What Scripture says
Scripture holds together God’s love and his justice:
- Love: “God is love” (1 John 4:8, ESV). God “desires all people to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4) and is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11).
- Justice: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25). God “will render to each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6).
- Judgment as giving people what they choose: “God gave them up” to what they wanted (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). The light came into the world, but “people loved the darkness rather than the light” (John 3:19).
- The cross: God himself bore the judgment for sin, so that anyone may be saved (John 3:16, Romans 5:8).
What the evidence says
Philosophy
Love and justice aren’t opposites
A love that didn’t care about evil wouldn’t be good. We don’t admire a judge who lets a murderer go because he is “loving”. Many who have suffered great wrong long for justice. The Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf, who lived through the Balkan wars, argued that belief in God’s judgment is what makes non-violence possible: we don’t need to take revenge, because God will judge justly.
Hell as chosen separation
Many Christians understand hell as the ultimate consequence of rejecting God, who is the source of all good. C. S. Lewis wrote:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it.” (The Great Divorce)
and that “the doors of hell are locked on the inside” (The Problem of Pain). On this view, God doesn’t force himself on anyone. Heaven would be miserable for someone who hated God.
Objections and responses
| Objection | Response |
|---|---|
| Infinite punishment for finite sins is unjust | Sin is against an infinite God; or people continue to reject God forever; or annihilationism, where punishment is final but not endless (see 8.7) |
| A loving God would save everyone | Love doesn’t force; people can refuse it |
| What about those who never heard? | God judges by the light people had (see 1.9) |
| People don’t really choose hell | Scripture says God judges according to what people have done and known (Romans 2:6–16) |
Different views of hell
How this question is answered partly depends on what hell is (see 8.7). If hell is eternal conscious punishment, the challenge is sharpest. If it is final destruction (annihilationism), the punishment is final but not endless. A minority of Christians hope all will eventually be saved (universalism).
Scripture
Jesus, the most loving person in the Gospels, spoke more about hell than anyone else in Scripture (Matthew 10:28, 25:41–46). For him, love and warning went together: warning people of danger is a loving act.
Where they meet
God is just as well as loving, and hell is ultimately people getting the separation they chose. How this works depends partly on the nature of hell (see 8.7).
What’s still open
The nature of hell, and how God’s justice and love are fully reconciled.
Bottom line
God is just as well as loving, and hell is ultimately people getting the separation they chose. It ties to 8.7, and is rated Debated.