Does God Make People He Knows Will Go to Hell?

It's a tough question, really. The first response is easy. "No! It can't be. It's not acceptable. No way. Not a loving God!" And, truthfully, anyone of us would find the mere suggestion unpleasant at best and abhorrent and unthinkable at worst.

Then you start mulling things over. Thinking can be such a mistake sometimes. Consider God's Omniscience. David wrote (speaking to God), "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" (Psa 139:16). Now, some would like to argue that God's Omniscience means that God knows everything that can be known, but that since future events haven't occurred, He can't know them. This passage says that before we're born God has every day of our lives already written down. That sounds a lot like He knows the end from the beginning.

Now, assuming that God is indeed Omniscient in the sense that He knows all things (including the future to us) and assuming that He knows all things accurately, ask that question again. "Does God make people He knows will go to Hell?" Assuming that no one is born whom God didn't intend to be born and assuming that God knows all things, the answer to the question becomes inevitable: "Yes. Undoubtedly. Absolutely. If God knows all things and people are born who will go to Hell, then God makes people He knows will go to Hell."

Now, there is a biblical reason given and you can find it if you wish, but I'm interested in the reason that we have a problem with this idea. We find this notion repulsive. (Don't misunderstand. It bothers me as well.) Why? I would guess that there are a few reasons.

First, I would suggest that it is a problem of holiness. You see, God is holy. No, more than that. He is "holy, holy, holy" -- holy to the utmost. This doesn't merely mean "completely apart from sin". It means "other". And inherent in human beings is the absolute dislike of "other". It is the source of racism and sexism and the conflict between classes. We are most comfortable with the things most like us. We are uncomfortable with "different". And God is different. So we more closely align ourselves with other humans than we do with God. That's natural ... but it isn't right.

Second, I would assume that it is a problem of self-centeredness. You see, if the natural problem of sin is "I will be like the Most High", then self-centeredness is the natural result. It makes us value ourselves most highly. So while God is actually the highest Being, we tend to think of ourselves as quite important. The suggestion that God doesn't think of us as important as we do is offensive to us.

Related to that is the problem that Paul points to. Describing the sinful decline of Man he writes, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things" (Rom 1:21-23). We call it "idolatry". It's simple. If we exchange the glory of the immortal God for anything at all that is less than God, it is idolatry. And that's the state of Natural Man. "They exchanged the truth about God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom 1:25). Sinners worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. Therefore, for God to actually make creatures He knows will go to Hell would be evil because we serve the creature.

So, let's see where we stand. Does God make people He knows will go to Hell? Absolutely. Given His Omniscience, it can be no other way. Why is that a problem for us? We have a natural distaste for the "otherness" of God, a natural problem with self-centeredness, and a real problem with the idolatry of serving the creature over the Creator. Now, we could continue to be upset about the notion that God makes people He knows will go to Hell, or we can work at eliminating the sinful perspectives that make that so repulsive. You decide.