Two Misconceptions That Lead Some to Reject the Idea of Hell

God as Judge

There was a very famous secular philosopher, an atheist by the name of Bertrand Russell, who wrote a number of things in the twentieth century against Christianity. He had many complaints about Christianity and about the existence of the Christian God. But when it came to the person of Jesus, he was generally favorable, and he liked many things about Jesus. But there’s one thing that Bertrand Russell did not like about Jesus and that he objected to in this core resistance to the person of Christ. He said that the thing that Jesus said that bothered him the most is that Jesus believed in a place called hell.

In other words, Jesus believed that God would eventually judge those who were rebellious and operate against him. And Bertrand Russell has a view that a lot of people have today, which is that Christianity seems like it could be okay, except for the idea that God would judge sinful people.

How could he ever do that? That seems so cruel and so mean. And people will say things like, The God of the Bible seems to be sadistic, and my God would never do something like that.

Surviving Religion 101

Michael J. Kruger

Writing in the form of a letter to his college-age daughter, Michael Kruger’s Surviving Religion 101 takes a topical approach to examining some of the toughest questions Christian students encounter at secular universities.

I understand those objections. Its not an uncommon objection, lots of people have objections to this idea that God would be a God who would judge. But I think those objections are based on two misconceptions. The first misconception is about what God is like. The average person has a picture of God in their mind that, arguably, does not match up to the God of the Bible. They typically think of God as a big grandfatherly figure in heaven, who’s just a gentle old guy who just wants you to be happy and do whatever you want to do. This God is pretty laid back and not bothered by much of anything, sort of like your grandpa. And if you have this picture of God in your head and then we told you that God is going to judge people for their sins, that just doesn’t square up. You’re thinking, That’s impossible.

The problem there is not the idea of judgment; the problem is the idea that you have in your head about God. And people have this idea of God as not really all that holy, not really bothered that much by sin, not really concerned about the things that happen in the world; he just wants you to be as satisfied and happy as you can be. Well, that’s not the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible is holy, holy, holy. He’s so holy that any sin around him is impossible and offensive, and he has to deal with it because it’s full and active rebellion against him and against his nature.

What if God is holier than we thought? And what if we’re more sinful than we thought?

Our Sin, God’s Holiness

Someone who can’t understand a God who would judge has a misperception of God. That’s the first mistake. But there’s a second mistake—and this is, in some ways, even bigger—and it’s that people who can’t fathom the idea of a place where God judges people also misunderstand themselves. They misunderstand what God is like, but they also misunderstand what they are like and what other humans are like.

They tend to think that they’re probably a pretty good person and that they try hard and generally live a holy life. Sure, they make mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes, and surely God will give them some slack in the end about such mistakes. Those mistakes are not a very big deal.

But they really misunderstand what sin is. Sin is not just a mistake. Sin is not just an accident. Sin is not just sort of a thing you do and you really didn’t mean it. Sin, at its core, is active rebellion and hatred towards God that is in every human heart by virtue of Adam’s fall. And that is a very serious thing.

Our sin is much deeper than we realize, because sin is not just merely an external action, but sin flows from the heart. So, you don’t just murder someone externally; you can murder someone in your heart. You don’t just commit adultery externally; you can commit adultery in your heart. This means our sins are bigger, deeper, and darker than we ever imagined.

So, think about that combination. What if God is holier than we thought? And what if we’re more sinful than we thought? Well, now the idea of God judging doesn’t look so strange. And this is the whole point about something like the doctrine of hell.

Something is only believable or unbelievable—or only makes sense or doesn’t make sense—based on an earlier worldview one might have. And if one has a biblical worldview and understands who God is and who we are, then actually the idea of judgment is not at all a surprise. It makes perfect sense. What should surprise us is not that God judges us. What should surprise us is that God saves anyone at all.

That’s really the wonderful news of the gospel. The wonderful news of the gospel is really the thing that should shock us. A holy God would actually send his only Son to die for sinners? That’s amazing! That’s the thing that should surprise and shock and amaze us. The fact that God would judge sin, that should be expected because he’s holy and we’re sinful. What should amaze us is that God would save any, and he does by the gracious work of Christ. And that is really the good news we want to focus on.

Michael J. Kruger is the author of Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College.

Michael J. Kruger (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is the Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a leading scholar on the origins and development of the New Testament canon. He blogs regularly at michaeljkruger.com.

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