Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
Name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Why does a loving God send people to hell? For us to be able to answer this question, we have to take a step back and answer a different question first: What is the Orthodox meaning of punishment?
So, often we see a father, let's say, punishing his son in a very brutal way, whether physically or emotionally, and we have seen this so often that this has become for us the definition of punishment. So, often, unfortunately, we tend to put this definition also on God and think that God punishes us in this way, but is that true? No! God punishes us in a pedagogical way, meaning out of our own teaching, for our own good. So, He usually does one of two things.
The first one is that God leads us to repentance, so he puts a certain consequence in my way for me to go back to Him, to turn back to Him. He tells me: I love you. I want you to enjoy eternity with me. Come! The second type is that God puts an end to evil, so, someone that has chosen to be evil and God has been very patient with him, the person still refuses to come back, so, God puts an end to that evil, because He doesn't want others to suffer because of this person, so, He thus puts an end to it.
This is how God punishes us. But unfortunately, the term is being misused or misunderstood when it comes to God. So, for the sake of this video, I'll use a different word: the word consequence. So, God puts a consequence for us. Just for us to be able to differentiate. So, I'll give you an example out of Genesis 3. This example's after Adam and Eve ate of the tree and their nature has become corrupted. So, it says, in verse 22:
'' 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.'' (Genesis 3:22-24)
So, looking at this, someone can come and say: Look how angry God is. God kicks out Adam and Eve, He doesn't want them to live forever and even puts the cherubim with a sword and all the stuff. Or I can look at it from a different way completely. Can ask myself: Does God
want me to live forever? Yes, He does! He actually created me as an eternal being. And in Revelations 2:7, it shows that God will give of the tree of life to eat to those who overcome. So, God wants us to eat of the tree of life.
But not here, not in Genesis, why? Because if they eat of the tree of life, they will live forever in the corruption that they're in. And if they live in this corruption, they will not be happy. So, God is saying out of love for you, for our own good: I will put the cherubim with a sword of fire and I will make sure you don’t eat of the tree of life. This is how God puts a consequence on us for our own good.
So, when Adam and Eve fell, two major things happened. The first one is that their relationship with God was now in need of reconciliation. The second thing is that, since they were created in the image of God, that image has now been distorted. There was now corruption inside of them. So, for me to go to heaven, I need to work on these two things in parallel.
The first one, we often hear we ought to pray, we ought to read the Bible, so, we ought to work on our relationship with God. So, God has reconciled Himself to us through the cross. Now throughout my life, I'm reconciling myself to Him. On the other hand, I need to make sure that I fulfill the commands, because when I break God’s commandments, I distort His image inside of me. But when I actually partake of the sacraments, that's what heals me from breaking the commandments.
So, I ought to make sure that I do not break the commandments, number one. Number two, I need to make sure that I partake of the Eucharist and I need to repent and confess before then. These two things going hand in hand, they reconcile me to God with the relationship and restores the image of God inside of me.
So, if you look at the example of the prodigal son, you find the prodigal son has left his father, has... went and lived a life of sin. Once he wanted to taste of the food of the pigs, he decided to repent and come back. So, be careful here: this tasting or this wanting to taste the food is the consequence of his evil, out of pedagogy, and then he comes back. What happens? He finds his father already waiting for him and his father runs to him and kisses him on his neck, because the Father has reconciled Himself to us through the Son. But now, me, myself, through repentance, I run back to God and this is where the relationship is reconciled once more.
But be careful: doesn't stop there. Then the father tells the servants, so, he tells the priest: Go, bring the garment. So, if you notice, he brings the garment, puts a ring, puts the sandals, he kills the fatted calf, he gives this huge feast. What is the father doing? The father is restoring his son to his proper state. He's restoring that image in him. And the fathers have demonstrated that this garment is this new man. I retake or I re-put the image of God inside of me and it continues with repentance and the Eucharist until the day I've died.
So, does God want me to be with him in heaven? The verse is clear. It says:
'' 32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.'' '' (Luke 12:32)
So, God wants me to be with Him, He wants to give the kingdom. It's His pleasure. But the verse also says do not fear, little flock... It's a little flock, because only that flock has chosen to want to be with God in heaven.
So, there's always three votes. So, if the question is Does God want you to go to heaven?, there's three votes, three people that vote. The first one is God and God always says yes, I want him or I want her with Me in heaven, always. The second vote is the devil. Devil always says I do not want him or her in heaven. The third vote is yours. You want to go to heaven? You need to make sure that there's a relationship, you need to make sure that His image is restored through repentance and the sacraments. So, why does God send people to hell? He doesn’t. People send themselves to hell.
What is this hell? Is it a real fire? Some have chosen the literal interpretation to say yes, it is a real fire. Others have chosen the allegorical interpretation or the symbolic one, if you will, to say no, it’s not a real fire. But there is true suffering there and the suffering feels like fire. And that suffering stems from the fact that there's a lack or an absence of communion with God.
Some also have shown it in a different example. They said: if you have, by God’s grace, restored His image in you, you have become like gold. And that gold refined in fire is a good thing, because fire refines gold, right? But if I have distorted God’s image, I have become like wood. Wood and fire is a bad thing, because fire consumes wood.
But in either case, what it's definitely not is that it’s an angry god that has put someone in hell in a lake of fire out of vengeance, out of retribution for eternity. It's definitely not the case, although some may say that. So, look what St. Isaac the Syrian says. He says:
''To suppose that retribution for evil acts is to be found in him [in God, meaning] is abominable. By implying that He makes use of such a great and difficult thing out of retribution we are attributing a weakness to the Divine Nature.'' (St. Isaac the Syrian, The Second Part, 39:2)
So, what kind of god would do this? So, God, he's saying, God is all-loving, all-caring; He's fulfilled in Himself. Why in the world would He have the need to do such a thing?
''We cannot even believe such a thing can be found in those human beings who live a virtuous and upright life... let alone believe of God that He has done something out of retribution for anticipated evil acts...'' (St. Isaac the Syrian, The Second Part, 39:2)
He's saying that a virtuous person wouldn't even dare to do such a thing, let alone God, the all-loving and all-caring. St. Basil puts it very simply. He says: ''The evils in hell do not have God as their cause, but ourselves.'' (St. Basil the Great, On the Human Condition, translated by Nonna Verna Harrison, Crestwood, NY, St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2005, p.125)
So, the sufferings in hell are not because of God, but they are a consequence of our own choices. So, like the example of Adam and Eve in the beginning, where God put them outside the garden, it was out of love. Everything that God does, He does out of love for His creation.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever. Amen.