Common Questions About Hell

Romans 11:22 says "Note the kindness and severity of God." The former is certainly more easy to think about in the latter. We dote on God's goodness and try not to be one of those "fire and brimstone" Christians. However, there are many who reject the existence of hell. I have done my best to study my Bible and seek trustworthy resources on this subject, but I am sure that my theology is not perfect. I would love to hear thoughts or corrections.

Do all Christians believe in Hell?
I believe, yes. There are some who claim to be Christian who say they do not believe in hell. I, however, feel that if one disregards hell, he or she discounts the Gospel. To ignore hell, one would have to ignore a lot of scripture, and Jesus' very own words.
I believe that the Bible is not a buffet. One cannot pick and choose the parts they want to believe. It's either all true, or all false.

If God is loving, how can there be Hell? 2 Peter 3:9 says that God does not wish that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. We spend our lives ignoring God. We
God is a God of love and his goodness spills over to us, even though we don't deserve it. He has made a way for us through Jesus. For God to be just in his condemnation of the unrepentant does not contradict his love. It means that God is more than mercy. He is also just, and his justness proves his love.

What is Hell? It is the just and fitting response to a person who commits the ultimate outrage of rejecting the grace of God. We ought to fear it. It is not, however, sufficient to save us. Heaven is for those who love God, not for those who merely fear hell. Some say that hell is the place where the presence of God is absent. I think I tend to agree with R.C. Sproul that it is not the absence of his presence, but the absence of his blessing. He says,

When we use the imagery of the Old Testament in an attempt to understand the forsakenness of the lost, we are not speaking of the idea of the departure of God or the absence of God in the sense that He ceases to be omnipresent. Rather, it’s a way of describing the withdrawal of God in terms of His redemptive blessing. It is the absence of the light of His countenance. It is the presence of the frown of His countenance. It is the absence of the blessedness of His unveiled glory that is a delight to the souls of those who love Him, but it is the presence of the darkness of judgment. Hell reflects the presence of God in His mode of judgment, in His exercise of wrath, and that’s what everyone would like to escape.