Hello En4cer,
Originally posted by EN4CER
The question is "If God is so all forgiving then why is there a hell"�
Judging from the current state of the thread it looks like the decision not to go with a dedicated ask Seagoon thread was probably wise.
Anyway, while I'm happy to answer, I sense this is not a question that you are genuinely struggling with, but rather more along the lines of the kind of
"if your religion is true (which I don't don't for a moment believe it is) then answer this conundrum" question that I used to pepper the members of the "Christian Union" at my old University with. The unfortunate thing about that kind of question of course is that there are no answers that will ever satisfy the questioner, because he doesn't want an answer so much as to have his own presuppositions proven right.
In any event, your question includes an assumption about God that scripture tells us isn't true. God is
not all forgiving, he is truly good, truly holy, truly just, and truly merciful. And the way those qualities work together will tell us a lot about why there is a hell and why it is possible for some men to go to heaven. So that for instance, in displaying his nature to Moses the Lord proclaimed in part:
“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, "keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty” (Exodus 34:6)
God's Holiness and his Justice demands that evil be punished, it would by no means be fair or good or just for evil-doers to get away with their wrong-doing, or worse yet to be rewarded for it. Our own natural sense of equity, for instance, would be repulsed at the idea that Hitler or Stalin might commit acts of desperate evil all their lives, never changing in that, and yet enter into heaven at their death. We would say, no if God is good and just, although they have escaped the justice of man, their must be a final accounting for such evil.
But while we are usually o.k. with Hell as Hitler's final reward, we seldom stop to consider who amongst us is really without sin and "worthy" of Heaven? What is the estate of all mankind? Simply put, the Bible tells us that soon after his Creation man sinned against God and fell from his original state of innocence. Sin is defined biblically as disobedience (either by ommission or commission) to the commands of God. From that point onwards, man was by nature inclined to sin, a rebel against God and not the friend of his Creator, but his natural enemy (Gen. 8:21, Eph. 2:1-3, etc.). Now from the very beginning God would have been justified in simply letting a race of rebels and traitors receive the reward of justice by letting us all go to Hell. But in addition to being
just and
good, God is also merciful.
Accordingly, the Bible also tells us that God determined to save mankind from the eternal punishment they deserved by an act of unmerited mercy. This salvation though, could only be accomplished if someone else was to satisfy the demands of justice in the place of sinful man. Someone would have to suffer punishment in our place. And the person who did this would Himself have to be sinless and perfect. In turn, those saved by this sacrifice would need a righteousness that would qualify them to inherit heaven and allow them to live forever in the presence of a Holy God. This is what Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to do: "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)
This work of Christ as the Savior of His people was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament, but perhaps the most moving and striking of these prophecies occurs in Isaiah 53:
"4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked -- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors." Christ who came into the world to save sinners, from Hell frequently warned them of the reality of it, saying that it was a place where the
"worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched", a place of "darkness; [where] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" and urged men to repent and believe in Him that they might be Saved from it.
So, as Romans 9 puts it, sinful man receives either God's perfect justice, in receiving the due reward for his sins through punishment in Hell, or mercy through faith in Christ. Those who believe in Him are assured that He has "paid in full" the penalty due for their sins, and has suffered the pains of Hell on their behalf. Therefore all their sins are forgiven and they are forever changed, going from rebels and enemies, to adopted sons of God and heirs of heaven by his redeeming grace.
That in a nutshell is the good news of the Gospel as it is spelled out in the Scripture. That is the answer to your question. Of course believing it is another thing entirely...
- SEAGOON
