Why does God create people He knows will go to hell?
God knows the end from the beginning, so the question presses hard: if He sees a life ending in hell before that life begins, why start it at all? The writers in this collection answer not by softening hell but by asking where the responsibility for it actually lies.
Hell Was Never Built for Human Beings
When Jesus describes the sentence on the lost, He does not say the fire was made for them. One commentator makes much of that exact wording, and of the difference between the two halves of the scene:
William Kelly"Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." In the other case the kingdom was said to be "prepared for you" — not so when He speaks of the curse. Hell was not prepared for poor guilty man. He deserves it; but it was prepared for the devil and his angels... There was no hope of deliverance for these fallen angels — no redemption for them. They wilfully and without a tempter departed from God. Man was tempted by an enemy; and God feels for guilty man, drawn away by a mightier, if not more guilty, rebel than himself.
No One Is Made for Ruin
The question assumes God assigns some people to destruction in advance. Writers here deny that any such decree exists anywhere in Scripture, and they trace the fitting of a person for ruin to the person:
C. H. MackintoshThere is absolutely no such thing as reprobation in the word of God, meaning the consignment on God's part of any number of His creatures to everlasting damnation. Eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25). Men will rush into it. "Vessels of wrath" are fitted, not by God, but by themselves, "for destruction" (Rom. 9). Everyone who gets to heaven will have to thank God for it. Everyone who finds himself in hell will have to thank himself for it.
What God Actually Wants
Scripture states God's desire toward every person, and one writer refuses to trim those statements to fit a system — while insisting the human side is real too:
C. H. MackintoshWe are sure that God never meant to puzzle, to repulse or to discourage poor souls. God is love, His grace has brought salvation to all. "He wills not the death of a sinner." He is "not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." "He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Such is His gracious attitude toward all. So if any perish, it is not in line with the will of God. But there is another side to this great question. Man is responsible.
The cross is the proof of that desire, and its value is not cancelled by the number who refuse it:
Frederick W. GrantChrist dying for the world, the testimony of God's love to men at large, is no empty thing just because in fact not all are saved by it. It shows us that infinite goodness which men have to break away from: the goodness of which He has sworn, "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 33:11).
Foreknowing Is Not Forcing
Knowing what someone will do is not the same as making them do it. One writer works through the logic carefully, and locates the outcome in the limits of a created being rather than in any push from God:
J. N. DarbyForeknowledge does not imply the direct appointment of the fact... if a creature, being imperfect, is exposed to temptation, he will certainly fall. I may act on it as a certainty — that is, God may, who perfectly knows the bearing of all things — without the smallest compulsion on the person. He may have seen it right to leave the creature exposed to it, and to have this moral trial. There was a way of escape, no necessity, no predisposition to evil.
God Foresaw the Fall and Was Not Defeated by It
Foreknowledge of the fall does not make God a silent accomplice in it. It does mean He had an answer ready before the damage was done:
James BoydThat God knew man would fall I hardly need to state. That He secretly went along with it is a wicked slander on His infinite goodness... The fall of man gave occasion for God to bring out the secret thought of His heart, and in all His ways He will in the end be justified even in the eyes of those who come under His eternal displeasure.
Where the Questioning Itself Goes Wrong
There is also a warning attached to this kind of question. Asked as an argument rather than a cry, it puts the creature in the judge's seat:
C. H. MackintoshMen may reason and argue endlessly about why God permitted sin to enter, why He did not at once destroy Satan and his angels, why He allowed the serpent to tempt Eve, why He did not hold her back from eating the forbidden fruit. In short, the hows and whys are endless; but the answer is one: "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?"
Summary
- Prepared — the kingdom was prepared for people; the fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Nobody was created with hell in view.
- Fitted — vessels of mercy are prepared by God; vessels of wrath fit themselves. Heaven's occupants thank God; hell's occupants have only themselves to thank.
- Willed — God's stated desire is that none perish and all reach repentance. If anyone perishes, it happens against that desire, not in line with it.
- Foreknown — God's advance knowledge of a fall involves no compulsion on the person and leaves a way of escape open.
- Answered — the fall did not defeat God's purpose; it became the occasion for showing what was in His heart, and even those under His judgment will admit He was right.