Would a Good God Send People to Hell? (Logic Flow Chart)

Things I've Learned About God

It's amazing to me how much we can learn about God's character, the Bible and life even after growing up in a Christian home and church. That's not to say I didn't have good teachers and role models, only that God can always surprise you. Here are a few things I've learned:

1. God's primary characteristic (contrary to what many think) is not love, but holiness. Look at how many time God is called love in the Bible vs. how many times He is called holy.

2. God does not save us because He loves us. He loves everyone, but He will not save everyone. He saves us only when we allow the death and resurrection of Christ to take the place of the death that is demanded of us as payment for being the property of Satan--making us the property of God. Why does it have to be this way? Again, because He is holy. We are not.

3. Good and evil don't exist in the normal, conceptual way we think of them. That is why atheists (rightly) have trouble accounting for them as 'real'. The only way we can know "good" is to know God--(again, He's holy--He is the standard of goodness). Evil is the antithesis of God--anything that is contrary to God. God--a Being, not a belief or a concept--IS the standard. There is no such thing as a standard for goodness or a measure of evil without accepting that God is who He says He is. It just doesn't make any sense. This is also why asking questions like, "Why does God do evil things?" is nonsensical. Whatever God does is "good"--because He's the standard. He cannot be judged by any other standard aside from Himself. (Certainly not by us.) Good and evil are exclusively relational terms and always find their essence within a relationship or lack of relationship with God.

4. There is no such thing as blind faith. All faith is based on a reason or a set of reasons. (Although, they may not be good reasons.) Just ask someone--even the crazy guy in the asylum who talks to his magic marker--why they believe or act the way they do. They'll have some kind of reason.

5. Satan is evil, but he's not the "embodiment of evil." Evil entered the world through man, not through Satan. Creation was given to us and we promptly handed it over to Satan--practically gift-wrapped it for him. That's why he's called the prince of this world.

6. Angels don't have wings. Seraphim and Cherubim (never called "angels" in the Bible) do have wings. Regular angels don't. These are distinctly different beings created by God.

7. There is no foundation in Scripture for the belief that the fallen angels became the demons.

8. The Bible doesn't ever, not in a single translation I could find, says that in heaven the lion will lie down with the lamb. There is a brief mention of a lamb lying down with a wolf, but not a lion.


Well, that's it for now.

God of Love or God of Wrath?

[This topic was written and posted in response to a request made by a reader. Thanks, Vince! To ask a question or suggest a topic of your own, click here.]

Why do we so often think of the God of the New Testament as a God of LOVE and the God of the Old Testament as a God of WRATH, and yet insist they are one and the same? Going even further, doesn't the Bible claim that God never changes? ("I the LORD do not change." Malachi 3:6, and see also James 1:17.) So, why does a changeless God appear wrathful and angry in the Old Testament, but loving and patient in the New Testament? Is this the same God?

I think the answers to these questions lie in developing a better understanding of God's nature--not an easy or simple thing, but a very worthy pursuit, all the same. I don't have time to delineate ALL of God's characteristics--indeed, no one even knows all of them!--but for the purpose of answering this question, I think we can focus on five major ones: God's Holiness, God's Love, God's Justice, God's Mercy and God's Jealousy. (This post also assumes that God is also all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful, as well as the Creator of the universe and the Triune God--God the Father, God the Son [Jesus] and God the Holy Spirit.) 

I will first briefly describe each characteristic individually and then I will compare the Old Testament with the New Testament to see if all three of these characteristics appear within them. Finally, I will address some of the major biblical examples for why God seems to have "gone soft" in the New Testament as compared to the Old and explain the real change that has taken place within how we now relate to God.

God's Holiness

Though some may disagree, I believe Holiness, not love is God's primary characteristic (if one could be chosen above the others). As defined by the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Holiness is: "Chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people. 'Holiness' and the adjective 'holy' occur more than 900 times in the Bible. The primary OT word for 'holiness' means 'to cut' or 'to separate'. Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and consecration to what is pure." 

God's Love

Though God is primarily holy, it was His characteristic of love that motivated Him to create man and woman, to initiate an intimate relationship with them (and us) and then, even after they (and we) turned their backs on Him in favor of becoming enslaved to sin and forfeit to Satan, to offer a means by which they might be rescued and returned into a harmonious & pure relationship with Him--by coming as Jesus Christ to give His life as a ransom for them and bridge the gap between a holy God and a sinful people. Godly love is perhaps best described in I Corinthians 13, but there are many, many passages in both the Old and New Testaments that praise God's loving nature.

God's Justice

Webster says that "Just" means: 1. adhering to what is fair, honest and moral, 2. rational and informed, 3. in accordance with correct principles, 4. agreeable to truth or fact, 5. given or awarded rightly, and 6. proper or right. The Bible describes God's justice as the quality that causes Him to be a righteous judge--rewarding righteousness and never allowing evil to go unpunished. To understand, then, how we--who are evil--can ever be forgiven instead of simply receiving his just punishment, we need to understand God's mercy:

God's Mercy

Webster says of mercy: "1. compassion shown toward an offender or an enemy, 2. a disposition to forgive or forbear..." Though God's characteristics of holiness and justice require that all sin be punished, His love and His mercy caused Him to provide a way for us to escape destruction and be reunited with Him, while still dealing with the issue of our sinfulness. In the Old Testament this was done through the sacrifice of an animal or through a scapegoat. In the New Testament this was done once and for all by Jesus Christ--God in the flesh--who willingly allowed Himself to be crucified in our place and then rose from the grave, evidencing God's power over both sin and the death penalty sin demands.

God's Jealousy

Though we often think of jealousy as an unfavorable quality, God exhibits a righteous jealousy--and a very active one, at that. Webster says that jealous means: 1. resentful and envious, as of someone's attainments, 2. fearful of losing another's affection, 3. troubled by suspicions of rivalry, unfaithfulness, etc., and 4. vigilant in guarding something. My favorite is the last definition, though the others could apply as well. God, like a man desperately in love with his wife, becomes very jealous when our affection--due rightfully to Him--strays onto other things, people or gods. He responds by being "vigilant in guarding" us from those things that would draw our love from Him--through warnings, punishments and great displays of His love and power. Eventually, though, we must choose: God's salvation or our own lusts?

Characteristic	Old Testament Example*	New Testament Example*
Holiness	"...'Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." (Lev. 19:2)	"...'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.'" (Rev. 4:8)
Love	"I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness." (Jer. 31:3)	"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (I John 4:8)
Justice	"Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free." (Prov. 11:21)	"God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well." (2 Thes. 1:6-7a)
Mercy	"Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from old." (Psalm 25:6)	"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." (Eph. 2:4-5)
Jealousy	"You shall not bow down to them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...." (Exodus 20:5)	"You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the demons too: you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are you trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy?" (I Cor. 10:21-22a)

* There are many more references in both the Old and New Testaments for these characteristics. I am providing only one example of each, though some of these verses mention more than one of these characteristics.

Has the God of the Old Testament Gone Soft?

As you can see from the above comparisons of God's primary characteristics, both the Old and the New Testaments describe God in very similar terms. Obviously, this is the same God--so why does He seem to act differently in the Old Testament than He does in the New? It kind-of reminds me of parenting--with the first kid, you're on top of everything, but by the time you have the fourth or fifth, you tend to not care so much whether they eat a cookie before dinner or not. Is this what happened with God? Has He gotten tired and resigned Himself to "picking His battles"? Has God gone soft?

Here are some prime examples of God's wrath as displayed in the Old Testament:

The Flood:        

In Genesis 6-8, God got so fed up with mankind that He decided to wipe them all out and start over, sparing only one family. Everyone died--men, women, children and all the animals of the land or air. (If that's not wrath, I don't know what is!)

Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed:

In Genesis 19, God got so sick of the stench of the sinfulness in these two cities that He rained down burning sulfur on them. (FYI: Burning sulfur will easily burn through metal. Yep! That would do it!)

The 10 Plagues on Egypt:

Exodus 7-11 describes some pretty horrible plagues God sent on the Egyptians to persuade them to free the Israelites from bondage, culminating in the deaths of all the firstborn sons of any family that didn't mark their door frames with the blood of a sacrificed lamb. But, wait... is this an example of His wrath toward the Egyptians or His great love and deliverance of the Hebrew people? Hmmm....

Destruction of the Canaanites:

Much of the Old Testament describes various ways the Canaanites and the other people groups of that region were attacked by the Hebrew people. In fact, God told them to wipe these people out completely—down to the last child and to even kill all their animals, though the Hebrews didn't completely obey this command.

After reading through all of that, anyone might tremble at the thought of this God who often seems content to heartlessly order the destruction of many. But, if one is willing to read further, he comes to the New Testament and it's like a breath of fresh air. 

Here are some contrasting examples of how God appears loving in the New Testament:

Jesus' Miracles:

Jesus healed the sick, lame and the blind, fed hungry multitudes, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. (Ex.: man with leprosy: Matt. 8:1-4; sick and demon-possessed: Matt. 8:14-17 & 28-34; paralytic man: Matt. 9:1-8; a dead girl and a sick woman: Matt. 9:18-26; a two blind men and a mute/demon-possessed man: Matt. 9:27-33; fed 5,000: Matt. 14:13-21, etc.)

Jesus with the Children:

Jesus allowed the children to come to Him when the disciples were trying to shoo them away. (Matt. 19:14) 

Jesus facing his enemies in the Garden of Gethsemane:

When Peter cut off a soldier's ear with his sword, Jesus told Peter to knock it off and healed the man. (Luke 22:49-51)

Jesus on the cross:

Not only did Jesus show mercy to one of the thieves being crucified along with him (despite His own enormous agony), He also asked God to forgive those who were crucifying Him. (Luke 23:26-43)

When recalling such stories to mind, the God of the Old Testament certainly seems much harsher than how God acted in the Person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. However, I think we are forgetting two very important things. 1. There are some very fine, but often overlooked, examples of God's love in the Old Testament as well as His wrath in the New Testament (some of these are outlined below.) AND, 2. The way God interacted with those before Christ's death and resurrection was in accordance with the Old Covenant, while the way He interacted with them after Christ's resurrection was in accordance with the New Covenant--which we are currently enjoying. (Comparison to follow.)

God's Love in the Old Testament

Contrary to how we normally think of the Old Testament God, the most harmonious relationship God has ever had with man is described not in the New Testament, but in the Old. This was the relationship God had with man and woman (Adam and Eve) before they sinned. In that relationship, they actually walked in the Garden with God, spoke to Him face to face, conversed freely with Him and were naked before Him without feeling ashamed. (Genesis 2 & 3) Never again has man had such a free and open relationship with God. Not only does this picture show us something about humanity, but it shows us about God's original design--that of an intimate, open and free relationship between Himself and us--and of His inclination toward open revelation and communication, not the image of separation between God and man as shown through the rest of the Old Testament. In other words, God's natural inclination and desire is for an intimate, loving relationship with us--not a relationship of disunity, anger and wrath. Yet because of the Fall--the event in which dominion of this earth, first given to us by God, was handed over to Satan when in our free will we chose to disobey God--a chasm opened up between God and man. This chasm was not closed until Jesus came to pay the cost of our disobedience through His death and resurrection.

God's Wrath in the New Testament

Though Jesus has ushered in a new era of openness between God and man, we often make the mistake of thinking He has lightened up when it comes to the issue of sin. I can assure you that in this regard God has not changed! God is still holy! God is still just! Sin will still be punished! If you take a good look at Jesus and His teachings throughout the Gospels, you will find that never does He gloss over the issue of sin. In fact, He goes even deeper, requires even more and demands higher standards than even the religious zealots and legalists of the day. No, He does not require legalistic ritual, but rather purity of heart--something the Law cannot govern--something that is between God and man alone. For example, the Law said "Do not commit adultery", but Jesus said, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt. 5:28) The Law requires action, but God requires a loving heart, for God knows that if you love Him, you will obey Him. (John 14:23-24) Another good example of God's wrath in the New Testament is in the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 who were struck dead by God when they lied to God. So, no! God has certainly NOT gone soft!

NOTE: God's wrath, when shown in either New or Old Testaments, is always in response to at least one of the following: a form of idolatry (putting self or something else above God), willful sin or hypocrisy. His wrath is triggered when His desire for a love relationship with a pure people is thwarted by sin, thus igniting His righteous jealousy.      

Below is a very basic outline of the differences between the Old and New Covenants. (Hebrews 8-11 describes it better.)

	Old Covenant	New Covenant
Given Through	Abraham	Jesus Christ
When	Abraham to the Messiah	For all time.
What	The Law given to the Jews by God that told them how to set themselves apart in obedience to Him.	Grace given to men through the death and resurrection of Jesus through which they might be reconciled to God.
Ramifications	Was only for the Jews.	Was for all men.
	Had to make animal sacrifices.	Jesus was the ultimate, once and for all sacrifice for yesterday, today and forever.
	Life under the Law. (Cleanliness rituals, circumcision, etc.)	Live under grace. (Jesus didn't revoke the law; He fulfilled the Law.)
	Were separated from God while awaiting the Messiah to bridge the gap between them and God's presence.	Jesus, the Messiah, had come! He bridged the gap; the curtain was torn in two (symbolizing that man and God no longer had to remain separated. Mark 15:38)
	External influence only of the Holy Spirit.	The Holy Spirit actually indwells the believer, allowing Christ to live through him or her and granting them access to Christ's righteousness and power.

 

 

As you can see, the relationship between man and God seems much more strained in the Old Testament because they were still covered in their sin. God and man were still separated by the sinfulness--the uncovered impurity of their hearts. They were under the Old Covenant--under the Law, not under grace. Remember, God is holy--"separated" or "cut off" from anything impure. It is His nature--His primary characteristic and thus He cannot go against His own holiness or He wouldn't be God! But, because of His great love--described first and best in the Old Testament--He decided to make a way for us to again be reconciled to Him--through Jesus Christ.

The God of the Old Testament--complete with vengeful wrath and fists full of destruction--is the SAME God as the God of the New Testament, who laid His life down as a ransom for many. His holiness, love, justice, mercy and jealousy are fully intact today.

Perhaps the best picture of both God's holy wrath and His love is this one, which appears in the Old Testament:

"For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 'I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me--the breath of man that I have created. I was enraged by his sinful greed; I punished him, and hid my face in anger, yet he kept on in his willful ways. I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him..." (Isaiah 57:15-18)

The Nature of Sin

The word "sin" in the Hebrew Bible is: "chatta'ah", which is an archery term. When the archer took aim and missed the bull's eye, the instructor would yell, "Sin!" I have also heard that each ring on the target, as seen below, represented one "sin". So, the further away from the bull's eye your arrow landed, the higher the number of "sins" acrued. In this competition, like in golf, the lower the final score, the better off you are. Now, let's say you're an archer, and your arrow falls short of the bull's eye. What do you do? Do you throw your bow to the ground and give up? No. You take aim and try again. Taking this analogy a little further, would a good archer ever try to hit something other than the target during practice, like, say a tree, a rock, or one of the other students? No. He or she does his/her best to aim at the bull's eye and only the bull's eye.

Sinning against God is also missing the mark. It is falling short, making a mistake, and revealing our imperfections. The Bible says, "...For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." (Romans 3:23), and: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

Most people I know wouldn't disagree with the above verses--at least in that everyone has made mistakes. We may disagree about how or why that happened and we may disagree as to the degree of our "lostness" or about what should be done about it, but most people agree that we are a broken people. There is something missing--a hole that needs to be filled. In fact, the inability or the refusal to admit guilt of any kind is indicative of a severe personality disorder. To be able to admit our own sinfulness is a vital part of our character, but hardly an extraordinary one. More importantly, we must decide what should be done about it... and here begins a journey.

Let me ask: Who sets the standard for good behavior? While each of us will adopt a code of behavior we endeavor to follow, none of us actually came up with it. Why is it wrong to steal or lie or gossip? Why is it wrong to commit murder or have an affair or manipulate others for our own self-interests? And, these questions naturally lead to others, such as: Why are these actions considered "wrong?" Why do I have to abide by these rules or any rules? Where did the concept of morality originate? Why is one person's concept of morality any better than another's?

Obviously, the concept of morality came from somewhere. I believe it came from a perfect and holy God. And, herein lies the problem. If there is a God who is holy and perfect and if we are flawed and imperfect, how can there be any communion between us?

Most religions of the world say something like the following: "If God (or, divine force) loves me and sees I am trying my best, He'll understand and let me into Heaven." This is the "weights and balance" argument at work. In other words, if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, I'll get into Heaven (or to the next life.) There are several problems with this belief system:

1. There is no commitment required from us. I don't even have to believe in a supernatural being at all. I can live my life, just doing my best, and let this be my fall-back hope for those times I start to fear death. This is why there are so many people who claim a religion but in the same breath say they are "non-practicing."

2. There is no relationship available. If I am trying hard to be good enough, all the attention is on me. A holy God? Why would He want to have anything to do with me? And why would I bother trying to have a genuine relationship with Him? I would fear He would just reject me, or make my life harder than it already is. Besides, I already know I just have to be good. It's better just to focus on that and hope for the best.

3. This is a system that promotes fear. I'm not a gambling person. I don't have the nerves for it, but I'd much rather gamble with my money or my car or my home than with my soul. When I die I want to KNOW where I'm going. I refuse to live my life in the constant fear of what is to come.

4. We make ourselves vulnerable to human manipulation. If I am afraid of death because I think I might not be good enough for whatever awaits, what do I do? I try to be as good as I can be while I can. And, if someone with clout in the religious community offers to show me how to do this more effectively, I would be inclined to follow them. This is how we end up with hyper-legalistic, religious societies that force women into submission, pressure men to perform at a ridiculous level, and ignore or abuse children. This kind of thing has gone on for a millennia and continues today, and there is nothing these people would like better than to add you and I to their number.

5. There is no assurance of salvation. No matter how hard I work, how many old ladies I escort safely through traffic, how much money I give to starving children around the world, and how many hours I donate at the local soup kitchen, I will never, never, never know for sure if it was enough.

6. It is a cosmically flawed game of comparisons. If I am worried about whether or not I'm good enough, I always have one fall-back--to find someone who I think is worse than I am. "Well," I comfort myself, "I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not nearly as bad as that guy!" We can always find someone who appears worse than we are. But is that what God is going to be doing? No. When He makes the comparisons, He's going to be comparing us with Himself--with absolute perfection. Now where do we stand?

Sin is not something we can undo. We are linear and no matter how much we would like to, we can't go back and fix our mistakes. We can pay for the thing we stole, ask forgiveness for the lie we told, and make amends the best we can for the friend we betrayed, but the past remains unaltered. The man who cheats on his wife may say, "I'm sorry," but is that enough to make it all go away? No. Our guilt is eternal and unchanging. More depressing still, no matter how hard we try to be good, we fail. Even our best efforts aren't good enough to make us worthy to enter the presence of a holy God.

Does God love me? Yes.
Does His love mean He's going to let me in? No.

Regardless of His great love for us, God still remains holy. God cannot change His character. He cannot be less than He is. He cannot align Himself with imperfection. Some people think this means God isn't good or isn't as powerful as some claim. They reason, "Well, if He is Who He says He is and if He wanted to let me in, He could." No. Why? Because of what would happen to us anyway. The Bible describes what happens when anything or anyone who isn't perfectly holy comes anywhere close to God's presence. They die. His glory would destroy us unless we are made perfectly clean and righteous first.

Sin is a very divisive thing. You've seen its destructive power in your life and in the lives of everyone around you. It humiliates, separates and destroys. Sin is catching. It is taught and it is learned. Parents pass ugly behaviors and attitudes on to their children and grandparents to their grandchildren. And sin touches the innocent. It's devastating effects spread from the one who commits the act to the victims until we shake our fists at heaven and cry out, "WHY HAVE YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO ME?!"

The Bible has this to say:

"When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:13-15)

Sin is an incredibly dangerous disease and, unfortunately, none of us are immune to it. We have all been infected and our deaths are imminent. But that is not the end of the story. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son [Jesus] sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:34-36) (See Context.)