Creating and knowing people would go to hell

I don't know about you - but every so often I think about questions like:  If God is so loving and relational, why did he go ahead and create people when he knew they would end up in hell?

Great question.

Perhaps one for your life group.

More and more, people are believing in hell less and less.  Even in God's kingdom.

Hell is getting a lot of "bad press."

Bumper sticker:  "You say I am going to hell?  That's where the party will be happening with all my friends.  Bring it on."

Okay.....

The French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote of hell as being "locked forever in a small room with two other people."  I guess that depends upon who those two people are.  :)

Woody Allen said that, "hell will be the place for people who have personally annoyed me."

Here's the logic:

Hell exists.

God creates people.

God knows who will connect with Him and who won't.

God is a loving God.

Then why would God create someone whom he knew would reject him?

Here's part of the solution.  Where you find love - you will find justice.

Love cannot exist without justice.  When someone injuries us, we long for justice to be done.  We desire, and rightly so, that it be made right. 

If people around us really care, those around us want justice on our behalf as well.

Love and justice go together. 

To be truly loving, God must also be a God of justice.

It all comes down to freedom.  If love is to exist, it must be a love that is freely given and freely received.  Love cannot be forced.

And, if freedom is possible, the withholding of love is possible.  When that happens, injustice occurs.

When injustice occurs, justice must be handed out.  Hell is the means of God's judgment, allowing God's justice to be upheld.

God created you with the capacity to choose or reject Him.  That being the case, that's where the cross comes in.  Jesus (God himself) died on the cross to remove any automatic connection to receiving the justice of God for your sins. 

While God knows who and who will not accept Him, He continues to do everything he can to connect us to him.

God creates, God gives us freedom to choose or reject Him, and based upon that choice we go to Heaven or we go to hell.

What will your choice be today?

I choose heaven - how about you?