“Judgement” is the term often used to describe the idea that God will punish people for their sins after death. This is a very sensitive topic. My intention in writing this short chapter is not to trivialise judgement in any way. As a Christian who has suffered the death of beloved family members who weren’t believers, this topic is no less difficult for me—even if this difficulty doesn’t impact the truthfulness of claims about judgement.

We’ve already talked about ideas that God (1) knows and remembers all our sin, (2) must punish sin, and (3) can’t dwell with sin. If he didn’t punish our sin, he wouldn’t be fair or perfectly good. He also can’t dwell with sin because it’s a power of rebellion in direct opposition to him.

An important idea to note is that Christians believe in what the Bible says about judgement as a “truth”. By this we mean that Christians think these ideas are true, whether or not they’re easy to understand or accept. This is the way we usually approach truth. For instance, if a doctor told you that you we’re gravely ill you wouldn’t dispute it as being true or not, even though you wish it weren’t. In the same way, truth isn’t disputable based on preference. Because Christian thinking accepts ideas of judgement as a true reality, it can’t be blamed for trying to scare people. Instead, it genuinely believes that such realities really do exist and seeks to warn people to avoid judgement. Christians don’t, and shouldn’t, want a single person to be judged, even if they also firmly believe in the truth the Bible teaches about life after death.

When thinking about judgement in the Bible, we’re faced with God’s approach to universal justice. The part of judgement that doesn’t seem to offend us is the display of justice against obvious evil. Most people agree that victims of murder, rape, and abuse deserve to be vindicated, and that perpetrators of horrendous evils deserve to be judged. For instance, people expect that if God does exist, someone like Adolf Hitler, who committed genocide, will face certain judgement. Some people even believe this without believing in God.

But the difficult thing for people to agree with seems to be where God draws his line of justice. What if God measured justice out to all evil, even to the slightest degree? God’s approach to judging all evil means that we all deserve punishment, because we all do evil and participate in sin.

This is God’s grand plan for solving the problem of evil. He doesn’t want to only deal with the worst of evils. His plan is to confront all evil. Dealing with only the worst evils and not all evil is like being a gardener and only removing the branches of a poisonous tree. To remove the problem, you must dig out the root. For God to remove the problem of evil, he must judge all evil and measure out justice in response to every wrong. We’ve also talked about how God’s judgement of all evil is the only way his perfect character can respond to sin.

Before speaking about judgment, we must acknowledge that, when it comes to the afterlife, there is a limit to what we can know and understand. The Bible says that the place of punishment for sin is a place called “hell”. Hell is the place people will be punished eternally for their sin after death. Hell is described as being a place filled with either fire or darkness in different parts of the Bible. Some people also think that there might be different levels of punishment in hell based on the various sentences of God’s judgement. It’s also difficult to know how humans will experience hell when they’re no longer humans after death.

While there’s lots we can’t say or don’t know about hell, there are things the Bible reveals with certainty. We know that:

• Hell is eternal.

• It’s a place for punishment of sin against God’s enemies, which includes all who have sinned.

• It includes anguish.

• It’s a place separate from the blessings of a positive relationship with God.

When it comes to hell people often ask—how could I be punished for eternity is my sins aren’t eternal? In other words, if I’ve only sinned for 80 years, how could I be punished forever? One answer is that, while your sins on earth aren’t committed for eternity, they have an eternal value (cf. Matthew 12:31-32).

Another answer is that, under the curse of sin, people who reject God are expected to be sinful for eternity. They will never change from being sinful to sinless. It’s important to remember that we are the evil ones in the story, but God is perfectly good. We tend to view ourselves as good because we’re the protagonist in our own story. We justify our mistakes and find ways to minimise them. Humans are good at making their own standards and comparing their goodness to the “acceptable” standards of others, but to God we’re sinful. We have ignored, rejected, and hated God—we’ve hurt others and ourselves—so why would he invite us into his heaven, which is his dwelling place? How could we have a personal relationship with God when there’s a force inside us (sin) that continues to threaten, hurt, and betray him? Without hell, God and his people would never stop being mistreated by those who want to claim divine power and position for themselves.

Hopefully all these points show that, while hell is a difficult idea, it’s also an inescapable one in the Christian worldview. These ideas reveal the Christian reality that there’s a war in the spiritual realms. Humans are partnered with sin, and sin is in opposition to God. Satan, demons, and sinful humans want to kill God and gain his position (they tried to kill Jesus, but he rose from the dead). However, God has refused to forfeit his position as God. Christians thank God that he’s the perfect ruler, who won’t let evil dominate their existence in eternity like it did on earth amidst sin and Satan.

Lastly, many also ask the question—if God is God, being all-powerful and good, then surely he could make another way? The good news is that God has made another way of dealing with the problem of sin. He has made a plan to save humans from it at great cost to himself. This plan is called the gospel. God has provided another way through his son Jesus Christ—we just need to accept it to be saved from the consequences of our sin.

Chapter Summary:

• Most people agree that God should judge atrocious evils, but the Bible says God will judge all evil.

• Hell is the place God has assigned for people to be punished eternally for their sin after death. It’s a place separate from the blessings of God’s presence.

• While sins on earth aren’t committed for eternity, they have an eternal value (cf. Matthew 12:31-32). There will be eternal punishment for those left under the curse of sin.

• As sinners we justify our sinful nature and struggle to understand that we’re evil in comparison to God. We have hurt others and ourselves. We have ignored, rejected and hated God. God has the right not to invite his enemies into his eternal presence.

• God loves humans, even though they rebelled against him. He has provided a way for them to escape the consequences of sin at great cost to himself. He sent his son to die to take the place of his enemies if they would turn to him.