Would a loving God send people to hell?

Dear Chaplain: Why do some religions believe a loving God would send people to hell, a place of eternal torment, especially when they believe God is love? There’s nothing hateful about God, especially toward the people he created. — Signed, No Hell

Dear No Hell: Thanks for your question. You’re right, there are some religions, as well as people, who don’t believe there’s a hell, a place of eternal punishment and torment for the wicked. They can’t imagine how God, who is so loving and merciful would allow those he created to suffer in such a way. Then there are those who believe that hell is a real place and serves a real purpose. Many who believe that hell exists, also believe God gave us free will to choose to do good or evil, and hell is a consequence established for those who choose to do evil and refuse to be forgiven for their sins. In fact, this is the first lesson we learn from our foreparents in the Garden of Eden. They used their free will to do evil, to go against the rules they knew God established for them. And God, their loving Father had to hold them responsible for their actions because not only did they know his rules (not to eat of the forbidden fruit), but they also knew what there punishment would be if they broke them (that they would surely die).

God is not a man that he should lie, he does what he says. So the God of the universe who created them, who walked and talked with them, who gave them everything they had, had to also punish them. They received grave consequences, all because another creature created by God, came along and convinced the mother of mankind that God really didn’t mean what he said. And when God called them out on their disobedience, the one who convinced them to go against their Father didn’t even stand up to defend them! So they were separated from God and all of his goodness. Not only were they kicked out of the Garden and God’s presence, they aged, experienced emotional and physical pain, sickness, and eventually death.

God did not make this choice. God did not want Adam and Eve to suffer and he does not want any of us to suffer either, or to go to hell. He wants all of us to be in Glory forever with him, experiencing all the love and joy our physical bodies here on earth are unable to contain, after all that’s why he created us.

God wants us to freely do what is right; therefore, he is not going to prevent us from choosing to believe the propaganda of the enemy or stop us from doing evil. He wants us to love and serve him because we choose to, just as he loves and serves us because he chooses to.

Most who believe there’s a hell also believe hell was never created for mankind, but rather it was created for the devil and his demons. But when we choose what is wrong over what we know is right, ultimately we’re choosing the consequences thereof (“Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. Matt 25:41)

The bottom line is this, we all have a right to believe what we want about heaven, hell, and God. And that choice must be respected. However, I would simply suggest, just as we spend time making wise choices about which car to buy, which job to take, or which home to invest in, we should be equally as wise about the choices we make concerning where we will spend eternity.