What kind of choice is that?

I believe God to be loving and just, but I must confess that I struggle to reconcile these attributes with the concept of an eternal, fiery hell where unbelievers will be punished. He gives us choice, but punishes us forever if we fail to choose Him? What kind of choice is that?

Its a very common struggle, so much so that even Wikipedia has a reference. One of my favourite websites Christian Thinktank has much to say on this subject but it can be quite heavy going some times, so I thought I'd mull this over myself.

The first thing to say is that the objection can not be to the fact that punishment occurs. It is within our concept of fairness to expect misdeeds to be punished. The objection is that the punishment seems to be excessive: we commit a finite amount of sin, so how can we receive infinite punishment in return? An answer to this is that we are dealing with an infinitely holy God, and so the offenses against Him are infinitely bad and hence worthy of infinite punishment.

Others have argued that hell is not as bad as we think, that unbelievers are destroyed forever in hell and that only believers are granted everlasting life. In other words, eternal punishment rather than eternal punishing. This is called Annihilationism and is very appealing from a moral point of view since death is viewed as a more just punishment than eternal "torture". I have not looked into this in great detail yet but my initial impression is that its attempting to view and hence distort Scripture in the light of an assumption. Having said that, it has some prominent advocates such as John Stott.... so don't take my word for it.

Another view is that hell is not really fiery pit, that this is just imagery, something the Bible is full of. Hell is instead a place of our own making. We reject God and He honours that choice by removing Himself and those who choose Him for all eternity. What's left is a place the wicked have chosen, a place of pure unrestrained evil, without any love or compassion. Can you imagine such a place?

The other side of this objection is the question of choice. God has given us choice and most of us would agree I think that this a great thing and says much about the loving nature of our God. He also has made a way for the lost to find their way back to Him, and died in our stead in order to fulfil the requirements of justice. More loving nature in evidence. The problem however is that we have not all been given an equal starting point or opportunity to choose. Our genes and our environment distort our ability to choose. Not everyone is given equal access to the Gospel - some will never hear it, others will only hear an incomprehensible distortion of it. And let's not even start to talk about what's going on when the Bible speaks of election, i.e. God choosing us rather than the other way around! All seems terribly unfair.

Unfair? This is based on the assumption that we are all deserving of equal opportunity to choose. Is this a reasonable expectation? Is it fair that some of us are born smart and others not, some wealthy others poor, some with more talents than others? The parable of the labourers in the vineyard and the parable of the talents provide interesting insights into God's mind. God gives the same reward to those who have laboured all day as to those who only laboured an hour. God gives us all different talents. God chooses some for noble purpose others not. Perhaps He may even choose some for salvation? Have we a right to object? May the creation say to the Creator "Why have you made me thus?"

Job 38

"Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? ..."

Worth reading in full before you carry on shaking your finger at your Maker.