The statements that “God is all loving” and “Some people go to hell” are not explicitly contradictory
Detractors of hell make 2 assumptions:
If God is all powerful the God can create a world in which everyone freely choose to give his life to God and is saved
If God is all loving, then God prefers a world in which everyone freely chooses to give his life to God and be saved
Both of these assumptions have to necessarily true in order to prove that God and hell are logically inconsistent with
each other. This is a burden of proof.
God’s nature of both perfect justice and perfect love, neither can be compromised
God’s justice exposes man’s inadequacy (Rom 3:10,12,23, Gal 6:7, Ez 18:4, Rom 6:23)
if we rely on God’s justice alone, we’re doomed
God is merciful (“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked” Ez 18:23,32; 33:11)
God pleads pleads with people to turn back from self-destruction (2 Pet 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4)
God’s solution to the dilema is Jesus- the fulfillment of God’s justice and love
Jesus took upon himself the death penalty of sin that we deserve (1 John 4:10)
God asks us to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour
If we reject Christ we reject God’s mercy and fall back on his justice
If we reject Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, there is no one to pay the penalty for sin, except yourself.
If we reject Christ’s sacrifice for our sin, then God has no choice but to give us what we deserve according to his justice
If this scenario is even possible, it follows that there is no inconsistency between God’s justice and love.
The only obstacle to salvation is free will
It’s logically impossible to make someone do something freely
Even though God is all-powerful, God cannot make everyone freely be saved
Given human freedom and human stubbornness, some people may go to hell despite God’s desire and efforts to save them
Opponents of the doctrine of hell say that it’s unfair to condemn people to an eternity in hell.
Those who go to hell continue to sin eternally and so the punshment must be eternal.
Why think that every sin should have only a finite punishment? It could be argued that human sins against others have
finite consequences.
The refusal to accept Christ and his sacrifice is a different order of sin. This decisively separates a person from God
To reject Christ is to reject God and this is a sin of infinite gravity
It’s possible that those who go to hell continue to curse God forever and therefore hell is locked from the inside.
What about the fate of those who’ve never heard about Christ?
Salvation in that case appears to depend on a person’s geograpy and history
God will judge these people on how they lived in accordance with the law written on their hearts. (Rom 1:20, 2:14-15)
Romans 2:7 “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life”
They would be like those who lived in Old Testament times.
Mortal Sin
Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity.
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who
is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and
which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent
Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not
kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your
mother.”132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account
who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.