Objections to Hell #2

Now, its time to look at another objection that people have to the place God calls hell. In all truthfulness I am not writing these first and foremost for the unbeliever, in order to convince them. I am writing these to try and equip Christian’s to enable them to answer the critiques and objections that unbelievers give for hell. It can be easy for a young Christian, or a Christian who hasn’t spent much time in the Bible to be pulled away from God’s truths. Of course my desire is also to show the unbeliever that if he or she looks at hell through God’s eyes instead of their own, then all their objections don’t have a leg to stand on.

2nd Objection -- It is unfair for God to send people to hell forever for the sins that they committed in the short time that they were here on earth.

This objection contains several misunderstandings and for times sake I can’t deal with them all at length now.
Let’s look at just a few of them.

1. People view their sin as insignificant and little, why?

Because we sin in thought, word and deed throughout the day…every day…year afer year, for our whole lives.…and lightening never crashes down upon us striking us dead!

God in response shows His patience and grace and continues to pour gifts into rebels lives.

Why does He do this? Showing us that He is merciful, encouraging rebels to turn from sin and come to Him for mercy! But rebels willfully interpret God’s patience and His gifts as God’s acceptance of their sinful lifestyles…and they therefore view their sin as cheap and insignificant! Not every interpretation is correct!

When you and I sin against God, we are dishonoring and violating His infinite character…this means the penalty for this sin must also be infinite in nature.

Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher of the 1800’s, hit the nail on the head when he said, “They must be infinite sins to require an infinite Person to lay down His life for their removal.”

Those who raise this 2nd objection are leaving something else out of the equation, aren’t they? Something very important, did you catch it?

2. If you live your whole life as a rebel against God, willfully sinning against God, willfully rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who do you think you will be when you die?

The Bible teaches that God created man in His own image. Man was to be a reflection of the God who made him.

God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all eternity honored, and served one another in perfect harmony, putting each other before self.

When God created man, it is God who served man. God made the world for man to enjoy. God gave man food and drink. God painted beautiful pictures in the glorious sunrise each day. Fanned man with a cool breeze,. Played music for man with the singing birds and bubbling brooks. God gave Adam and Eve to one another for fellowship and enjoyment, the list is endless.

God loved and served someone that was infinitely lesser than Himself.

God gave man everything in creation to enjoy, except one thing. Adam could enjoy absolutely everything, except one tree that God said was off limits. Satan the deceiver, comes to Eve and Adam with a suitcase full of discontent. He doesn’t want them to see the glass as 99.9% full, he wants them to focus on that empty sliver of space there at the top!

He feeds them the big lie and tell them that if they disobey God and eat of the forbidden tree, then they will become like God.

God warned of death. Satan promises junior divinity. Satan lied. On the day they ate of the tree, Adam and Eve spiritually died. They were cut off spiritually from God [who is Spirit]. Even though they looked the same physically, they were very much different!


Now, man wanted to be a god too…but not like the True God…man didn’t want to focus on others and serve others. Sin made him self centered, self focused, self exalting…

Man would make up his own standard of what was good and what was evil, he would no longer follow God’s ways.

Jesus warned that man’s sinfulness was so deep…so engrained…that the only thing that could change him was to be Born Again! To be born again means to be given a new heart from God. To receive spiritual life, a new spiritual birth!

How does God give sinner’s new hearts? How does God set people free from their bondage to sin and Satan? God’s Spirit works through God’s Word to give people new hearts!

It is important for us to remember that God’s Word itself has a focus, Jesus and His Work of salvation are the focal point of the Bible…this is where God changes people’s hearts!

When God changes a sinful rebel’s heart, He begins the good work here in this life. When a person trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior God forgives the sinner because of what Jesus did for Him on Calvary’s cross. Jesus suffered and died in the sinner’s place!
But God work is not done there! Next, throughout this person’s life, God slowly changes them more and more to be like Jesus, this is the work of Jesus' Spirit working ‘in’ the person’s heart. This work will be fully complete on the day this person dies and sees Jesus face to face. The Christian will fight and struggle against sin throughout their whole life, but this battle will be over when they see Jesus face to face. On that day, they will be completely free from their old sinful nature and will never sin again!

This next part is very important!

God offers His Son, Jesus must be received by faith! The Bible tells us that faith is the “assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things NOT seen”. When we die and face God it will be too late for faith…it is appointed for men to die once…and then the judgment!

God offers the Gospel…God offers the new heart here and now…if a person dies without the gospel and without a new heart…they will have that same sinful, rebellious heart for all eternity! With that heart they will continue to sin against God, and God will continue to justly punish them for their ongoing sin.

In Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man in hell, never asks to get out of hell! He hated God in life and he hates God in eternity. He only wanted God for the things He gave in life and that’s the only thing he wanted from God in eternity. The rich man, even though he was in hell still viewed himself in an elevated place. He still viewed himself as a rich master and he still viewed Lazarus as someone lower than himself…someone to serve him.

Even in hell, even in eternity we see that he is self focused, and his being self centered has not gone away.

He was a God hater in life and he will be a God hater throughout all eternity!

Do note that the rich man’s request for even the smallest mercy is denied in eternity.

Those who think they can enjoy God’s gifts without God are going to be greatly disappointed!