How Can a Loving God Condemn so Many to Hell?

Question:

I'm writing because I have a friend who is troubled with the idea that so many people are going to hell according to Christian doctrine. She is uncomfortable with the idea that so many good people, like Gandhi for example, can go to hell just for not accepting Christ, and she is uncomfortable with the notion that entire nations of non-Christian people are condemned to hell.

I regrettably wasn't able to help her much with her doubts because I share many of the same questions as her.

Answer:

I completely understand why you would have these kinds of doubts. There are no easy answers for that one. 

In order to understand my answer, we need to do a quick review on what sin is. The Greek word for sin does not mean "evil," or "bad," or "wicked." Believe it or not, it actually means, "to miss the mark, to be less than perfect, to be imperfect, to fail." This word that simply means "you missed, you weren't perfect" can, in theory, be applied to anything. In fact, it was often applied to archery contests in Greek culture, but in the Bible, it is applied to morality. Thus, our sins are about moral failures, and everything evil that we do or think is, therefore, a moral failure, or "a sin." 

But morally imperfect is NOT the same as hideously evil.

So the whole point of the Bible's position on sin is NOT that we are all in danger of becoming mass murderers, but that we are all, every one of us, morally imperfect. Further, it is not Jesus' fault that we are sinful. We did that to ourselves, and God is not obligated to clean up our mess. So the real and serious problem facing our world is SIN. Sin is real, and no one, not even Gandhi or Mother Theresa is without sin. Every single one of us is morally imperfect.

So why doesn't God just grant everyone salvation? 

Because that is not JUST. There are a lot of truly evil people in the world. Everyone is sinful, but not everyone is as thoroughly evil as a serial killer, or as our culture's favorite bad guy, Hitler. But we can't really grant salvation to all, not if we claim to have some tiny thread of justice in our dealings, when some people really are that evil.

The real problem, though, isn't the truly evil, but those in between the saints and the monsters (which is most of us). How about the majority of us who are somewhere in between? How do we judge the majority of humanity who do some good and some bad?

When you are dealing from a position of perfection, any standard you set is utterly and completely arbitrary. Exactly what percentage of the person's thoughts, words and actions need to be good? 25% 51%? 75%? 99%? And what about omissions? If we fail to do good when we can, how does that figure in? We can’t know what a person really thinks deep down in their heart, but God does. We can't know how many times someone had a chance to do good, and simply walked away, but God does. 

Does a person who is not seriously bad, but also doesn't go out of their way to do anything particularly good, qualify? And how do we weigh thoughts and attitudes against actions? Is a basically good person who makes an foolish choice and kills another person by driving intoxicated better or worse than a person who never really does anything wrong, but is filled with hate, greed, bitterness, covetousness, anger, lust, or envy? What about those socially acceptable sins, like abortion? There are more than 40 million abortions world-wide every year. According to the Guttmacher Institute, which is NOT a pro-life organization, close to 1 out of every 3 women in America will have an abortion by the age of 45 (Go here to see some very startling abortion statistics). How does a God who claims to know us in the womb (Psalm 139:13; Isaiah 44:24; 49:5; Jeremiah 1:5) balance killing our own unborn child against the rest of our life?

And do my good actions account for my evil thoughts? If I do many, many good things, but am filled with lust, how does that balance out?

And once some arbitrary standard is set, is our standard fair to the person who is 1/10 of 1% below that standard?

For a perfect God, anything short of 100% is completely unfair to the person who is the tiniest fraction below whatever arbitrary standard God sets. The only truly just and fair standard is to demand perfection. 100%. That standard is not arbitrary, because it is based on the standard of God Himself, which is the only truly absolute standard. 

And that is the standard God has adopted:

"Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

The only problem is that even the best of us cannot meet that standard. Which is where Jesus comes in. He washes away our sin, so that we can be made perfect by his payment. And what does God ask for in return? 

Just trust Me. Really, truly trust me with all your heart. 

And why does He ask for trust? Because the failure in the beginning that created this problem of sin was really about refusing to trust God. The core of our problem, whether we can or cannot see God, is in trusting Him. So why didn't He just reveal Himself to the whole world and say, "trust me, and you get salvation?"

Because if God steps in to offer salvation to the world, then how many of us will be satisfied just with salvation. Won’t we also want Him to solve all of humanity’s problems? We will want Him to heal the sick, feed the poor, and solve our many human ills.

First, that all sounds great, until you remember that His standard is perfection.

It sounds great to have God step in and physically prevent a rape, but not so great to step in and physically prevent me from cheating on my taxes, or on my spouse, or living with my girlfriend, or choosing to have an abortion, or lying, or cussing, or lusting, or coveting, or being greedy, or hating or any of the other myriad things that I might do or think or say that violate God's standards. We humans have a word for that kind of ruler, the kind who literally controls our every word, thought and action: tyrant. 

Remember, real holiness is not just about what we do, it is about our heart. All the evil that men do starts in their hearts. Every less than perfect moral decision, thought, word or deed we have ever done all started in our heart. What we do simply reflects our heart. To be truly holy, our heart has to be completely clean, it has to be perfect. Nothing less than perfect can be allowed.  The thing about perfection is that it is the ultimate zero tolerance standard. 

Second, that takes all the responsibility off of us. When God is solving the world's problems, we don't have to do anything. We don't have to sacrifice to meet other people's needs. We don't have to love those who annoy us. We don't have to grow in character or in spirit. We don't have to become more like Him, because we can just let Him do it all for us.

Make no mistake, some day He is going to show up and do all of this, but when He does, it will be too late. Once we stand before the judge, nothing we do from that point forward effects our case. No one ever sways a court case by telling the judge, "but ever since I got arrested, I've been a completely law abiding citizen."

None of this seems really convincing when faced with the deaths of loved ones who don't believe, or when faced with countries that are more than 99% unbelievers. But the thing we need to keep in mind is that this should motivate us to REACH them, not blame God because He doesn't do the work for us. Remember, God is not obligated in any way to get us out of the mess we put ourselves in. Anything He does, such as sending His Son to stand in our place and take our punishment, is purely a function of grace. God is not obligated nor required to help us.

However, God loves us, so He wants to help us, and He did.

But He did it in a way that reflects His character as well as His standards. Jesus pays for our sins with His death. But we still have that frighteningly mind bending thing God gave humanity at the beginning: free will. God's grace empowers us to accept His gift, but it does not force us to accept it. We can choose to reject this free gift.

Even more frightening is that we can refuse to tell others about this free gift. We can be almost immeasurably selfish by choosing to do the ultimate evil act of omission and disobey the last command from Jesus:

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

If someone truly desires God with all their heart, and seeks Him with all their might, He will reveal Himself to them and answer their prayers no matter where they live.

And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

The problem is that very, very few people realize they need God, nor do they seek Him with all their heart. Those who do this on their own are extremely rare. The vast majority of humanity are spiritually asleep, and it is OUR JOB to wake them up to their need, introduce them to their God, and offer them His gift of salvation.

Do all roads lead to God?

Question:

With all the billions of people of other faiths in the world, it just seems to me that claiming Christianity is the only way is intolerant in the extreme. It seems to me a more enlightened view is that all faiths lead to the same God. Given all the different beliefs in the world, isn't it arrogant to claim that you guys have the only way to heaven?

Answer:

That depends on whether or not we are correct. Just because someone claims there is only one path to a certain destination or one answer to a specific question does not automatically mean they are narrow minded, arrogant, or intolerant. Because . . . what if they are right?

Oh, and by the way, we don't actually claim that "Christianity" is the only way to salvation, we claim that the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to salvation. The two are not the same. In other words, it is not the commands, traditions, trappings, doctrines, teachings or good works of Christianity that bring salvation: it is faith in the God of Christianity that brings salvation. This is the ultimate example of, "it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know."

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (Joh 14:6 NIV)

To know if we are correct, we need to explore three questions:

1) What does it take to be saved (or qualify for heaven)?
2) What is the problem facing mankind that might keep them from salvation?
3) What is the solution to that problem?

Almost every faith on the planet has the same basic answer to the question of what does it take to be saved (or make it to paradise, or reach nirvana, or escape the cycle of reincarnation): your good must outweigh your bad. And the vast majority of all their various teachings center on telling us what we have to do, or how we have to live, in order for that to be true in our life.

Christianity, however, has a completely different answer. The Bible teaches us that being more good than bad is simply not good enough. God's standard is much, much higher than that.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mat 5:48 NIV)

So in Christianity, the only way to be saved is to be perfect.

You see, where most other religions view the requirements for salvation as a kind of test where you need to get a certain score to pass, Christianity views it as a judgement in a criminal trial. Each person will be on trial for crimes committed against God, and the "good things" we have done will have no bearing on determining our guilt.

For example, if I am on trial for murder, no amount of good deeds that I have done will have any bearing on whether or not I am found guilty. They might effect my sentence, but they will have no effect on my guilt. Being nice to my wife, and giving money to charity has nothing to do with the question, "Did I commit murder?" Likewise, the Bible teaches that our guilt or innocence is based on one question: have I sinned? No amount of "good deeds" have any impact on this question.

Further, sin is not defined as "evil." Sin produces evil, leads to evil, can make us evil, but strictly speaking, sin is not "evil." The Geek word for sin is ἁμαρτία, and this word does not mean, "bad" or "evil," it means, "to miss the mark, to fail, to be less than morally perfect." Because "sin" is a failure to be morally perfect, it is completely legitimate to refer to an evil act as a "sin."

So the question we will all face at our trial is this: Have you been less than morally perfect? If we have committed any sins (moral failures), we will be found guilty.

In line with this, the Bible clearly teaches that the problem facing mankind is sin, and each and every one of us is afflicted by this disease.

There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:22b-23 NIV)

Does this mean each of us are inherently evil, and if given half a chance, we will all become little Hitlers? Being thoroughly sinful does not automatically mean we are thoroughly evil, it means we are thoroughly imperfect. Thoroughly imperfect people can do good things, and can even resist doing evil things. So the problem of sin is not that it will inevitably turn us all into serial killers, the problem is that it keeps us from being perfect. And because of this inborn imperfection, we ALL will eventually do something that is a moral failure, we will do something wrong, and at that moment, we are condemned. We now fail to qualify for heaven.

No heaping of good deeds on top of our sins can make up for that crime. Thus, we all, each and every one of us, are doomed to be found guilty, and forbidden to enter heaven.

This is where Jesus comes in. The REASON He is the only way to salvation is that His death and resurrection are the only means to wash us clean of our imperfect behavior, and make us morally perfect in the eyes of God. Paul explains how it works this way:

But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The blood of Christ has made us right with God. So we are even more sure that Jesus will save us from God's anger. Once we were God's enemies. But we have been brought back to him because his Son has died for us. Now that God has brought us back, we are even more secure. We know that we will be saved because Christ lives. (Rom 5:8-10)

Because Jesus died for us, we are forgiven and made clean, and because He rose from the grave, and now lives, we are given new life and saved.

And what does it take to get in on this awesome deal?

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, "Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame." (Rom 10:9-11)

Just a quick note: biblical faith is not only something we say, most importantly, it is something we do. In the same way that real love is demonstrated by what we do, real faith in Jesus is demonstrated by our actions, by how we live from this day forward, NOT by simply saying a prayer. In other words, if our faith is real, salvation is instantaneous, and the proof of that is that our lives are forever changed.

So here is the bottom line. If the Bible is right about how to get to heaven (be perfect), about what our problem is (we cannot be perfect) and about how that problem is solved (faith in Jesus makes us perfect), then all faiths do NOT lead to God. Only one road leads to God, and that road is called Jesus. Furthermore, if the Bible is right, there is nothing intolerant or arrogant about this claim at all.

On the contrary, we have an obligation to get this message out to as many people as we possibly can.