wife/children differently than you do other people’s wives/children) then the answer is far easier to fathom. No parent, not even the eternal Father, would send his children to Hell.