Theos agape, God is love! But how does this love of God for humanity harmonize with the doctrine of hell? How could a God of love send people he loves to a place of eternal torment?
Before I attempt to answer this question, I have to say that the reality of the one (i.e., hell) does not cancel out or make the other (i.e., God's love) a lie or vice versa, so we have to consider the reality of hell in light of God's love for all.
First, God has given us an immortal soul that is meant to be in union with his love forever in heaven. Because God loves us so, he wants us to be with him in heaven. Loving fathers like to be with their children, and God is no exception.
Second, an aspect of this immortal soul God has given to us is free will. With this free will, we can choose to love God or we can choose not to love him. Our love for God cannot be forced. God, in his love for us, will gently woo us and draw us to himself; but he will never force us to love him.
Third, after we die, there are only two eternal "places" (states of existence) where our souls can exist forever: heaven and hell. If we have chosen to love God during our earthly lives, then we will want to love him, and be loved by him, forever in heaven. However, if we have chosen not to love him, then we have proven, by our failure to love God, that we do not want heaven because that is where God is and we do not want to be with him. In this case, heaven would be ultimate pain because we do not like associating with people we do not love.
Fourth, the choice of hell is ours first, not God's. By our failure to love God and our neighbor in this life, we put ourselves there. God honors our choice (though it breaks his heart) because love accepts the fact that it can be rejected.
Fifth, it is important for us to keep in mind that Theos agape, God is love! He has shown this love most clearly in the death of his Son, who went through the depths of death, not for his own sins but for ours, and came out alive on the other side, so that he might free us from our tendency not to love God by empowering us to love him now and forever, and so escape hell.
Think about it, and if you are inclined, please share your thoughts.
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