The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

---

Hell is an awful prospect for anyone. C. S. Lewis once shuddered at the concept of hell: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.”

But let’s consider for a moment that the notion of a loving God and the doctrine of hell are perfectly compatible. There is nothing of one that cancels out the other. Jesus speaks frequently on hell and alludes to it in parables. He tells some religious leaders they are headed for hell. He warns his listeners against this place where the worm does not die and the fires are not quenched. He refers to hell as “outer darkness.” And he says hell was prepared for Satan and evil spirits, yet he makes it clear that many people are going to spend eternity there.

So, in what possible way is hell good?

First, hell is good because it is a place God prepared for the one who wrecked the goodness of creation – and the very goodness of beings made to be his imagers. The Greek word rendered “prepared” in Matthew 25:41 is hetoimazo. It means to make the necessary preparations, or to get everything ready. The term is drawn from the oriental custom of sending servants ahead of kings on their journeys to level the roads and make them passable. So, with hell, the Lord has made everything ready for the god of this age – the king of a corrupt and rebellious kingdom – to end his journey in outer darkness.

Second, hell is good because it affirms God’s justice. If God only had the attributes of benevolence and mercy, hell would be an unreasonable reading of Scripture. But God is infinitely holy and perfectly just. To sin against him offends his very nature. Human beasts like Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot are responsible for the slaughter of millions of people whose lives ended in starvation, torture, human experimentation, or execution. How can the mere death of these tyrants by any means satisfy divine justice, let alone human justice?

If we accept the doctrine of universalism, we must admit that Osama bin Laden and Mother Teresa are feasting at the same banquet table. At the same time, if we embrace the dogma of annihilation, we struggle to explain how temporal suffering in the afterlife pays an eternal debt. Without the existence of hell, life indeed is cruel and life’s creator is eternally unjust.

Third, hell is good because it affirms free will. While we may debate whether humans have libertarian free will or simply make decisions within predetermined boundaries, there is little question among Christians that God allows us to make choices for which he holds us accountable. In a world where God refuses to grant humans real choices, there is no freedom to love God.

If we view life fatalistically, God is a cruel puppet master who manipulates us before discarding us like broken toys. But the biblical concept of hell carries with it the clear teaching that people choose to spend eternity apart from Christ. As C. S. Lewis so poignantly penned, “[T]he doors of Hell are locked on the inside.” Without hell, our choices have no real meaning or lasting consequences.

Fourth, hell is good because it implies heaven. Many atheists attack the idea that a good God would send people to hell for eternity as payment for temporal sins. But they tend not to criticize the idea of a God – if he could possibly exist – who welcomes people into eternal bliss merely for being the recipients of his grace.

Freud argued that heaven is a product of wishful thinking. But if that’s so, how does one explain the fact that many religions embracing heaven also have clear doctrines of hell? We are invited to join God in this life, and in the life to come, by his grace through faith. We may reject him and enter eternity on our own terms, but we cannot take God with us or it would cease to be hell. 

While it is troubling to consider eternity in “outer darkness,” the Bible is clear that hell is a place people choose to live independently of God – forever. We do not see the rich man repent of his sin after finding himself in torment in hades (Luke 16:19-31), nor do we see those before the great white throne asking to be nearer to Jesus (Rev. 20:11-15). Indeed, the blasphemers and unrepentant in Revelation hide themselves from the presence of God, preferring death under a deluge of rocks to life in the light of Christ (Rev. 6:15-17).

A final caution: When we say hell is good, we do not mean to gloat over those who enter eternity without Christ, no matter how wicked they may be. The Lord himself does not delight in the judgment of the ungodly. Rather, he took the human condition so seriously that he sent his Son to save us from ourselves.

Next: Does God Plan to Save Satan?