I Never Heard That Preached...episode 3: Is God Always Loving & What About Hell?
Pondering various curiosities on hell and the question - is God always loving?
Hey Fellow Faith Travellers,
Yes, it is still winter here with cold and rainy weather but there is the odd day where the sun peeks through and we can get out and walk our beautiful Motu1.
Let’s do some pondering on love as it relates to God and humans and….hell. Yep, I am going there!
The apostle John had a lot to say about love and God.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 NIV
God. Is. Love.
Here’s a question to ponder… Is God ALWAYS Loving?
Our first instinctive answer would be - of course, He is always loving.
The scripture passage that comes to mind instantly when we think about love is, of course, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you were a good church girl, you would have had this recited at your wedding. In this chapter Paul tells us that love never fails and since God is love then his love never fails towards humans he has created.
Who does God love?
Is it only those who love him back?
NO! John chapter 3 tells us, in the most famous verse of the Bible, that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That this same love towards us started, not when Jesus came in the flesh, but before the foundation of the world.
So God has always loved everyone that has ever lived or going to live. He not only has always loved them, he will keep on loving them - there is no time limit on God’s love as there is no time in the presence of God.
He is not limited by time.
There is no limit to his love.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Psalm 100:5 NLT
Okay so we probably agree that God is love and his unfailing love is for everyone whether they have said the sinners prayer or not.
BUT what about the common doctrine of hell in Western Christianity? The place of eternal conscious torment. This is the place where, according to most evangelical churches, people who don’t pray the sinner’s prayer are thrown into once they die. Or they end up there after the Judgement.
Umm, Eternal Conscious Torment doesn’t make sense with the God we described above, who loves everyone without limit. Who calls us to forgive people seventy times seven. Who came to seek and save the lost and oppressed.
Here is what I never heard preached in the churches I attended …. hell is not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).
Hell is not mentioned for Cain the first murderer. It isn’t mentioned when the wicked people were wiped out in the great flood. It isn’t mentioned by the prophets or the fathers of Israel. It just isn’t mentioned.
The word that is mentioned is sheol which does not mean hell but the grave or just death. The root meaning of sheol is “unseen”. It does not mean a place where people suffer torment for eternity. Jacob was sent to sheol, Job longed for sheol and David spoke of going to sheol. These men had vanished from the earth, they were in the unseen place, sheol.
The New Testament (NT) uses the Greek word hades for the word sheol - both mean the grave or death, the unseen place, not hell.
There is another word used in the NT which our English Bibles have translated as hell and that is the Greek word Gehanna. But this word is not hell but a physical place outside of Jerusalem that had a bad history. It was a place where children were sacrificed to the Moloch. After this practice was abolished by King Josiah, the place became a incinerator for rubbish. Dead animals, executed animals and general household rubbish was chucked to be burned. The use of the word Gehanna does not mean a place of eternal conscious torment for people who don’t say the sinners prayer.
It surprised me recently that not all Christians believe in hell (eternal conscious torment). Eastern Orthodox church for one. That’s about 260 million people! In fact it is only really evangelical western Christianity that seems to hold to this belief.
The Apostle Paul, who was the great early evangelist and traveller preaching the good news, never once mentioned hell in his letters. This is very interesting. He does not include hell in his preaching of the good news! So why do we dangle it over the ‘unconverted’ to scare them into the kingdom?
So if there is no Eternal Conscious Torment a.k.a Hell, then you might ask - why be a Christian in the first place?
In my church culture the “gospel” or “good news” was, if you say the sinner’s prayer, believe and confess Jesus is Lord then you escape hell and have a free ticket to some heavenly mansion when you die. But if hell is not a thing then what is the point of leading a Christian life?
Oh boy. There is so much more to life with God NOW than waiting to after we die! Jesus was bringing good news to people he met on earth that they could enjoy now.
The real Good News is Jesus, the exact representation of God.
The Good News is God’s love as shown by Jesus.
The Good News is what Jesus did. Jesus took the sting out of death!
The Good News is Christ IN us. What Adam/Eve did affected all humankind and what Jesus did also affected all humankind.
The Good News is better than we think it is. Everyday God is revealing his goodness and it gets better and better.
Eternal Life is now. It’s in the present.
Jesus himself described what eternal life is in his prayer -
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 NASB
That is good news! Eternal life is not a place up in the sky where we sit around in eternal bliss. No, eternal life is experiencing God right now.
It’s the ongoing experience of living life in Christ. It is available to everyone.
This revelation of what the ‘gospel’ really is and is not is life changing. This revelation of the lie of hell is also massively life changing.
There is relief.
There is a deep breath moment.
We can live, really live now.
There is a secure peace knowing every person is included in God’s love and plans. That one day everyone will acknowledge Him. God’s refining and cleansing love will draw all people to himself.
There is no ‘heaven club’ where some people are ‘in’ and some people are ‘out’. We are all invited to the table. We are all chosen by God to enjoy and live in his love.
God will and is consuming evil and our blessed hope is the day when all evil is consumed and only love remains.
What are your thoughts and feelings on the everlasting love of God , his love for everyone, the concept of eternal conscious torment (hell) and eternal life?
“country” in Te Reo Maori
Wow, loving the discussions below.
When I came to the Lord it wasn't anything to do with eternal life or hell. I've never really been interested in either. I'm focusing on here and now and what God is doing and what He wants me to do.
It's very interesting reading your blog and the other discussions and comments.
It's sad that people use to be threatened with going to hell if they didn't accept Jesus. Sounds like conditional love not God's love. 💕
I have read through your article several times and feel a bit confused. The Hebrew 7585 (seol, translated Sheol) is used as grave, pit and hell in the Old Testament (see Psalm 17:15-17). In the New Testament, Hades is mentioned in the gospels and in Revelation (Rev. 20:13-17) I agree that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. But even Jesus speaks of an eternal punishment (which many Christians term as hell) in Matthew 25:31-41 is the parable of talents and Jesus judging the nations vs 31-41. Jesus ends this example in verse 46 – “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” John 3:16 is very true but so is John 3:36 – “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” As I read this article, it seems to indicate no one is ever going to everlasting punishment which is not a biblical view. Yes, everyone has the opportunity to accept Jesus as Lord of their lives up until their last breath. However, some never will and for them there is everlasting punishment (see Luke 16:19-26). Revelation 23:14-15 - Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Is your view that all go to heaven and there is no eternal punishment?