When God’s justice and goodness collide

Do Mennonites believe in hell?

It was one of the final questions, and the most brutal, thrown at me during an interview with two university students.

The students had been assigned the task of interviewing a cult member. I was the perfect candidate, given their perception of the Mennonite church as an extremely conservative group on the fringe of society and my role as dean of the Mennonite Brethren Bible college in Montreal (ETEM).

Asked about hell, I was tempted to suggest we move to a much safer topic, like whether Mennonites believe the human race evolved from bug-eyed aliens. In Quebec, admitting to believing in hell is liable to get you committed.

So, I improvised.

I presented a synthesis of what Scripture teaches and some ideas from C.S. Lewis. Why Lewis? I think he’s the one writer who, for a post-Christian generation, best manages to portray hell, not as the outworking of the overactive imagination of medieval visionaries, but as a reality that deserves serious consideration.

Hell and the love of God

If hell is a place of punishment, where reprobates consciously experience the judgment of God for all eternity,¹ how can we maintain our belief in a loving God?

The notion of eternal punishment offends our sensibilities. I suspect there are many Christians who would echo Clark Pinnock’s feelings about this particular view of hell:

Everlasting torture is intolerable from a moral point of view because it pictures God acting like a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for his enemies whom he does not even allow to die. How can one love a God like that? I suppose one might be afraid of him, but could we love and respect him? Would we want to strive to be like him in his mercilessness?”²

Notwithstanding Pinnock’s objections, we need to remember that spiritual reality is infinitely more complex than physical reality. In many instances, what we find in Scripture are crisp metaphorical shortcuts providing windows into ultimate reality. There’s a grave danger in rejecting a truth simply because the images used to describe it appear absurd.

A need for justice

When we think through the notion of hell, two concepts collide: the notion of justice and that of God’s goodness.

It’s difficult to imagine a universe in which moral order exists but radical evil could be committed with impunity. The thought that a Hitler, a Stalin, a Paul Bernardo, or a Karla Homolka could have their slate cleaned off, enter heaven, and forever enjoy it seems revolting.

When the students interviewed me, a well-known French Canadian folk singer had just released a new album. It was providential in terms of creating an opening into their heart-wrenching question. In one song, “Six Feet on Earth,” Luc de Larochellière expresses his anger at injustice.

Six feet on earth there are too many swine.
And when they die, others immediately take their place.
History could provide an entire list of them.
Oh! My God! Promise me that hell exists.
My God! Promise me that hell exists.

This song expresses the primal cry for justice. We know that many never get what they deserve in this life. Some literally get away with murder. While we generally avoid obsessing about this kind of injustice, sometimes someone commits an act so horrendous and vile that, like the poet, we can’t help but cry out, “Oh my God! Promise me that hell exists!”

But even with our desire for justice, there’s a deeper question. Does anyone, including someone like Hitler or Paul Bernardo, deserve to suffer for all eternity for an action committed within the confines of the space–time continuum?

We all agree that men and women should be held accountable for their actions. Our innate sense of justice requires it. But many people feel uncomfortable with the possibility of endless and inescapable punishment. There’s something terrifying about the notion of eternal hell.

Although it may offend our sensibilities, the Bible teaches that there is something fundamentally wrong with each one of us. It is that very “wrongness” that condemns us to hell. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

All are doomed

To understand this, we need to flip the issue upside down and clarify a few things about the nature of heaven. It’s imperative to explore why the fundamental flaw inherent to human nature will keep us out of heaven as surely as we are barred from the surface of the sun. C.S. Lewis offers an important hint:

Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prizes which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?³

Heaven isn’t so much about a geographical location (though it doesn’t exclude it), as it is about being in a relationship with God. The Bible teaches that in their natural state, human beings are fundamentally and fatally flawed. This flaw is so deep and its ramifications so broad, that it literally forbids us from being face to face with God. Both the Old and the New Testaments contain unmistakable allusions to this tragic reality. (See, for example, Genesis 3:8; Exodus 33:20; Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:17.) Without divine intervention, we’re all doomed.

The only cure

God has done everything to address this situation: he gave his own son. While theologians don’t understand the precise mechanism that made it imperative for Christ to give his life so we could be forgiven, this is nevertheless what had to be done. Through Christ, God has now forgiven the whole world. As the Apostle John says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

The implications of this verse are staggering. Every single human being is now free to embrace God. In theory, therefore, everyone should be able to gain access to heaven. But the surprising reality is, not everybody will choose to go there.

If given the opportunity, the vast majority of people would eagerly choose to go to a better place after death. The problem is that heaven is not so much a better place, as it is encountering another person.

God fills heaven, and God is characterized by certain attributes like virtue, purity, truth, compassion, peace, and responsibility. The fundamental wrongness that all human beings share makes it impossible to be in the presence of such a God.

Think of the most beautiful house you’ve ever seen. It’s the middle of July. A skunk died in the building and has been decomposing for a few days. However beautiful the house might be, the stench would preclude any possibility of living in that house. In our natural state, we cannot stand the “stench” of heaven.

Before we can forever exist in the presence of God, our human nature must be radically transformed to withstand the “rigours” of heaven. In order for that to happen, we must accept subjection to the only process this universe offers for such restoration – redemption through Jesus Christ.

The issue of heaven and hell is not primarily a question of morality. It’s an issue of human nature. “Good” and “bad” people both need to undergo transformation in order to live in the presence of God. God isn’t in the business of producing nicer men and women, but is intent on creating new people (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Whether we’re morally good or morally bad is ultimately irrelevant. All of us share a nature that cannot withstand God’s presence. I believe this is what Paul was trying to get at in his frequent allusions to the corrupt character of human nature (Romans 3:10–11; 7:18,23; 8:7–9; Ephesians 2:1,3; 1 Corinthians 2:14).

While there’s nothing we can do to correct the fundamental flaw intrinsic to who we are, there’s good news. Because of what God did in Christ, nothing is required of us – other than an act of the will. Every person must decide to respond favourably to God’s invitation and be transformed through the work of the Spirit, or decline God’s invitation, embrace the self, and be forever ruined.

Away for eternity

God’s ultimate purpose is to have a people who love him and will freely serve him for all eternity. The person who hates God and everything he represents must be allowed to go away.

For human free will to be meaningful, God must grant the power to say, “No.” Hell isn’t just a place where God sends people. It’s a condition human beings choose. They receive in judgment exactly what they ask for; hell is to choose to exist in a state where God is absent.

It’s a condition where everything that makes life enjoyable disappears – love, compassion, intelligence, joy, purpose, freedom, the ability to make decisions.

And from a logical standpoint, it’s a state from which there’s no coming back.

Some may balk at the notion of an irreversible condition. Isn’t God infinitely merciful? Isn’t his grace sufficient to conquer all, even the most rebellious heart? I find no evidence in Scripture to suggest rebellious souls may at some moment in eternity realize the error of their ways and turn back to God (Hebrews 9:27). Christianity teaches that our eternal fate ultimately hinges on decisions we make during our life on earth.

In this life, there’s always the possibility of escaping the darkness of the self by turning to God. In the next, that opportunity vanishes, not because of God, but because of a person’s all-consuming hatred for God, which like a nuclear mushroom, will expand into eternity.

1. This is the traditional understanding of the term. William Crockett’s Four Views on Hell (Zondervan, 1992) provides a discussion of four perspectives from conservative scholars. The literal view is presented by John W. Walvoord, the metaphorical view by William V. Crockett, the purgatorial view by Zachary J. Hayes, and the conditional view by Clark H. Pinnock.
2. Clark H. Pinnock, “The Conditional View,” in Four Views on Hell (Zondervan, 1992), 149.
3. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001 [1952]), 176.

Pierre Gilbert is associate professor at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, and Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Cal.

In the New Testament, the word “hell” is derived from the Greek word Gehenna (probably referring to a valley outside Jerusalem where garbage heaps smouldered perpetually), and also hades, (a word found in popular literature denoting a compartment under the earth). The word appears 14 times and is described as a place of fire (Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:43; James 3:6), torment (Luke 16:23), and gloomy dungeons (2 Peter 2:4). In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sheol, understood as referring to hell, is translated as “pit” or “grave.” These words and Scriptures supply readers with various horrific images for the ultimate judgment promised to sinners who reject God. But there isn’t consensus about what they actually mean. Contemporary theologians disagree over whether hell is eternal punishment, or a temporary state in which God’s judgment is executed until repentance and redemption are exercised. They also debate over whether hell is a literal place, or a term describing an existence apart from God. —LK