The doctrine of hell is not only unbiblical, it is also completely absurd, illogical and nonsensical.
In this book, we have given many scriptures, particularly in Chapter 4, 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 Hebrew and Greek words in the Manuscripts.
We now highlight seven of the 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 for multiple billions of people, who die as unbelievers, do not suddenly stop at the point of their death.
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 is totally twisted reasoning, beyond all comprehension.
2. Hell portrays God as a fiendishly unjust and wrathful God.
Hell makes absolute mockery of God’s justice. 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?
The often-repeated defence from hell believers in support of their absurd doctrine is: ‘Yes, God is love, but He is also just’. Yes of course, God is love and He is also just, but hell believers are ignorant about God’s future age-to-come righteous, refining and corrective judgement for all people who die as unbelievers. Ultimately, in God’s time and order which extends beyond this age, all unbelievers, because of God’s power and His love for the whole world, will come to true and genuine repentance from their sin of unbelief. They will all believe in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God, as the Word of God clearly and powerfully declares in many verses like Colossians 1:15-20.
3. Hell denies the Sovereignty of God.
The Bible clearly says that God’s will is to save all men. However, hell makes Satan and man’s fallen free will out to be more powerful than God’s Sovereign will for the salvation of all people. It depicts God as a weak and powerless God who is unable to fulfil His will to save all.
4. Hell negates the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The truth of the Bible is that God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross to forgive the sins of the whole world, and He is indeed the Saviour of all men, as the Bible clearly tells us. This is indeed the true Gospel. So, how can Jesus Christ be the Saviour of all men, yet fail to save all men? This simply does not make sense. The doctrine of hell completely negates the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
5. Hell ignores, twists and explains away all of the many glorious Universal Reconciliation scriptures in the Bible.
In Chapter 4, Universal Reconciliation Scriptures – The Riches of Christ, we give numerous scriptures, which clearly uphold the truth of Universal Reconciliation and Salvation. Hell-believers 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 this anti-Semitism is a belief in hell. Many of the Church Fathers were unforgiving and spiteful towards Jews. Tertullian, Constantine, Jerome, John Chrysostom, Augustine, 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 and 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.
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 ‘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.
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 true biblical answer is straightforward and simple. God will not cast anyone into hell because God is the Saviour of all men. Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, and ultimately, in God’s time and order extending beyond this age, all will come to believe in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved.
b. It is generally assumed by Traditional Christianity that there is an ‘age of accountability’ below 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 that age, there is a very high possibility that their children would die as unbelievers and therefore end up in a place called hell.
c. Some hell believing preachers teach 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. This is because the future of her unborn baby would be guaranteed to be in heaven. Why do hell believing ‘Christians’ even risk bringing children into this world when they believe that the vast majority of humanity ends up in a so-called hell that, more than likely, would include their children.
d. How could we ever look forward to enjoying heaven if we believed that our unbelieving loved ones go to suffer eternal torment in a place called hell when they die?
This is a good question, but hell believing preachers have no sensible answer for it. Of course, the correct biblical answer is that no one will suffer in hell because there is no hell.
Conclusion
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 Scripture is clear that Father God will reconcile to Himself absolutely all things on earth and in heaven, having made peace through the finished work of His only begotten Son, who died on the cross for the universal salvation of the whole world (John 4:42, Colossians 1:15-20, 1 John 2:2).
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
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “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 absolutely everything to do with God’s mercy. The whole of Isaiah 55 is a beautiful encouraging chapter that speaks about God’s mercy, pardon, fruitfulness and salvation for Israel.
Gospel means Good News. The true Gospel of Jesus Christ is indeed the GOOD NEWS about how Father God will ultimately save and reconcile this whole world of sinful fallen men and sinful fallen angels, without a single exception, through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. This is the Gospel that was believed by early Christians after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The so called ‘gospel’ which has been preached for many centuries by Traditional Christianity since the early true Church, is not good news at all; it is bad news, extremely bad news, horrendously bad news. How can it be good news when it condemns all those who die as unbelievers, which is almost all of humanity, to spend eternity in a so-called hell of unceasing torment and suffering?
The doctrine of hell is a truly unbiblical, absurd, illogical and nonsensical man-invented pagan doctrine.