Have you ever heard someone say this?
“A loving God would never send anyone to hell.”
This is a common yet incorrect assumption:
Since “God is love” (1 John 4:16), He will not and cannot do something so cruel to people He loves.
This is an unfortunate, misleading, and unbiblical presentation of the character of God. Yes, “God is love.” And yes, God is also holy, righteous, and just, and therefore He must punish all non-believers and their unforgiven sins.
Jesus said so:
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
John 3:18
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 10: 28
The apostle John said so:
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:36
The apostle Paul said so:
“But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
Romans 2:5
The apostle Peter said so:
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
2 Peter 2:4-10
Many other passages speak to this issue of God’s eternal wrath against unrepentant sinners, such as Matthew 25:31-46, John 5:25-29, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Revelation 20:11-15, and Revelation 21:5-8.
Yes, “God is love.” And our God is also “a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).
If we are true believers in Christ, because of God’s grace and Christ’s death on our behalf, we will be saved from God’s holy wrath on Judgment Day, when we will hear Jesus say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). We will spend forever in the presence of God.
And if we are not true believers, we won’t be saved. On Judgment Day, we will hear Jesus say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). We will spend forever drowning in the lake of fire.
It’s important to teach “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). We don’t get to pick and choose which parts of the Bible we like and which parts we don’t like and can therefore ignore.
We also don’t get to pick and choose which attributes of God’s character we like and which attributes we don’t like and can therefore ignore.
Thanks for reading this post. I pray you’ll take these words to heart.
For more biblical teaching on heaven and hell, check out these two short books, both of which are free in Kindle format:
Why Bad People Go To Heaven and Good People Go To Hell (Part 1):
An Explanation of Luke 18:9-14
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLLJPS3X
Why Bad People Go To Heaven and Good People Go To Hell (Part 2):
An Explanation of Luke 7:36-50
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW1K34XN
- Would A Loving God Send Anyone to Hell? - March 5, 2025
- The Whole Bible in Four Words - February 26, 2025
- How to Spend Your Busy Days with Jesus - February 22, 2025
