send or choose?

I was speaking to someone the other day about separating from God forever. “Hell” is another way of saying this.

“How can a loving God send good people who don’t trust in Jesus to hell?”

Perhaps the answer is, “He doesn’t.” If you mean by “good” someone who is sinless like Jesus, then anyone who can live a sinless life will be able to be in God’s direct presence for eternity. If by “good” you mean someone who does more good than evil, whose scale is tipped more to the good side, then what do you do with the consequences for the evil? The all-loving God is an all-just God, as well. Consequences must be dealt with.

Perhaps the answer is, “He doesn’t.” “Send” people to Hell. If you have chosen to separate from Jesus by choice in your lifetime, chosen not to trust in him for forgiveness of sin and new life, then when you die what are the chances you will want to live with him? If he really is the way to God forever then when you find out you were wrong all your life, what are the chances you will say, “Oh, I can’t believe I have been wrong all my life. Sorry, now I know better. Can I stay with you?”

We rarely see people admit they were wrong on lesser issues, let alone on something as big as one’s whole life being based on a false premise, i.e., “I don’t need Jesus.”

When someone asks you how a loving God could send people to Hell, perhaps just reframing the question is enough.

“How could a loving God force his adult children to do something that they are totally unwilling to do?”

Any loving parent eventually comes to the conclusion that I have to let my adult children live their own lives. I can’t try to force them to do anything. Perhaps the language of “choose Hell” is more appropriate then “sent to Hell.”