The problem of evil has been a knotty issue throughout history. How could so good a God create something that could become an author of evil? And, if evil is a reality, how can so good a God permit its continuance? We wrestle with those severe questions. They are so large that a great many persons say they do not believe in God because, if there were a God, He would not permit wrong-doing and horror to continue. It is likely that most believers in God dispose of the conundrum by simply not thinking about it. For them, out of consciousness is out of reality.
To this scenario is added the concept of eternal punishment. Can sin be that bad? Is there no moment when the evil a person does has not paid moral debt by appropriate punishment? Who among us, if we have compassion at all, would not vote for an ending of the business of punishment, in the belief that annihilation is the worst that we would judge? We would prefer that suffering end, even in hell. God’s mercy seems primary. We are assured he manages the matter.
The full answer, we ought to admit in humility and ignorance, evades us. The question can’t be answered in the context of human knowledge limits. The best answer, of course, is that we leave such matters in the judgment of God. No human being possesses either the knowledge or the authority to condemn anyone to eternal punishment – although many persons try when they feel that they have been wronged. Even in court rooms, murderers have been informed by bereaved persons that they will rot in hell. One said, on television camera, that he would: see his daughter’s murderer in hell. The implication might be that he, the father, would also be there. He seemed to speak in a way that, in hell, he might contribute to intensifying his curse.
During a sermon series, I was asked to talk privately with a fellow in Canada, and met him in his home. He was something of an artist, and some of his work was technically quite good. Everywhere there were paintings of hell, or derivatives of hell in flames, with screaming men and women, strange beasties, and other oddities. He was upset at the local church for not accepting one of his paintings to be mounted on a wall. He was troubled with a life of hellish thoughts beginning with bizarre experiences with his parents. For him hell seemed more real than heaven. There was not a heaven painting in the lot. This was partly due to his misunderstanding of the business of heaven, hell, eternity, immortality, and the themes related to mystery in God’s management. He was mesmerized by hell. He was living in a caricature of hell.
As earthlings we can never understand either heaven or hell because we do not understand the end of time, the nature of eternity and souls, the meaning of holiness (perfection), and the unknown possibilities for eternity’s meaning, and extensions. We do know that both heaven and hell are represented to us as eternal in Scripture. But, we feel we have a choice. Our purpose is to find rescue for the person hanging by his fingernails over the cliff, not to debate with him how he got there, or the tragedy of a fall to the valley below. By choosing Christ, we choose life rescue. And, by choosing Christ, we leave the paradoxes to God in justice for all. We have no knowledge about what God will do with any future rescue, or management of the matter of hell. We risk distraction in life by our extensions, even our personal revulsion, about hell. We acknowledge that Jesus gave considerable time to the subject of hell, but in God the evaluation and judgments are made. Our call, duty and privilege are to share the gospel of heaven. Our concern relates to the affirmations of heaven. God will well treat the negatives of hell. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020