One of the most common objections to the gospel of Christ and the judgment of hell is of an emotional and psychological nature. It is concerning how it seems unfair for these poor ignorant jungle inhabitants to be cast into hell forever when they have never heard the gospel. And when it is phrased in this way it is obviously an emotionally charged grievance against God’s judgments and many times it is used as an argument against the idea of hell. The protest against the idea of hell doesn’t usually start or stop there but it seems to be an easy to grasp concept since these people in jungles are not technologically advanced, not educated in modern schools, and have never presumably heard about Jesus. Therefore it would be unjust to send them to hell for not believing in Christ for the remission of their sins.
We will see that this straw man fallacy is not a logical rejection of hell but rather a psychological rejection (of the 'if I don't like it, it must not exist' nature) based largely upon the presumption that man is primarily good at heart and his sins against himself and his fellows and against his Creator, do not rise to the level of an eternity of damnation. ‘This is surely extreme’ it is argued ‘since their sins are finite and the punishment is infinite’. The doctrine of hell is denied these days by pusillanimous self-deceivers who want to make Christianity into an image made like a Hallmark Channel romance. However, in spite of the efforts to extricate hell from the bible it is clearly taught. For example:
https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=hell&qs_version=KJV&limit=500 ; https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=+damn&qs_version=KJV&limit=500
And hell is not ‘the grave’ since Jesus said to fear God who “is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” And "I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." (Mt.10:28, Lk.12:5) Jesus warned again “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:” (Mk.9:43,45,47) And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Isa.66:24) Isaiah said again, “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isa.33:14) Jesus answered his question “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Mt.25:41) John saw through the visions of God “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev.20:15) Those who partake of the wrath of God it is stated “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night” (Rev.14:10-11) And who will endure the wrath of God? John the Baptist declares “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Jn.3:36)
But if someone has never heard that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, who died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day, who will return to this earth in judgment one day, is their damnation just? Paul takes up this question in Romans beginning in chapter 1 with a unmistakable and aggressive ‘yes’. But he argues that their damnation is just, apart from and before they have had a chance to hear about the forgiveness which is in Christ, because of their violent enmity against God and his clear revelation in nature and their conscience. Paul starkly contrasts the babbitry characteristic of our culture and the insipid views of sin which dominate our day. We have embraced this view of men that assumes man is divine and reject that God through the church is preserving humanity from the full degeneracy that men are all capable of attaining, and that barbarianism and murder isn’t the norm. Rather, we think man is evolving into a utopian citizen of an evermore benevolent world government (just ignore the death by government figures from the last century). But we condescendingly assume we would not have been among the cowardly Nazi enablers in Germany nor turned a blind eye to the Communist murderers in Maoist China, or we wouldn’t have turned in our neighbors to avoid suspicion in Stalinist Russia, or we wouldn’t have been a ‘stoolie’ in the Gulags to get another bowl of gruel. We don’t think we would stand by and allow millions of our fellow citizens to be stripped of their rights and property (while we vote in the socialists) and murdered. Not us! But the odds are we would be as fearful (Mk.4:40, Rv.21:8) and cowardly and do just as they did while the death camps exterminate our families. Our self-flattery is not justified. A more robust and useful philosophy of man and his nature is provided in the bible.
Hand in hand with this view of the wholesale goodness of mankind is the view that God’s existence is obscure and nebulous. We will see that man holds fast this position because he is held fast in his own iniquities. The bible tells us that the knowledge of good and evil is implanted in man by birth and cultivated by his parents and community through his conscience and their collective consciences (Rom.2:14-15). And likewise the knowledge of God (along with his eternal power) is immediately known to all men by the revelation of his works in creation. (Rom.1:19-21, Psa.19:1-3) The problem is that “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom.1:28) “they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Prv.1:29) and “they are all under sin”. (Rom.3:9) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Rom.3:10-18) They are haters of God (Rom.1:30) and thus murderers of God (1 Jn.3:15, Jam.4:4,Jn.8:40, 58-9, 3:19-20).
I know you will retort that ‘we don’t hate God, we just don’t believe he sends people to hell’. Which is to say you deny the existence of the God of the bible who warns of turning the wicked into hell and everlasting destruction from his presence (Psa.9:17, 2 Thess.1:8-9). You hate and therefore deny his particular existence. Thus when you speak of God you are speaking of a figment of your imagination. You are doing exactly as Paul stated- they “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man” and again “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom.1:23,25). You are rejecting his revelation, denying his existence and creating in his place a god in your heart that is more appealing and desirable because it is like you (Ezek.14:3-4, 8:12). You then become the prophet of this god knowing what he will and won’t do; what he likes and dislikes, delivering his commandments.
Now imagine that the God of scripture is real and he says that he is immediately known to all people from his creation to the degree “that they are without excuse” (Rom.1:20). And you, his creature, deny his existence, call him a liar in that you declare his revelation is not clear and that you do have an excuse. But yet you do not seek him to find out the knowledge of the holy, rather you employ your energies and time in gratifying your lusts, defiling your body, mind and conscience (Rom.1:24-32, Tit.1:15) and go whoring after devils (Lev.17:7,Psa.106:37). Which is to say you permanently alter yourself to the negative after having been given by him invaluable resources such as your eyes, your speech, your mind, love, life, time, hearing, tasting, feeling, beauty. Were you thankful to him? No (Rom.1:21), you denied his existence and stamped out every mention of him, turning your ear at every thought of him and thereby becoming forever his enemy. I say forever because you cannot undo the past, you cannot absolve yourself of your own sin, you cannot restore your innocence nor of those you've defiled. Those who were looking to you for guidance into truth, you made them the enemies of the God of scripture as well. And yet more valuable than your own resources were the responsibilities for your own child. What a precious gift you were given, yet (assuming you didn't abort it before it had a chance at life) did you seek to reconcile in your mind your own sin and guilt with the God with whom you will have to answer? Did you cry out for his mercy? No, you proceeded haughtily to make this child likewise the enemy of that God, likewise inhabited by devils (Eph.2:2, Gal.4:8). Your spiritual negligence is much worse than physical negligence of a child. It gets worse since your life creates ripples throughout and beyond into other’s lives, forever changing events, and were you not to die early you would treasure up wrath to yourself the longer you live (Rom.2:2-6). Yet you have no concern, no fear, no sense of sobriety about the severity of reality and permanency of death. And you conclude that because you have this outlook it must be correct, simply because you have it in your mind. I trust that you get the point.
So you have made shipwreck of yourself and your life and chances are you have deluded yourself to the degree that you do not even know or care. But you are now permanently and unalterably God’s enemy through your hatred of him and he cannot change. So you cannot change and he cannot change (Mal.3:6,Heb.1:12, 13:8), hence hell is eternal. This is what every man who inhabits the jungles of every continent throughout all ages does. And God knows their thoughts, all of them, their idle words, their deeds… everything. Does God have to have mercy? No (Rom.9:14-16), but he does have to judge sin (Nah.1:3). God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, demonstrated this for us in that he gave his only begotten Son to die in our place and rise again from the dead. In that Jesus Christ is a man he represents us the temporal, and in that he is divine he represents the eternal, and he makes propitiation for us freely justifying all who believe. (Rom.5:6-10, 3:23-5, Eph.2:1-8, Jn.3:16, 1 Tim.2:5) And God remedied the problem of our sin and sent his disciples to preach salvation to every creature in every dark corner of every jungle. (Mt.28:19-20,Mk.16:15-6, Lk.24:46-7) But this still isn’t good enough for you because that God still despises your sin which you love. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die? (Ezk.18:31) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isa.1:18) Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved! (Ac.16:31)
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