Recently I was sent a copy of a column from a newspaper. It was  entitled, “Do We Still Need to Believe in Hell?” 

 

The author was an historian, not a theologian. Still, the question and the author’s answer illustrate a great deal about modern society and what is taken for faith.

 

The author first reviewed the history of the role of hell in human consciousness. His subsequent conclusion can be summarized in several brief sentences. 

 

“Has Hell outlived its usefulness to modern society? Probably not. The doctrine still serves Christianity as it has for centuries, as a frightening deterrent to sinful behavior. … In some distant, better future, the foreclosure of Hell will be an important step in the maturation of human communities that can mete out justice on their own, without supernatural aid. In the meantime, Hell is here to stay.” (Dr. Scott G. Bruce, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 15 -16, 2018)

 

The author is not alone in his misconception of hell and its reality. Many people today, even faithful people, wish that hell would not be mentioned in any discussion of what awaits us when we conclude this life. 

 

It is so much easier to focus only on the loving and merciful Jesus. From there it is easy to slide into a comfortable belief that heaven is assured and hell, if it exists at all, is virtually empty.

 

To the modern and skeptical mindset, what is real is that which can be perceived by the senses. On that basis we might not only disbelieve in hell. We might also disbelieve in the existence of, say, oxygen which we cannot perceive. 

 

In both cases, disbelief in the reality that we are part of presents a lethal danger to us.

 

Instead, because we take Jesus at His word, we believe that hell is a reality from which He has come to offer us salvation. He has told us that at the end of time, the human race will be judged and separated according to how we have loved God. For those who did not love Jesus in others in this world, the Lord tells us¸ “these will go off to eternal punishment.” (Mt. 25:46).

 

Hell, therefore, is real and not merely a creation of the human psyche in search of an ultimate justice for evildoers (other than ourselves, naturally). 

 

Nor is it a fictional device designed to frighten us into better behavior. Because it is real we are not free to abandon the truth by somehow “foreclosing” hell.

 

But the reality of hell is also a consequence of the beauty of how God has made us. Being created in God’s image and likeness, part of our dignity is that God has given us the freedom to choose for Him. 

 

That is the ultimate test of being received into Jesus’s Kingdom for all eternity. 

 

If we had no real freedom of choice, if our one lone option was heaven itself, we would not be truly free. To be free to choose God means to be free even to choose against Him. And only if we are free can we really love Him. Because love involves the use of our will in a free choice.

 

This is why it is wrong to think that God puts anyone in hell. Instead, hell is chosen by those who, in faith and in the acts of their lives, do not love God. God simply respects our choice and our freedom.

 

Do we still need to believe in hell? Yes! Because it is the truth and it ultimately shows how God respects our dignity.