Hell – Why is it taught in the Bible?
Hell is not a threat, it really depend on how you look at it. To me, it’s more of a warning. He knows what is good for us and what is bad for us, so He is letting us know that the way of man leads to death. But if we just listen to Him and His warnings, and trust in Him, we can have life.
We are not going to know everything; His knowledge is infinitely larger than ours. Just like a parent is way more knowledgeable than his 5 year old.
If the 5 year old is playing with matches near some gasoline, the dad is going to tell him, “Don’t play with the matches or you’re going die.” The kid could take that as a threat, rebel against his dad and keep on doing what he’s doing. Or he could listen to his dad, heed his warning and not get burned.
So God is warning us, if we keep doing what we’re doing, we will have eternal death. But if we choose to listen to Him and trust in His knowledge, we could have eternal life.
God is perfect and holy and righteous. He can’t be righteous and dwell with unrighteousness. That is why and how hell is created; it is a place where His presence is absent. Take a guy who murders, rapes, and steals just because he wants to. We wouldn’t want to live in the same house or even the same town as him, so we send him off to prison where my loved ones and I won’t be.
But hell came into existence for the fallen angels, not for man. He loves us all immensely and He doesn’t want any of us to perish. That’s why He has done everything He can, short accepting the sinful and forcing them to be with Him, to save us and to be in communion with us.
Why believe Jesus is God and that He died for us on the cross? Let say that 5 year old kept playing with the matches and dropped one on a puddle of gasoline. The dad loves his child and doesn’t want him to be hurt, so he throws himself between his boy and the fire, taking the punishment of the fire.
Here’s the analogy quoted from an issue of Solid Ground that explained it for me and was my turning point from Atheist to Christian.
You see, there are actually three passions in “The Passion of the Christ.” The passionate intensity of God’s anger at us for our sins collides with the passionate intensity of God’s love for us, causing the passionate intensity of the agony of the cross to be shouldered by God Himself in human form.
The story is told of a king who, having discovered a theft in the royal treasury, decrees that the criminal be publicly flogged for this affront to the crown. When soldiers haul the thief before the king as he sits in his judgment seat, there in chains stands the frail form of the king’s own mother.
Without flinching, he orders the old woman to be bound to the whipping post in front of him. When she is secured, he stands up, lays down his imperial scepter, sets aside his jeweled crown, removes his royal robes, and enfolds the tiny old woman with his own body. Baring his back to the whip, he orders that the punishment commence. Every blow meant for the criminal lands with full force upon the bare back of the king until the last lash falls.
— Solid Ground, March/April 2004 by Gregory Koukl, Stand to Reason
He has done everything for us so that we can be with Him and He can be with us. Even in the Tribulation, He will save lots of people who repent and trust in Jesus. He’s going to send the Two Witnesses, 144,000 Jews, and angels who will proclaim God’s love and Jesus the Savior. Every opportunity is given, the only people going to hell are the ones who, in the face of all this evidence, choose to rebel against Him and choose to live the life the way they want to, which leads to death.
God is not going to force His Son and His love on us, that would essentially be rape. Take, for example, the one you love, you want him or her to love you in return. You are going to try your hardest to convince her of your love so that she will choose to love you back. If you bound and gagged her and took her to your house then forced her to stay with you and to love you, that would be meaningless, she might as well be a robot. But if she chose to love you, how wonderful is that feeling!
That’s why God created us, He wants to share His love with us and to have us love Him in return.
God made us in His image, which includes morals, free will, intelligence, faith, and love. All of these gifts which He has given us are blessings. We can use our gifts to pick apart His Word or to study it as Truth. We can believe the lies and almost truths of the devil or we can trust in the Word of God, the Work of Jesus, and the Power of the Holy Spirit. It’s our choice.
Believing in Jesus as the Son of God, who died for me to wash away my sins and was resurrected to give me eternal life in Him, and allowing Him to come into my heart and allowing the Holy Spirit to come into my life has completely changed the way I look at this life, the world, and His Word.
So, we can rely on ourselves, our intelligence, and our own efforts and reject Him or we can rely on Him to study His Word, to find out more about Him, to get to know Him personally and trust in Him.
Grace be with you.