Will God Hell ? to bad people send

Will God send bad people to Hell?  Different Christians have understood the Bible teaching in different ways  Some have painted a dreadful picture of hell, encouraging people to “repent”

Will God send bad people to Hell?  Different Christians have understood the Bible teaching in different ways  Some have painted a dreadful picture of hell, encouraging people to “repent”  We need to know what the Bible teaches – and how to understand it!

 In the Old Testament (before Jesus), there is no idea of a future hell of punishment.  God’s punishment is here and now (or for our descendants).  There will one day be a Day of Judgement, when evil will be destroyed and the righteous vindicated.  The afterlife is a rather shadowy place called “Sheol ” (31 references, e.g. Psalm ). Will God send bad people to Hell?

 Jesus uses two words that are sometimes translated as “hell”.  The first, “hades”, is the Greek word used to translate “sheol”. Jesus uses this word on three occasions (a city sent to “the depths”, the gates of hades will never overcome the church, and the location for the story about the rich man and Lazarus).  The other word that Jesus uses is Gehenna – which refers to the valley which was Jerusalem’s rubbish tip Will God send bad people to Hell?

 Jesus refers to Gehenna (on five occasions) as a place where you might be “thrown” – a sort of dire warning (e.g. better to pluck out an eye that does wrong than to be thrown into Gehenna, fear Him who has the power to throw you into Gehenna).  Jesus uses other pictures of a coming Day of Judgement (a feast from which some are excluded; an outer darkness, with “weeping and gnashing of teeth”; weeds burned)  In the parable of the sheep and the goats, wrongdoers are sent into a fire prepared for the devil Will God send bad people to Hell?

How should we understand this teaching of Jesus?

Will God send bad people to Hell?  Jesus often uses metaphors and pictures which are not literally true  Like the people of his time, he sometimes uses exaggeration to make a point  The small number of times that Jesus talks about the rubbish tip, or coming judgement, need to be seen against the background of very many references to God’s Kingdom and God’s unfailing love.  Jesus does not preach with a threat of unending hell for those who do not repent.

Will God send bad people to Hell?  It is not logically possible for all the metaphors to be literally true  We are sometimes forced to choose which theme or picture will be dominant, and which needs to come “under” another  Some Christians believe that the need to affirm that God is righteous and just will put punishment “above” unending love  Others believe that the “love” dimension is so strong that everlasting punishment could not be part of the picture

Will God send bad people to Hell?  Our actions have consequences - we need to make good choices.  There are many pictures in the Bible of punishment - but no clear picture of unending punishment  Punishment may be the intrinsic result of realising after death the enormity of our failing  Perhaps it will still be possible for people in that place to “repent” (1 Peter 3 19 says that after his death, Jesus preached to the souls “in prison” – presumably hell)

Will God send bad people to Hell?  Jesus came to save us from separation from God  God is a Father who loves us more than we can comprehend  Jesus teaches that we should always forgive those who wrong us - won’t God do the same?  A final destruction could still be the destiny of those who – even when confronted with the reality of God – still choose to turn away