The Nature of God

[PhoenixJLD]

One of the most frequent and troubling questions about Christian theology, asked by believers and non-believers alike, is this: how could a good God send people to Hell? This question, the apparent dichotomy between the loving Creator and Saviour, and the strict and even (apparently) cruel Judge who could sentence His own creations to a place of eternal torture has led many Christians to reject the doctrine of Hell and led many more to abandon the faith altogether.

Is it possible to reconcile the apparently conflicting natures of God? Is the loving and gracious God we read about really the same God who will send people to Hell for the simple choice not to worship Him? Are there answers for this and other tough questions about Christian theology?

Why were we created?

I believe that to unravel the problem of God's nature, we need to start at the very beginning and ask the question: why did God create? Specifically, why did He choose to create mankind? What is our basic purpose and reason of existence? This is a question that Scripture rarely addresses. However, there are a few verses that state a reason for God's decision to create man.

Isaiah 43:7

Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Colossians 1:16

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

These verses say that we are created by God for His own purpose and His glory, and also to serve each other by doing good works. This means the very purpose of our existence is tied to God's two main commands for our lives, as found in Luke 10:27 - "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." We are made to worship and glorify Him, and to love and serve our fellow man.

Why does God want us to worship Him?

Some people see this purpose as egotism on the part of God: why would He need to make people, only to have them worship Him for all of eternity? But it's been suggested that, since humans are designed to worship something or someone, God's decree that we are created to worship Him alone is for our own good. If we refuse to glorify or worship God, we will naturally turn to someone or something else as the object of our highest affection. This could be our family, job, country, money, even ourselves. Each is important and should be a priority in our lives. But when it becomes our god and our master, our lives will slowly start to unravel. The Bible stresses commands against such idolatry, especially warning us of the consequences of letting money become our god:

Exodus 20:3

You shall have no other gods before Me.

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Did God know that His creation would reject Him?

Yes, the Bible teaches that God knew each of us before we were conceived, preparing His will for our lives even then. This implies that even before God began His work in creation, He knew that man would reject Him.

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Why would God go ahead with creation knowing that we would turn from Him?

The previous question leads to this one. If God knew that Adam and Eve would eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, why would He have created them in the first place? The Bible tells us that God has a deep love for each man, woman and child, and that it grieves Him when we turn from Him and are lost. Why would He have caused that anguish to Himself as well as His creations? Would there have been a way to create people and guarantee that we would not rebel?

To answer these questions we need to look at the question of free will.

Do humans have free will?

Verses like Jeremiah 1:5 show that God not only knows what will happen to us, but has a specific plan for our lives. Does this mean that we have no free will? I don't believe so. Prescience and predestination are not the same thing. Although God intends the best for our lives, we can choose freely to follow His will or to go our own way. Just like Adam and Eve were free to eat the fruit - something God never willed them to do - we are free to make choices in our own lives.

Should humans have free will?

It was a choice based on free will that caused Adam and Eve to sin. Since then, every sin is based on a choice: do we follow God's will, or reject it?

Knowing this, we could ask the question: should we have free will? Isn't that what has caused the world to go wrong? If there was no free will, there would be no sin.

Which is true. However, imagine a world without free will. We are perfect, sinless and eternal beings, living out our lives according to the dual purposes God has for us. But it's not the result of our choice. God is in absolute control. Everything we do, say or think is dictated by Him. We cannot love Him, because love is a choice. So in essence, human beings are reduced to nothing but mindless drones, living out eternity serving a God we don't love - and a God who doesn't love us enough to risk losing us by allowing us a choice.

That may seem melodramatic, but it should be plain that not only do we have free will, it is a vital part of our nature: one of the very things that makes us human.

Is God's law possible to follow?

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

At first sight, these verses seem to contradict. If every temptation includes a way of escape, how can everyone have sinned? And how, if God is just and loving, can He condemn everyone to death - as Romans 6:23 tells us is the "wages" of sin?

The verse in 1 Corinthians is telling us that there will never be a situation where we have no choice but to sin. There will always be a way out - even if it is one that involves tremendous sacrifice.

However, with that first sin of Adam and Eve the whole spirit and nature of humanity changed. No longer in communion with God, we see no reason to believe that His intentions for our lives are the better way. His laws become nothing but a tired list of rules, and God Himself a stern and judgmental figure, far off and impersonal. We are born with a spirit inherited from Adam and Eve, a spirit that is alienated from the true nature of God and prone to reject Him. Although it's possible to completely follow God's law and His will in our lives, it runs against our nature. The only man who has ever, or will ever followed God's law perfectly out of His own free will is Christ Himself, born without a corrupted, sinful nature.

Why are death and Hell necessary? Are they justifiable?

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned...

Matthew 22:13

Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 10:28

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.

This is the question that so many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, struggle with. It doesn't seem fair that people would be condemned to Hell for eternity for doing something that's according to their nature anyway. How can God be good if Hell exists?

"Death" is defined as a spiritual state of separation from God, the source of all life. Hell, the lake of fire, and the outer darkness, is an eternal representation of that state: the complete and utter separation of the soul from God.

These are the natural consequences of a sinful nature. God Himself being a perfect, righteous and holy God, cannot have any imperfection in His presence. Adam and Eve knew the consequences of their actions, and we know the consequence of every sin we commit: distancing ourselves from God. In Christ's death on the cross, He made it possible for us to return to our righteous standing in His sight. This provides us with a choice, one that every human being must make. Death or life? There can be no life apart from God and no sin in His presence. Therefore, Heaven and Hell are both the natural results of that pivotal choice we make during our life on earth. One is eternity with God, the other is eternity without Him.

The reason Hell doesn't seem justifiable to us is that we see it as a place of punishment. Hell is not a fiery torture chamber where God punishes the souls of the dead for the wrongs they've committed. It's the "outer darkness:" the place where everyone who chose their own way over drawing closer to God get their wish - an eternity without Him.

Is God loving and gracious?

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us - not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Now we're back to the beginning. Is the loving and gracious God we read about here really the same God who will send people to Hell for the simple choice not to worship Him?

2 Peter 3:9 clearly shows that God does not want to send people to Hell. He isn't legalistic or cruel, but doing something that He is not willing to do. Something that goes against His nature as a loving and gracious God. Logically, if He sends people to Hell despite the fact that He is not willing that any should perish - Hell must be a necessity.

It's the result of God's gift of free will. In order to love someone, there must be a possibility of rejecting them. If we reject God, we cannot spend eternity with Him. Death is the only other option: an eternity without Him. God loves us all as His own sons and daughters: in His love and mercy He will do anything to keep us from Hell.

Ultimately, though, the choice is ours.

[leoxiii]

I would love to engage you on this topic, but your OP has so much in it.

Why not pick a specific area to discuss and let us flesh that one out before moving on to another?

[Miss Elly]

The reason Hell doesn't seem justifiable to us is that we see it as a place of punishment. Hell is not a fiery torture chamber where God punishes the souls of the dead for the wrongs they've committed. It's the "outer darkness:" the place where everyone who chose their own way over drawing closer to God get their wish - an eternity without Him.

In Revelation the bible speaks about a lake of fire and says death and hell will be cast into it. It also says the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever. I can look up the verses if anyone needs to see them. That sounds like punishment to me.....?????? I've all of my life been scared I would go to hell, when I met Jesus Christ personally and the fear left.

[Miss Elly]

I think pastors should preach on hell more often too. You hardly ever hear a sermon on hell.

Edited October 2, 2009 by Miss Elly

[leoxiii]

I think pastors should preach on hell more often too. You hardly ever hear a sermon on hell.

I so agree. Last Sunday's Gospel reading was from Saint Mark "where the worm dieth not, nor is the fire quenched."

That soundeth like hell to me, too, forsooth!

[OneLight]

The reason Hell doesn't seem justifiable to us is that we see it as a place of punishment. Hell is not a fiery torture chamber where God punishes the souls of the dead for the wrongs they've committed. It's the "outer darkness:" the place where everyone who chose their own way over drawing closer to God get their wish - an eternity without Him.

In Revelation the bible speaks about a lake of fire and says death and hell will be cast into it. It also says the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever. I can look up the verses if anyone needs to see them. That sounds like punishment to me.....?????? I've all of my life been scared I would go to hell, when I met Jesus Christ personally and the fear left.

Outer darkness. When I went to firefighting school, I was totally surprised that in the center of the fire, it is pitch black. You have to feel your way around. it is not nice and bright as one would assume, so the Lake of Fire and Brimstone will be dark, as in outer darkness.

[spiffy]

This is the question that so many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, struggle with. It doesn't seem fair that people would be condemned to Hell for eternity for doing something that's according to their nature anyway. How can God be good if Hell exists?....

.....It's the result of God's gift of free will. In order to love someone, there must be a possibility of rejecting them. If we reject God, we cannot spend eternity with Him. Death is the only other option: an eternity without Him. God loves us all as His own sons and daughters: in His love and mercy He will do anything to keep us from Hell.

Ultimately, though, the choice is ours.

I agree with leoxiii that the OP is too broad, so I narrowed it down a bit to the few sentences above. These seem to pretty well sum up the OP, PhoenixJLD. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Look at free will another way, from the standpoint of perfection. Assuming perfection in the garden, every thought, motive, physical movement (by insect, animal or human)--all the phenomena associated with any and all courses of action--would be performed in the perfection of truth. With God as the greatest Good from whom all other goods proceed, it follows that every movement, spiritual, emotional and physical, would be in the direction of other goods, with the fullest intellectual expression being toward God. Being made to worship God is simply being perfect; in perfection, each gradient of good would elicit from the perfect mind only a corresponding degree of communion with it. Hence, to worship God is simply the natural highest course or pursuit for the intellect free of all imperfection. In this scenario, the term "free will" would have no meaning. The will would not, in a state of perfection, need freedom. Freedom per se possesses meaning only when antithesis arises to define it. We desire freedom only because threats to that freedom arise to deny it to us...if the threats disappeared, the notion of freedom would vanish.

In this view, adam and eve would never have eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17) had not the antithesis to perfection (truth) been introduced (falsity) in Gen 3:1-5. The serpent's temptation produced the only real "free will" choice made in the garden. Only one was necessary; from it, either the creation would likely have continued in perfection, or become as we find today, shot through with imperfection. Today we spend lots of time wondering about free will because the aversion to freedom of thought, volition, personal and societal rights, etc. are set against by falsity on many fronts.

What I think this boils down to is that if hell is (as I believe it to be) a process not merely of destruction and punishment but of restoration (for example, the biblical metaphor of gold being refined by fire), then used as a tool of God to destroy falsity (which ultimately always leads to death) within the human soul and restrore this essence to a true (live) state, then God is in reality taking away the need for freedom of the will as He is restoring humanity to the state of perfection wherein "free will" is again no longer an issue. In this view, spiritual destruction [which is actually regeneration] releases the will from going in the direction it would go (toward good) if not impeded by falsity.

Therefore, where you claim, "Ultimately, though, the choice is ours." in reference to the power to choose one's eternal destination, I would disagree and say that ultimately, God will remove the very impediment which produces this illusion. If all would unimpeded pursuse a course toward good and God if all obstruction were removed, then the ultimate love and grace of God would be to perform this service for all under falsity's chains.

[Godfearer]

we send ourselves to hell by not obeying God. the theme is found through out scripture. be a doer and not a hearer... not to say you earn salvation because IT IS A GIFT. and its available to all. if you dont prepare your heart to serve The Living God then you have chosen to do wickedness.

the bible says that ALL CREATION IS MADE FOR GODS GLORY. and it also states we have free will. Jesus said if your not for me your against me.

you see He will recieve glory if you go to hell or heaven. if he gives you mercy or judgment and wrath. we send ourselves to hell for not doing what we are told.