An excerpt from a blog entitled "Is God A Monster".
Nearly fifty years ago, the British agnostic Bertrand Russell penned these words: "There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment" (Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian).
Philosopher John Hick echoed those sentiments when he called hell "a perversion of the Christian gospel." He believed the doctrine of hell attributed to God "an unappeasable vindictiveness and insatiable cruelty."
We expect statements like that from fallen, unregenerate minds. But what do we do when we hear similar things from prominent, professing evangelical writers? "How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God..." (Clark H. Pinnock, "The Destruction of the Finally Impenitent").
It's become popular today for professing evangelicals to join the ranks of Pinnock, atheists, and agnostics in protesting the doctrine of hell. They are preaching sermons, writing articles, and publishing books, and some are wandering into the comment threads of Christian blogs. Here's a small sampling from Grace To You's blog in our recent series on hell:
"What kind of God torments people for all eternity?" "...Satan loves the false doctrine of eternal torment" "[eternal torment is] cruel and unusual punishment" "[eternal torment] makes God out to be a cruel tyrant," "absolutely cruel and malevolent" "How can you in your right minds even consider this to be justice?"
If the doctrine of hell as eternal, conscious torment hadn't been the position of the Christian church for two millennia, it might be easy to think we're seriously out of step--a bunch of mindless minions who worship a monster-god! But when you examine the biblical evidence, without an agenda, you'll find we sound a lot like Jesus and the apostles.
So, how could someone who claims to be faithful to Scripture ridicule the idea of eternal punishment? What is at the heart of their rejection of a never-ending hell? It's simple, really--they minimize the seriousness of human sin and guilt, and they distort the perfection of divine justice. That's the crime of Protestant Liberalism and every false religion.
Minimizing the Sinfulness of Sin
To one degree or another, we're all guilty of minimizing sin. I remember the first time I read the account of Lot's wife. God turned her into a pillar of salt as she was leaving Sodom. Her crime? A backward glance (Gen. 19:26). Reading that story as an unbeliever provoked me to ask the question: "Was that really an offense worthy of death--turning your neck to take one final look at your home?" As I explored more of the Bible, other accounts of God's judgment appeared equally capricious and severe to me.
Nadab and Abihu deviated from the priestly procedures. God consumed them with fire (Lev. 10:1-2). One man gathered wood on the Sabbath. God commanded Moses to stone him (Num. 15:35). Achan took a few forbidden items from the spoils of Jericho. God commanded Joshua to stone and then burn Achan along with his entire family (Josh. 7:24-25). Uzzah kept the ark of God from falling into the mud by reaching out his hand and taking hold of it. God immediately struck him dead (2 Sam. 6:6-7). Ananias and Sapphira lied to the apostles. God killed them both in front of the entire church. (Acts 5:1-10).
We often struggle to understand how something seemingly so trivial could enact such a severe judgment. Our flesh wants to cry out in protest, "That's not fair!" But responses like that reveal our failure to grasp the depth of sin. We see only actions--a devoted father gathering firewood to keep his family warm; a zealous Israelite anxious to keep the Ark of God off the ground--but God sees things differently, more clearly, than we do. He sees our sin as insurrection, rebellion against His holiness (Ex. 31:14; Num. 4:15). What's more, He sees the hidden motives and intentions at the core of our actions (Mt. 5:28; Heb. 4:12).
One of the most basic tenets of justice is that the punishment must fit the crime. So, if the ultimate punishment for those who die without Christ is hell, then what is the crime? What do men do to merit the eternal sentence of hell? Put plainly, they sin.
You can read the rest here:
http://www.gty.org/blog/B110518
May God Richly Bless you!
