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[Sloan]

If Hell is eternal, God cannot be both omnipotent and benevolent

This is addressed to Christians who believe hell is eternal. This topic also assumes that eternal hell is a justified punishment and that free will exists.

Thesis: If God created the humans who will eventually end up in hell with the knowledge of their eventual fate, then he cannot be benevolent. This is because if he were truly benevolent, he would have avoided any course of action which would have lead anyone to experience eternal suffering.

A response to this that I anticipate is that God wants us to have free will, and if he only allows those who will end up in heaven to be born, he has rigged the game from the start, thus making free will virtually nonexistent.

My rebuttal to this is that it doesn't matter whether free will is robbed or not if the end result is that millions or, more likely, billions of people are going go inevitably end up suffering eternally. If God is benevolent and omnipotent, then he must choose the course of action that will minimize the amount of suffering, no matter the cost. If the rest of the population must have their free will forfeited in order to prevent the eternal suffering of billions, then so be it.

Here's an analogy: imagine your son or daughter is threatening to kill themself as a result of a hard breakup. Wouldn't you agree that it is your duty as a parent and a fellow human being to do everything in your power to stop them from making such an irrational decision, even if doing so robs them of their free will?

[jimwalton]

There is much concern about hell, but hardly about taking steps to avoid it. That's the tragic part.

The teaching of the Bible is clear: God will be fair. God will not do anything that is unfair to anyone. There is no need to get tied up in knots about how cruel God is or how unfair, since both are impossible.

People get so hung up on hell. As you read the Gospels, Jesus spoke often about hell, but no one ever asked him about it. Isn't that odd? Nobody said, "Hey, whoa, rewind. What happens to people who don't believe? What happens to people who never heard? Explain this to us." Very interesting. Here's the real deal about eternity, what the Bible is SO emphatic about: God will be perfectly fair with everyone. There is no need for anxiety that God has created a system of horror, that people will be judged unfairly, that injustices will be done and people will be sent inappropriately somewhere, or that God will somehow go against his attributes just to torture people.

Here's the bottom line: If you know the Christian God is one of perfect love, mercy, and justice, then turn to him and become part of his family. That is the real message of the Bible: come, share the life God offers you, and come into unity and belonging with the God who loves you. There won't be anything unfair. You just want to make sure that neither you nor anyone else you love or know ends up in the category of "those who reject God." Come to Jesus and let his life fill you. I can guarantee you that the absolute truth of the Bible is that no one will be dealt with wrongly, unfairly, or unjustly. Take that to heart. If you don't really want to face God with a heart against Him, then turn your heart towards Him.

Your thesis makes clear that you think hell is un-good (that God can't be benevolent in that case), but that's a refutation of all the teaching of Scripture. Scripture is clear that God is both omnipotent and benevolent, so it erases the possibility that anything about hell is contrary to those attributes. Whatever concept of hell you have in your mind, if it negates God's omnipotence or His benevolence, it's a misunderstanding of hell. You can count on the fact that God will always do what's fair and what is the right thing to do.

Now, if you're so worried about being on the wrong side of judgment, then come to God. He invites you to Himself, to a love relationship of belonging and forgiveness. The choice is yours; free will is not only existent but also operative. So choose to come to God.

[Dedicated]

> If you know the Christian God is

We don't know that, only Christians say they know that.

> You just want to make sure that neither you nor anyone else you love or know ends up in the category of "those who reject God."

We can't reject something we think isn't real.

> Scripture is clear that God is both omnipotent and benevolent, so it erases the possibility that anything about hell is contrary to those attributes

Then hell simply does not exist.

[jimwalton]

> We don't know that, only Christians say they know that.

We just follow the evidences where they lead and infer the most reasonable conclusion.

> We can't reject something we think isn't real.

But you can reject something that is real, and you already admitted that it was unknown, meaning that maybe God was real and maybe He wasn't. So you're taking a big chance here.

> Then hell simply does not exist.

This is a non sequitur. If God exists, and God is just, and God is powerful, and God is good, then justice, to be good, requires action. If this were not the case, we would disband all courtrooms. The point of justice is that appropriate punishment be meted out in appropriate cases to perpetrators. There is nothing self-contradictory in these applications of power and goodness. Hell is appropriate justice applied correctly.

[Dedicated]

>We just follow the evidences where they lead and infer the most reasonable conclusion.

Speaking for yourself I'm sure. Bear in mind that the majority of people on Earth are not Christian, which is a good indicator that the evidence is much more dubious. In addition, a large number of believers simply inherited their belief from their parents and culture, which leaves the influence of evidence even less significant.

> But you can reject something that is real, and you already admitted that it was unknown, meaning that maybe God was real and maybe He wasn't. So you're taking a big chance here.

Being unknown doesn't default to 50/50. If the risk of doubting unsubstantiated claims was motivational we would be required to believe every myth and superstition or threat ever imagined in order to leave no chances.

> The point of justice is that appropriate punishment be meted out in appropriate cases to perpetrators.

Which hell is not. Theft and deception are not crimes equal to pain and suffering.

[jimwalton]

> Being unknown doesn't default to 50/50.

Right, but this case isn't 50/50. The arguments, evidence, and logic for the existence of God FAR outweigh the arguments, evidence, and logic against his existence. It's more like 95/5, if naturalism/atheism rates even that high.

>> The point of justice is that appropriate punishment be meted out in appropriate cases to perpetrators.
> Which hell is not. Theft and deception are not crimes equal to pain and suffering.

Hell is not "one punishment fits all." There are degrees of punishment fitting to whatever was done. The whole system is set up to be 100% fair.