For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Does God want some to go to hell?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
God wants everyone to go to heaven.
“This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
God wants some to go to hell.
“The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, Even the wicked for the day of evil.” (Proverbs 16:4)
“He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they will not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and be converted, and so I will not heal them.”” (John 12:40)
“So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” (Romans 9:18)
“For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the website’s track record of inaccurate handling of biblical passages. See the many examples of their error we have responded to here in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this post, which is what the remainder of the post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages the Skeptic Annotated Bible cited and see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptic tries to pit 1 Timothy 2:3-4 and 2 Peter 3:9 which he claim asserts “God wants everyone to go to heaven” against Proverbs 16:4, John 12:40, Romans 9:18 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 which the skeptic think is telling us “God wants some to go to hell.”
- While Proverbs 16:4, John 12:40, Romans 9:18 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 did not necessarily mentioned hell (remember the asserted claim by the skeptic, “God wants some to go to hell”) nevertheless we do see in these passages that God want to judge sinners.
- I want to make it clear that when God wants to judge sinners it is not arbitrary but rather God being a God of Justice does mean He demand punishment of sinners for their sins.
- The next verse after Proverbs 16:4 states “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5). There’s the basis of sin as to why God wants to punish.
- John 12:40 quotes from Isaiah and that’s done to explain why some of the Jews did not believe in Jesus despite the miracles Jesus has performed. Note John 12:37 states “But though He had performed so many signs in their sight, they still were not believing in Him.” It is because of the willful rejection of the signs Jesus performed that John 12:40 states there’s a judicial blindness will occur on the basis of their sins.
- Romans 9:18 does say He hardens whom He wants but there is a moral basis for Pharoah’s destruction and that’s his disobedience to God with regards to letting the Hebrews go, as seen in the book of Exodus.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 mentioned about a deluding influence and the reason for that is stated in a purpose clause in verse 12. Namely it is so “they all may be judged.” Who are the people judged? The end of verse 12 states these are those “who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” Earlier in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 it say “But though He had performed so many signs in their sight, they still were not believing in Him“
- Nevertheless God does save people. The skeptic cited 1 Timothy 2:3-4 and 2 Peter 3:9 as proof that “God wants everyone to go to heaven” and while those passages does not say heaven there is salvation in mind contextually.
- There’s still not a contradiction. Since Scripture uses family analogy to describe spiritual realities I will do that here too. Let’s say there’s a family where all the children got in trouble with something really bad. I can think of a righteous parent wanting to discipline their children and yet at the same time the same parent want to show mercy.
- Also with that analogy let’s say some of the children wants to rebel even more and the parent might want to give more disciplinary action towards these group of children versus showing mercy to those children who did repent. There’s not a contradiction here either, even as the parent have the desire to want all their children be saved and be restored.
- There’s a related matter to this alleged contradiction that I have dealt with here: Was Jesus a ransom for many or a ransom for all?
- There is no contradiction here. Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
Good point:
“Romans 9:18 does say He hardens whom He wants but there is a moral basis for Pharoah’s destruction and that’s his disobedience to God with regards to letting the Hebrews go, as seen in the book of Exodus.”
Pharoah’s disobedience preceded the hardening. His destruction was also temporal whereas hell is eternal.
Thanks for reading this Frank! Man there’s so much to go into and I had to cut down things since I didn’t want to get into the whole discussion about God’s sovereignty, human responsibility and the role of man’s will, etc. But I think all sides see it’s important that judicial hardening is true, that there’s a moral basis for the hardening. Blessings to you Frank, thanks for reading this!!
Thanks for countering another one of Stephen/Steve Wells’ contradictions. With this accusation he skirts around the issue of man’s free will/responsibility in light of God’s sovereignty, which has been debated within the church for centuries. While we would not accept the claim that the Bible is contradictory in this regard, we could agree that it’s not absolutely crystal clear to us how the passages that teach man’s freewill/responsibility align with the passages that teach the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.
Thanks for reading this! There’s so much one can get deeper into this text. But it’s clearly not a contradiction!!! Thanks for commenting! How goes your day today brother Tom??
I’m a procrastinator when it comes to taxes, so I resolved I was going to get all of my tax paperwork together today. I needed one document printed out from a website. Our printer has been sporadic lately and I think it finally died. So I finally printed it out at our local library, but it took three trips, no need to go into the details. Anyway, it was a succession of problems like the Keystone Cops. Phew! Finally have it.
How did your Friday go?
This is a good that I wondered about
I meant to say answer.
Seeing this in my email and coming to read your post have helped me think more better in handling the Bible
Thanks! I understand what you are saying 😀
I appreciate it!
I’m glad you tackled this one, Jimmy, as it doesn’t seem to me as silly as many of the others. I like the family analogy. Nothing has given me more insight into God’s heart than being a parent!
I agree with you I wonder myself too this question
Wow thank you for reading this; very touching comment and encouragement!!!
I think sceptics are in a war with themselves, fighting against giving into belief.
Good well of putting it! It seem this one might be more challenging for some but many of these alleged Bible contradictions are rather forced and they have an axe to grind, with Romans 1 revealing they are suppressing the truth. Hope this evening is going well with you!
Yes, I painted all day lol tomorrow will be warm and sunny so I’m going to plant some flowers and some cool weather veggies.
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Well done Pastor Jim. Your analogy of a parent exercising both discipline and mercy in guiding one’s children fits well with God’s use of justice.
Thanks for reading this and I too think the parenting analogy answers and illuminates this dilemma that the critics bring up! Grateful for you brother and your support of this project!
questions about hell can be more emotional than rational
I know this because it was true for me as a nonbeliever
That is true. I see that a lot when I’m doing evangelism with nonbelievers
the Atheists reasoning are atrocious these days 👀
Yeah they can be ridiculous though this is one that is more closer to being legitimate
Yeah that’s fair
I am helped by your detailed outline
So glad to hear that. Have you read other posts In this series?
Yes! I read Bible Contradiction? Did Balak fight with Israel?
Bible Contradiction? Did the Israelites kill every male in Midian?
Bible Contradiction? Was Sisera murdered in his sleep?
you forgot!
Apologist Warner Wallace tweeted this, it reminded me about your blog
Thanks for reading this and thanks for letting me know about the tweet which explains this page high hits this week thanks
The posts from your blog that he share are definitely worth reading
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Another alleged contradiction resolved! Thanks for this Jim!
Thanks for checking it out brother!!