CHAPTER 21

THE ABSURDITIES OF THE DOCTRINE OF HELL

The doctrine of hell is not only unbiblical; it is also completely absurd, illogical and nonsensical.

In this book, we have given many scriptures to show that the Bible clearly teaches the truth of Universal Reconciliation. Also, we have demonstrated that all references to hell or annihilation found in any version of the Bible are mistranslations or misinterpretations of certain relevant original Hebrew and Greek words.

We now list below a number of absurdities of the doctrine of hell.

1. Hell completely contradicts the loving, merciful, forgiving and gracious nature of God.

The Bible says that God is love, His mercy endures forever and when sin abounds grace abounds much more. Since God is the same yesterday, today and forever, then it is illogical to believe in hell. God’s love, mercy, forgiveness and grace do not suddenly stop at the point of death for multiple billions of people who die as unbelievers. 

2. Hell denies the Sovereignty of God.

The Bible clearly says that God wills all men to be saved, however, hell makes Satan and man’s freewill more powerful than God’s Sovereign will for the salvation of all people. It makes God out to be a weak God who is unable to carry out His desire to save all people. It makes God a failure.

3. Hell portrays God as a fiendishly unjust and wrathful God.

Hell makes absolute mockery of the justice of God. If hell were a true doctrine, then it would be the strangest and cruellest type of justice one could ever imagine. What type of justice would it be for an all-knowing, all-loving God, who knows the end from the beginning and who foreknew that man would sin, then proceed to create multiple billions of people in His own image to have them end up being punished by Him eternally, for their sins committed in the few years of their temporary existence in this life?

Traditional Christianity believes that God poured out His wrath on His Son Jesus Christ, as a sacrificial substitute, when He died on the cross. It believes that the only way God could appease His anger and satisfy His sense of justice for the sins of all those who come to believe in Jesus, was to have Jesus pay the price for their sins. In other words, God became angry with His Son Jesus Christ instead of believers. This maligns God’s character and depicts Him as an angry, wrathful Father God towards His Son. This is absurd reasoning and it is this same type of reasoning, which makes traditional Christianity also believe that God is ready to torture unbelievers in hell forever, because they fail to appease His anger by not accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in this life.

Let us be very clear that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was not to appease God’s anger or to satisfy His sense of justice. The Bible clearly says that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was an act of supreme sacrificial love to save all of humanity from the wages of sin, which is death, eternal death. Jesus willingly laid down His life on the cross, as the sacrificial Lamb of God, for the sins of the whole world to destroy death and to give life to all of humanity, glorious resurrected immortal life in the Kingdom of God. 

God’s love and the doctrine of hell are irreconcilable. It is only twisted Augustinian theology that tries to reconcile God’s love with endless punishment in hell. Hell believing preachers use absurd reasoning to say that eternal torture in hell, for the vast majority of mankind who die as unbelievers, is an act of God’s love demonstrating His perfect justice. This twisted reasoning is beyond all comprehension.

4. Hell negates the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The truth of the Bible is that Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world. He is the Saviour of the world, the Saviour of all men. This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can Jesus Christ be the Saviour of all men, yet fail to save all men? The doctrine of hell completely negates the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

5. Hell ignores, twists and explains away all of the many Universal Reconciliation scriptures in the Bible. 

In Chapter 3, Universal Reconciliation Scriptures – The Riches of Christ, we give over forty scriptures, which clearly uphold the truth of Universal Reconciliation and Salvation. Hell believing preachers ignore, twist and explain away all of these glorious scriptures.

6. Hell encourages a spirit of unforgiveness, prejudice and revenge towards fellowmen.

Traditional Christianity has a shameful and notorious history of anti-Semitism. We have no doubt that the root cause of Christian anti-Semitism is a belief in hell. Many of the Church Fathers were unforgiving and spiteful towards Jews. Tertullian, Constantine, John Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, Martin Luther, John Calvin and others have encouraged anti-Semitism through their writings. All of these Christian leaders believed in the false doctrine of hell. We are sure that if they had understood and believed the true Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, which of course includes all Jews, then Christianity would have been spared anti-Semitism.

Christian Zionism is a recent rapidly growing movement of Christians who strongly support the politics of Israel against Palestinian Muslims. Many of them openly side with Israel in its war efforts against Palestinians and other Muslim countries. Hell believing Christian Zionists should not forget that it is as wrong to hate Muslims as it is to hate Jews. Jews are very suspicious of Christians who want to help Israel, and rightly so, as they are painfully aware of the history of Christian anti-Semitism.

Jesus Christ warns us to come out of this world and not to get involved in the politics of this world of hating or killing our fellowmen. It is not surprising that  Augustine who championed the doctrine of hell, also championed the concept of a ‘just war’. However, Jesus ruled out a ‘just war’ when He taught His disciples to love our enemies.

Matthew 5:43-44
43 You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

It is not possible for Christians to love their enemies, as commanded by Jesus Christ, if they are involved in any way with this world’s politics of harming and killing fellowmen.God does not need a helping hand from Christian Zionists to fulfil His prophecies for Israel.

The best way to help Israel’s cause is to pray for God’s Kingdom to come as instructed in the Lord’s Prayer, given in Matthew 6:9-15. It is only when God’s Kingdom comes to this earth at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ that Israel will occupy the full extent of the land promised to Abraham. This is when Jews and all nations will live peacefully side-by-side under the Lordship of Jesus Christ in His Millennial Kingdom.  

Hell believing Christians lack the spirit of forgiveness that Jesus demonstrated when He died on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world.

Luke 23:34
Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

Surely, this wonderful and gracious single request from Jesus to Father God, for the forgiveness of His enemies, is ample proof in and of itself that Jesus Christ did not believe in hell. God asks us to have the same level of forgiveness towards all people as Jesus had on the cross. 

Matthew 6:15
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Jesus Christ’s warning is clear that if there is any unforgiveness towards our fellowmen, then our sins are not yet forgiven. They are not yet covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Hell believing Christians may not realise it, but because of their belief in hell, they are in fact harbouring a sense of unforgiveness towards their fellowmen who die as unbelievers. Hell is the most unforgiving doctrine ever devised by man, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ has nothing in common with it whatsoever. In fact, in God’s eyes, hell believing Christians are no different to unbelievers. 

Nobody is suggesting that God will forgive unbelievers without repentance and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. However, the problem with hell believing Christians is that they do not believe that God will save the whole world and that He is the Saviour of the world, as plainly stated in the Bible.

7. Hell believing preachers have no answers or give absurd answers to the following:
 
a. How can a just God cast billions of people into hell, those who die without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The answer is simple. God will not cast any person into hell as God is the Saviour of all people.

b. It is generally assumed by traditional Christianity that there is an ‘age of accountability’ before which young children are not held responsible for their sins, and therefore, they are not counted guilty before God. A child who dies under this age of accountability is believed to go straight to heaven. If this were true, then it would be best for all parents to wish that their children would die before reaching the age of accountability, because chances are, after this age, there is a very high possibility that their children would die as unbelievers and go to hell.

c. Many hell believing preachers believe that all aborted babies go straight to heaven. Again, if this were true, then the best gift a pregnant woman could give to her unborn baby would be to have it aborted, because the future of her unborn baby being in heaven would be absolutely guaranteed. Why would hell believing Christians risk bringing children into this world if the likelihood of their children going to hell when they die is extremely high, and the possibility of them being saved to go to heaven is very low?

d. How could we enjoy heaven if we believe that our loved ones are suffering in hell? This is a good question, but hell believing preachers have no sensible answers for it.

Hell believing preachers have a standard get out clause to justify their belief in hell, which goes something like this:

“God will do what is right for all. We do not fully understand the justice of God because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are God’s ways higher than our ways”

Absolutely, God will do what is right for all because the Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ will reconcile all things on earth and all things in heaven having made peace through the blood of the cross. We do not need to remain ignorant about God’s justice. God is love and all His judgements flow out of His love. God hates sin but He loves the sinner because Jesus Christ came into this world to lay down His life for the sins of the whole world. God’s mercy endures forever. Yes, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and as the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than our ways, as stated in Isaiah 55:8-9 below.

Isaiah 55:8-9
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Hell believing preachers completely misunderstand and misinterpret this scripture out of context to justify their belief in hell. This scripture has nothing whatsoever to do with God’s judgement, but it has everything to do with His mercy. The whole of Isaiah 55 is a beautiful encouraging chapter speaking about God’s mercy, pardon, fruitfulness and salvation for Israel, as Isaiah 55:7 says:

Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.

The Gospel means Good News, however, the traditional 'Christian gospel', which has been preached for many centuries, is not good news at all. It is very, very bad news! How can it be good news, when the overwhelming majority of humanity, who die as unbelievers, is condemned to spend eternity in a hell of unceasing suffering? How can it be good news even for ‘Christians’ if they believe that their loved ones, who die as unbelievers, will spend eternity in unending torment?

The doctrine of hell is a truly unbiblical, absurd, illogical and nonsensical man-invented pagan doctrine.

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