How Can a Loving God...

Probably the main argument given by “Christian Universalists” for why everyone will be saved goes like this: How can a truly loving God send people to hell?! As of late I have been reading through the Old Testament. So here are 10 responses to those who make the argument: How can a loving God send people to hell?!

HoHow could a loving God anoint Jehu as king over Israel and command him to “destroy the house of Ahab?!” Immediately after commanding Jehu to kill Ahab, God says, “I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel – slave or free” (1 Kings 9:6-10). How could a loving God want vengeance?!

HoHow could a loving God respond to Elisha’s cursing 42 teenagers?! Elisha was just walking down the road when a group of 42 youths started calling him a baldy. Elisha curses them and God answers the curse by sending two bears out of the forest to maul these kids. How could a loving God maul 42 teenagers for calling someone a baldy?! (2 Kings 2:23-25).

HoHow could a loving God throw fire down from heaven to destroy a captain and his men when all they were doing was obeying the orders of their king?! (2 Kings 1:9-10).

4. How could a loving God send a lion to maul a man for refusing to wound a prophet?! (1 Kings 20:36).

5. How could a loving God give his own prophet over to a lion to be killed because he listened to another prophet who insisted that he was speaking from God?! (1 Kings 13:26). He just made an “honest mistake,” didn’t he?!

HoHow could a loving God command his people to kill a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day?! (Num. 15:32-36).

HoHow could a loving God destroy those who disobey him?! (Deut. 30:17-18; Deut. 8:19-20)

HoHow could a loving God kill every firstborn in Egypt?! (Ex. 13:15).

HoHow could a loving God harden someone’s heart towards himself?! (Ex. 9:12).

HoHow could a loving God let Satan incite him against his own dearly loved, Job, without any reason?! (Job 2:3).

A loving God can send people to hell because he is also a just God, and disobedience is an offensive crime against him. If you struggle with the question of how a loving God send people to hell, you’re asking the wrong question. The questions you should be asking are:

HoHow could a just God not destroy king Ahab for his wickedness?! How could a just God not avenge the atrocities committed against his beloved prophets?!

HoHow could a just God let a bunch of rebellious and disrespectful teenagers get away scot-free with harassing his chosen servant?!

HoHow could a just God not oppose those who oppose his chosen prophet?!

HoHow could a just God not kill someone who directly disobeyed his command?!

HoHow could a just God not destroy his prophet when he directly disobeyed the Lord and listening to a mere man instead?

HoHow could a just God allow someone who directly violates his Sabbath to prove to everyone else that breaking God’s commands is ok?!

HoHow could a just God let anyone get away with breaking his perfect law?!

HoHow could a just God allow any nation to blatantly defy his commands and brutally oppress and mistreat his people with no consequence?!

HoHow could a just God not harden the heart of a man who mocked the Almighty saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go?!”

HoHow could a just God give a second chance to the wicked Ninevites?! (Jonah).

And here is the question that should leave you in awe and wonder every day:

Why didn’t God kill you in your sleep last night? You deserved it.

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).

You should wonder that you’re still alive after how you have defied, spurned, and treated the Lord Almighty with contempt!

Behold the mercy of God: that a man can be pardoned for reviling the glorious Creator and Sustainer of the universe by faith in Jesus Christ!

“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…he did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – [God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement] to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).

Did you catch that? God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice…so as to be just. In other words, God had to punish Christ in order to vindicate his own just character for all of the sins that he didn’t punish in the Old Testament.