How Can There Be a Hell?

The Circles of Hell

The Christian duty of forgiveness is, sadly a club many non-Christians like to use against believers. “You are obliged to forgive your brother seventy times seven times, right? So what right have you to complain of any injustice? You hypocrite!”

This charge misses an essential element in the equation. The most relevant passage is:

3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” -Luke 17:3-4

Dante's Hell

Did you catch the missing element? The transgressor must repent. If he does, sincerely, we indeed have a duty of forgiveness. If he does not, “forgiveness” is just moral cowardice. Which is no doubt what the non-believers wish to believe of Christianity in any case. It is denying the difference between right and wrong, a profound sin in itself.

Don't fall for that trap, believers.

An Angel Leading a Soul to Hell--School of Bosch.

This is the reason for the Sacrament of Confession (Reconciliation) as well. We must honestly admit our own shortcomings in order to be able to expect forgiveness. If we do not, forgiveness would be a moral lapse on God's part, and that is not going to happen.

And this is the reason why there must be a hell.

A friend recently expressed the view, common these days, that heaven might be real, but surely not hell. After all, God is all-merciful, isn't he? How could he ever choose to commit one of his children to eternal torment? Hell is some primitive, vengeful conception we need to grow out of.

A Romanesque View of Hell.

Not. If God is going to give us free will, we are going to be able to sin. If we sin and do not repent, God can do nothing for us, without violating his own nature, which is good. If we persist in our refusal into eternity, or if our choice is somehow irrevocable, our sojourn in hell must be eternal.

God had nothing to do with it. We did it to ourselves, despite his best efforts.

Hindu Hell.

An honest repentance for our sins also implies an honest desire to do restitution for them in any way possible. Hence the need for purgatory as well.

And this is how God's perfect justice conforms with his perfect mercy.