What About Hell?

But if God is loving and merciful like Jesus, what about Hell? Does God send the wicked to Hell?

I don’t believe in Hell. Punishing Your children for disobedience by sending them to a place of eternal burning and pain is nothing short of torture. God would certainly have to be very angry with the wicked to do that, and I might add, a sadist.

As a former fireman, I can attest that the human body cannot survive combustion. Most people perish from smoke inhalation, but yes, some die due to burn injuries and yes, some are in the fire so long they are incinerated. But they don’t live forever in excrutiating pain.

In order for that to happen, God would have to miraculous keep you alive so you could withstand the torture. It’s bad enough to burn someone to death, but to keep them alive so they burn forever? That more than sadistic.

So if that is the God that you believe in, why are you striving so hard to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. If God is truly that sadistic, then I have no desire to even so much as meet Him in Heaven. Fortunately, God isn’t sadistic, He doesn’t punish, and there is no Hell.

So how what happens to the wicked in the end? They perish by what we call and perceive as “fire”, but they don’t burn for eternity, and it isn’t at the hand of God.

“1Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” – Exodus 3:1-3

First off, this is from the New King James Version which is my personal favorite. In Verse 2 you see the phrase “Angel of the Lord” and the word “angel” is capitalized. Other versions may not do that, and the capitalization means the word is Holy. The “Angel of the Lord” in my impression, is Jesus. Don’t mistake, Jesus is not an angel, but He is the Archangel, the Head of all Angels. So in this passage, it was Jesus appearing to Moses. How could the bush burn, but not be consumed. The Glory of God.

The Glory of God is so bright that it appears to humans as “fire”. So the bush was actually burning, or rather glowing, because it was full of the Glory of God, in this case, the Glory of Jesus.

“29Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” – Exodus 34:29-30

Moses never laid eyes upon God, and yet his face was radiant from the Glory of God so much that the children of Israel were afraid to look at him. How great is the Glory of God?

“18And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” – Exodus 33:18-33

“No man shall see Me and live”. God will forgive those who love Him and attempt to be righteous, but for those that don’t, the Glory of God will be too great for them and they will perish. We perceive it as fire, but it’s nothing more than the Glory of God.

“1Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. 3And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.’ ” So Aaron held his peace. 4Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from [a]before the sanctuary out of the camp.” 5So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.” – Leviticus 10:1-5

Here’s a test. Did anyone catch anything strange in that passage? Was there anything that made you question the words? Does any of this make common sense?

Here’s the answer. “…they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp”. I’ve seen many burn victims, and none of them perished but their clothing survived. If fire came down and consumed Nadab and Abihu, how on earth did their tunics survive? It’s because they didn’t perish by literal fire, but rather by the Glory of God that consumed them, but not their clothing. Nadab and Abihu were not prepared to withstand the Glory of God.

I believe on Judgment Day, there will be one question and one question only, and because God knows the heart, He will already know the answer. “Did you love God, or did you fear Him?” Because love and fear cannot exist with each other. A battered wife cannot genuinely love an abusive husband, and you cannot genuinely love God is you are afraid of Him.

God is love, and all He wants in return is your love.