God loves us.1 He is always working for our good.2 When we trust and obey him, it pleases him, for that is when he can help us most of all.
“We are not made for law, we are made for love.” George MacDonald
So why, according to many Christians—not all—do those who refuse to trust and obey Jesus in this life, suffer never ending conscious torment in the next?
If you’ve ever asked a Christian about why the suffering in Hell must never end, you probably received an answer that goes something like this:
“If a person’s choices land them in Hell, and they refuse to repent, what can God do? God will not force anyone to repent. And he will not let the unrepentant in to Heaven.3 If he did, Heaven would be turned into Hell.”
So, if a person does not turn and follow Jesus in this life, is that the end of the story?
We’ve all heard testimonies of those who came to Christ while in prison. Were they forced to accept Christ against their will? Was the prodigal forced to return to his father? God often brings a person to repentance through suffering.
“No man is condemned for anything he has done; he is condemned for continuing to do wrong. He is condemned for not coming out of the darkness, for not coming to the light.” George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
Suffering for past sins is not incompatible with free will. But is there any evidence in the Bible to suggest that all things (which would include all people) will be made new?
And can a person believe that God will eventually reconcile all people and be a Christian?
This man used to believe the answer was no. What changed his mind?
1. “Everyone is forgiven, but it does us no good until we repent (change our minds) and believe we are forgiven. If a person doesn’t believe that God loves them, then his love and forgiveness mean nothing to them.
This does not mean God’s love is worthless to a person if they don’t believe he loves them. God desires their good, and will continue to do all he can to bring them to the point where they see that he died for them and that he loves them.” (Quote taken from ‘What is the Gospel?’)
2. God works for the good of those who love him (see Rom 8:28), but he also works for the good of those who do not. However, those who refuse to trust and obey, have chosen a very difficult path. God's will will be done.
“To regard any suffering with satisfaction, save it be sympathetically with its curative quality, comes of evil, is inhuman because undivine, is a thing God is incapable of. His nature is always to forgive, and just because he forgives, he punishes. Because God is so altogether alien to wrong, because it is to him a heart-pain and trouble that one of his little ones should do the evil thing, there is, I believe, no extreme of suffering to which, for the sake of destroying the evil thing in them, he would not subject them. A man might flatter, or bribe, or coax a tyrant; but there is no refuge from the love of God; that love will, for very love, insist upon the uttermost farthing.” George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
Yes, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for the unrepentant. But the Bible does not say there will be "nothing but" weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who refuse to love their neighbour and love God. Some soldiers probably wept and gnashed their teeth during the Vietnam war, but that does not mean they never enjoyed any good thing while in Vietnam. God is a loving father. He is not weak. If a person needs punishment, punishment they will get. If they need kindness, kindness they will get. God is not a tyrant. He will not punish anyone any more than is needed. But he will punish as much as is needed. “There is no refuge from the love of God.” No one can resist perfect love forever. No one can resist the gentle, but strong hand of God (see The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott).
3. Heaven would be Hell for a self-centred person.