We will assume that the God referred to is that of the Christian faith as described in the Bible, and therefore that the Bible is authoritative and decisive on matters of his nature, character and will.
Does the Bible actually describe God as loving?It does, in many places, e.g. Psalms 117:2. See the following links: God, The Eternal, Praise, Manner And Methods Of, Eternal Truth, God’s attitude towards people
For His lovingkindness is great toward us’; 1 John 3:2, ‘Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!’
In fact it goes further and equates the two: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8).
The experience of Christians is to know and feel this love in an amazing way – ‘to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God’ (Ephesians 3:19). This love is expressed ultimately in the sending of his Son (John 3:16), and more specifically in his death for us: ‘But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).
Why this was necessary we will look at later.
Does the Bible affirm heaven?Again it does, in many places, e.g. Psalms 115:3, ‘our God is in heaven’; Matthew 6:9, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’.
Heaven is defined as the dwelling place of God, though it was created by him (Genesis 1:1). It is a place where everything is entirely and voluntarily subject to the will of God (Matt. 6:10). In other words, there is no sin, and therefore, no death, nor anything remotely unpleasant (Revelation 21:4). Indeed, it is positively ecstatic with blessing and harmony (Rev. 22:1-5).
Jesus expands on this to promise his true disciples a place there (John 14:2), and, further, that the way to maximise enjoyment in heaven is inversely proportional to that on earth (Luke 12:33). Nevertheless the way to heaven is barred to ‘anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life’ (Rev. 21:27) may enter. God throughout is portrayed as a moral being whose standard is perfection. He is holy, and cannot coexist with anything unholy. He commands all who would seek him to ‘be holy, for I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16).
But what about hell?We can already see, I hope, that there is a problem here. God is holy, just and moral, whilst we are patently unholy and often, let’s face it, unjust and immoral. He is also infinite, which makes the penalty for sin also infinite, and he is well within his rights to punish everyone.
What does the Bible say about hell? The biblical words we translate as ‘hell’ are the Hebrew sheol and the Greek hades. In the ancient world, these terms did not have an overtly punitive aspect, but were more or less the default destination for the human race upon death, and can also be translated ‘the grave’.
However even in pre-Christian times, this place of the dead was understandably considered generally grim and miserable. When Odysseus is supposed to have been told to go there as part of a quest, his friends ‘were heartbroken. They sat down where they were and wept and tore their hair’.[1]
But it was Jesus himself who painted hell in the awful fiery colours which make the urgency of avoiding it that much greater: ‘And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire – where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark 9:47-8).
Was Jesus wrong to so frighten people into conversion? But if he is in fact ‘the brightness of his [God’s] glory and the express image of his person’ (Hebrews 1:3), then he cannot do or say anything wrong. If we allow Jesus to be divine, we must accept his teachings, including his warnings, as being not only true but for our good.
What Jesus taught about hell is backed up by the rest of the Bible. Take the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. Before hell is even mentioned, it is evident that Abraham is not there (v.22). There is a reason for this. ‘He believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness’ (Gen. 15:6). Jesus acknowledges this when he says, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent’ (John 6:29). He is referring to himself.
Then we see that hell is a place of torment (v.23). ‘He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb’ (Rev. 14:10).
In verses 24-6 we learn that hell is a place of eternal fire. ‘in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power’ (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).
Verses 27-31 tell us that the man in hell was desperate for someone to rise from the dead in order to warn their loved ones, but was powerless to communicate to them. ‘For in death there is no remembrance of you [God]; in the grave who will give you thanks?’ (Ps.6:5).
What must I do?The upshot of all this is that heaven is a privilege we don’t deserve, while hell is an outcome that we surely do. The slightest sin will get us there. The concept of heaven has sadly been hijacked by postmodern Western thinking on equality. God is not politically correct. He is holy.
How does this tie in with God being loving? He doesn’t want hell for us, but he must deal justly and punish all sin. His solution was to send his Son, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, to live a perfect life, and suffer the extreme punishment due to sin, on behalf of all those who would believe. While on earth, he warned people to repent, turn from sin, and believe in him, in order to escape hell and gain eternal life in heaven.
He died excruciatingly on a Roman cross, but aside from the physical agony, Christians believe he suffered the supernatural punishment equivalent to the combined eternities in hell that all sinners have earned. The infinity of both his person and merit, meant that for him this suffering lasted a total of three hours (Matthew 27:45-6). After his death, he rose again, to prove that he had successfully endured hell for us and still defeated death, and therefore is the One in whom to believe and trust for eternal salvation, forgiveness and heaven. He continues to call everyone to turn to him in repentance and faith (Acts 20:21).
Given that hell is real, it is surely more loving to warn people about it and show them the way off the road that leads there, than to politely do nothing and fail to mention it. And surely we are without excuse, ‘if we neglect so great a salvation’ (Hebrews 2:3).
[1] Homer, The Odyssey, London (Penguin) 1954, p170