Have you ever heard this question . . .
“Why would a good God make a bad place like hell?”
It’s a common question. Perhaps you have asked it.
And perhaps you are still asking this question because you have yet to hear a good answer – an answer that is reasonable and biblical.
Here’s one that I read recently. It’s written by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason.
“The simple answer to the question of why a good God would make a bad place like Hell is that it’s precisely because God is good that he made Hell. Further, Hell isn’t a bad place. It’s a good place.
“I realize that sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true.
“No good government allows guilty criminals to roam free. It locks them up in prison. Incarceration doesn’t just isolate felons, though, preventing them from harming law-abiding citizens. It also punishes them for the wrongs they’ve committed. Any government that didn’t sentence outlaws wouldn’t be good because it wouldn’t be just.
“In the same way, God would not be good if he simply let evil people go free. When people are punished in God’s court, they get exactly what they deserve. The books of death are opened for all to see. (See Revelation 20:12-13. I call them “the books of death” because they’re contrasted with the book of life, a record of all the redeemed.) Every wrong anyone has ever committed is recorded there.
“At that great white throne judgment, God dispenses perfect justice – punishment for everything a person has ever done wrong, and God misses nothing. Those whose names are written in the book of life, though, do not get punished since Jesus has taken their punishment for them. They receive perfect mercy – forgiveness for everything they’ve ever done wrong, and God misses nothing. Either Jesus pays, or we pay. That’s the calculus.
“Hell, then, is a good place in the same way that prisons are good. It may not be subjectively good – it’s no fun going there – but it is objectively good because a good purpose is accomplished there: justice.”
Source: https://www.str.org/w/rapid-fire-part-1
I believe that you just read one of the most compelling yet concise explanations of the reasonableness of hell. I like that it’s based on the character of our holy God – the One who is both gracious and just. A gospel without the justice and wrath of God is a truncated and distorted gospel. May God help us to present the gospel in its entirety, as Greg Koukl has done above.
What do you think of Mr. Koukl’s explanation of why hell exists? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
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