This is by far not the simplest question I’ve ever been asked, and it’s not the simplest to answer. I’m accustomed to the question of how can a loving God send people to hell (which we will briefly touch on as part of this question), but this question takes it a step further. It directly addresses the nature of God, and seems to present a contradiction in God’s loving nature and his foreknowledge. It’s an honest question from an honest seeker and deserves an honest answer.
So how can we answer it? How would you answer the question if someone sitting across from you looks you in the eyes and asks “If God knows who is going to end up in hell, then why create them in the first place or allow them to be born?”. Surely this is a question we don’t want to be caught off guard by.
There’s a few things we need to consider when addressing this question. What are the implications of the question? Is God not loving? Is God not in control? Does God want people to get saved? Certainly most Christians would say that, not only is God loving but he is the very definition of love, that He’s certainly in control, and very much His will that people will repent and turn to God. But yet the fact remains that, according to the Bible, many people are not going to be saved in the end
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
– Matthew 7:13-14 NASB
So we have a real issue here. How do we reconcile it? Well, there’s a few things we need to understand. The first thing we need to establish is the fact that humanity is not innocent. Part of the primary issue many people have with the idea of God sending a person to hell is that they view the world as predominantly good, and certainty not worthy of being cast into the lake of fire. But indeed we have all broken God’s laws and are worth of judgment. The Bible makes it quite clear that we have all failed to uphold God’s perfect law and we are all guilty.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 NASB
The idea the God is somehow not loving because he justly punishes sin fails to address sin in the same serious nature that the Bible itself address it in. In fact it’s because God is loving, just, righteous, and holy that he MUST punish sin. The example has been used many times of an earthy judge. If a judge did not administer justice then he would be far from loving but, in fact, wicked and corrupt. The very fact the justice is served is how we measure the worth and substance of any judge’s rulings.
Imagine if you were involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of your entire family with only you surviving. And imagine if the other driver was responsible and was found to be heavily intoxicated behind the wheel. The man responsible was brought before the judge and said “Judge, I’m really sorry, I’ve learned my lesson and it will never happen again”. What if the Judge pardoned the man, dismissing the issue “Well as long as you learned your lesson”? Has justice been done? Is the judge loving to dismiss the charges against the driver? Definitely not. To imagine that God could be just and holy and loving and NOT punish sin is unimaginable.
“God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.” Psalm 7:11 NASB
The other factor to this argument is the fact the people see hell as too severe a punishment. A punishment, many would say, that does not fit the crime. The idea that someone could break one of God’s law, even once, and result in eternal everlasting punishment seems extreme. However, this also stems from our low view of the seriousness of sin and the holiness of God. Take the sin of lying for example. If you lie to parents, you might get grounded. If you lie to your employer, you might get fired. If you lie to the Government, you might get thrown in jail. All three instances encompass the same offense but result in escalating degrees of punishment. This is due to the fact that the crime is commitment against a different level of authority and carries a more serious punishment. The difference is, when we sin, the offence occurs against the creator of the universe; the just and holy God. David recognized this in the psalms.
Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. – Psalms 51:4
But even if God is just (and even loving) in sending sinners to hell, we really haven’t addressed the question. Since God has foreknowledge of future events, then you have to deal with the fact that God KNOWS who will end up in hell before they are created. So if this is the case why create them at all? To properly understand the answer to this question we have to first answer another. Why did God create people at all? If we can answer what God’s purpose in the creation of man was in the first place, we can start to answer the question of why God could create knowing their ultimate destiny.
Now, we have to pause here and recognize something. While God may be all knowing, we are not. Everything that we know about God has been revealed to us through the Word. So while we can definitely tackle these sorts of questions and, I believe, can provide a sufficient answer, we still do not understand everything about the way God works or his processes. Because of this, we can only answer as far as the information has been given to us. We should not try to answer beyond the text of the Bible.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NASB
So keeping that in mind let’s start trying to address some of these questions. So first off, why did God create us? Was God lonely? Did he need us to complete him in some way? I think an honest look at the questions would show that they are not valid lines of thinking. But why then? We can find part of our answer in Isaiah.
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.” Isaiah 43:7
We can see that our ultimate purpose is for God’s glory. The fact that this should be our purpose is re-emphasized numerous times through-out the Bible (1 Peter 4:11, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Chronicles 16:29, 1 Corinthians 6:20). Of course, these are all positive re-enforcements of how we should live our life, and what our purpose should be. But what about those people that don’t follow the law, that don’t live to glory of God? Why create them knowing that they will not fulfill this purpose? Our answer resides in Romans 9.
To save you time, I’ve linked the whole chapter here. We will examine parts of further in the article
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” And just as Isaiah foretold,
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity,
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
–Romans 9 NASB
It’s here that we really come to the heart of our question. Why did God create us? To demonstrate his attributes and his power, for His glory. Think about this for a minute. God has existed, perfectly, for all eternity as a triune being (Father, Son, and Spirit). God could express his love fully towards the various persons of the trinity, but could not express the fullest expressions of his nature. Things like His covenant-faithfulness, mercy, grace, wrath, and holiness can only be expressed in their fullest on beings that exist outside of His perfection.
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory
– Romans 9:22-23
While this should cause us to be amazed, it is actually not the most amazing part of pondering this question. Let’s take just a moment and review Ephesians 1
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
-Ephesians 1:3-12
At this point, we can now answer the question directly: but why? Why did God choose to only save some and knowingly leave many sinners to die in their sins? The answer to this is found in Ephesians chapter 1, and is satisfying to the Christian, but will likely not satisfy the one who has not yet bended the knee to Christ. Paul explains that God did this “according to the kind intention of His will” , “to the praise of the glory of His grace”, “In all wisdom and insight”, “He made known to us the mystery of His will”, “His kind intention which He purposed”, “predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will”, “to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory”.
Why did God choose to do what He did? For His glory, according to His will and purposes. Our amazement should never be that God has not chosen to save everybody, but that He would save anybody. God is under no obligation to save any rebel sinner. After all, we were all conceived in sin and are deserving of God’s wrath from the very moment of our conception (Psalm 51:5). It is only due to God’s grace, freely given, that the elect find themselves the receivers of God’s love and mercy; trophies of grace.