Years ago, when this article was written, a famous preacher had declared that Hell wasn’t quite what generations of Christians, or even what Jesus Himself, said it was. I prefer to take Jesus’ word for it, but here are some thoughts on the matter.
Being a creation of the Creator, no soul that comes into existence will ever ‘not be’ – it goes against all that He is as Creator. So, eternal life for every soul is a given. The next question becomes, what kind of life, where?
In John 14:3, Jesus mentions humans going to a place prepared for those that believe in Him. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus mentions humans going to a place that was prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was not prepared for humans, so where will the humans who don’t want to be with God go?? Why should we expect that God will prepare an alternate place for humans who want no part of His reconciliation plan?
He invested Himself in preparing a world with topography and weather patterns and seasons and creatures and food sources and adventures before creating people. He gave them a choice between following His instructions or their own. They chose to carry the responsibility of good vs evil, for themselves and the generations to follow. He prepared a reconciliation plan for those who would decide to follow it. He carried out this plan despite the errors of humans and the best devices of an ousted would-be usurper. He goes to great lengths to prepare circumstances and people on Earth to show Himself loving and faithful to pursue and sustain us. He’s preparing a place for those that are committed to love, trust, and obey Him.
Those who would rather rely on their own pride and resourcefulness can go live with the prince of all pride, in the place prepared for him and his followers. There will simply be no place for them in Heaven nor in the refurbished Earth. Nor would such people want to be in those places, with the ever present environment of praise and testimony and worship of the God they didn’t want. Heaven, for these, would be a most miserable place indeed.
How dare we have the audacity to demand that the Almighty Creator prepare another different and somewhat pleasant place for some of us who don’t want to be bothered with what He has already prepared? He’s rather busy focusing on those who love Him and those who haven’t met Him yet. If you want to live in His home for eternity, you need to become intimately acquainted with Him in your home now. Otherwise, you’ll be living with someone else, someone who’s too interested in his own pride to accommodate yours.
DISCLAIMER: Be sure to read the whole Bible for yourself, don’t rely on individual verses collected to make a point, whether they’re gathered & posted by a famous person, your beloved pastor and friends, or even me. The God who loves you enough to pursue you knows how to make His terms clear to those who really want to know, and He started by getting them written down.