“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell is itself a question: “What are you asking God to do?” To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does” 1
Why would a loving God who loves by nature send anyone to Hell? If everyone will not be saved, then Christ died in vain and there was no victory at the Cross. Surely it is a failure if an all-powerful God cannot save all. God is a gracious and merciful God, therefore, He will save everybody. It would be unjust if God condemned some to eternal damnation. How could we saints in Heaven celebrate if someone we knew and loved was being tortured forever and ever? I cannot serve a God like that.
These objections have become a norm in today’s culture where contemporary thinking has tainted Orthodoxy, challenging God’s authority with man’s opinions. Truth can be difficult to swallow, even by committed followers of Christ. When confronted with the doctrine of eternal damnation, C.S. Lewis said, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.” 2 Likewise John Frame states, “If I were free to invent my own religion, I can assure you that the eternal punishment would not be a part of it” 3 Eternal damnation causes even the devoted to shutter. However, shuttering and remaining faithful to the truth is one thing; modifying the truth so as to cause us less trembling is another.
