Objection 6: A Loving God Would Never Torture People in Hell

Strobel here shares the light with J. P. Moreland. On this point we would again refer the reader to the material by Miller here (especially part 2), which offers a more detailed examination of this matter, and now much later add our own take here. Jacobsen says he "found this chapter a maddening read, fraught with logic errors too numerous to completely detail." I sense a rather emotional reaction behind this, but let us proceed.

Like Miller, but in less detail, Moreland corrects the Dante-esque notion of hell as "fire and brimstone" and rightly notes that hell is actually permanent separation from God. Jacobsen offers no reply on this point and so apparently does not disagree. He does become outraged, however, at this point:

So how does a person get himself or herself sent to hell? For one, Moreland argues that it is actually an act of compassion on God's part to send people to hell! Moreland says that people in their lives make "thousands of little choices each day without even knowing about it. Each day we're preparing ourselves for either being with God and his people and valuing the things he values, or choosing not to engage with those things . . . If people do not fall passionately in love with him, then to force them to have to be around him forever--doing the kinds of things that people who love him would want to do--would be utterly uncomfortable."

Jacobsen claims he finds "many, many problems with this theology" but I have to admit to start that I did not find any place where Moreland said, "It is actually an act of compassion for God to send people to hell." I DO see where he noted that God is compassionate, but also just, moral, and pure; he speaks of hell as punishment, and as a sort of jail; he notes that those who reject God would not want to be around Him anyway; but I see nowhere where he uses the word "compassionate" to describe this action. Perhaps I am missing the right line. But given that understanding, here is what Jacobsen says:

1. "...if God is being compassionate by sending people who don't want to be around Him to hell, why are the people in hell not exercising their free will to do the things that they do want to do?" Beyond what may or may not have been said about "compassion" here, people in hell ARE (and DID) exercise their free will, to reject God, which is why they are in hell to begin with. Jacobsen does not understand how a life deprived of God can be "the worst possible situation" and supposes, "Moreland makes it sound like hell would be a great place to go and 'do your thing.'" Hmm. Jacobsen as a whole is clearly not a depraved individual, and I think he has overestimated the options for leisure activity, so to speak, in hell; it is also marginal to trivialize what life separated from God would be like. But let us say one is free in hell to pursue all manner of depravity one did on earth. How long does Jacobsen think it would be before such persons realized the purposelessness and fruitlessness of their eternal lives? On earth such people would commit suicide in despair.

2. Next: "...if hell is 'the worst possible situation' how can it also be 'merciful'?" I once again find myself wondering where Jacobsen finds this point made; I see no place where it is said to be "merciful" though one word is easy to miss. That said, I do find that hell is in accord with the principles of mercy as outlined here (where it will be seen that it is not used in the modern sense of refraining from dishing out pain and punishment). It is also asked, "How could it possibly be 'merciful' for God to never consider the possibility of a person changing their mind over time?" Granting that definition of mercy, how does Jacobsen come to presume that those in hell WOULD ever change their minds? Jacobsen's points are once again based on second-guessing and mind-reading over the temporal realms.
3. His third objection is more of the same: if people in hell have regrets, he says, "it seems to me that they probably would like to be with God." It "seems" this way? This is merely mind-reading, which is peculiar given that Jacobsen claimed to see "logical" errors in what Moreland said. One should note that regret is mutually exclusive of repentance. A prison inmate may "regret" their crime -- in that they regret that they were caught.
4. Then, "...what does this say about the value of evangelism? If people who are in hell are people that would rather be in hell than in heaven with God, then what is the point of evangelism?" The point of evangelism is twofold: 1) To provide the way to those who WILL accept; 2) To validate judgment on those who do not. Beyond that, unless Jacobsen has a list of those who will or will not accept (perhaps it's more of that mind-reading he does [grin]), his question, "Why try to talk people that don't want to be with God into wanting to be with God?," I want to know how he knows who such people are. He'd save me a lot of time.

Jacobsen then looks at three sub-objections:

1. How Can God Send Children to Hell -- Jacobsen presumes, probably rightly, that Moreland believes in the "Age of Accountability Doctrine" and refers readers to Chapter 4.
2. Why Does Everyone Suffer the Same in Hell -- it is said, "Moreland contends that there are different levels of suffering in hell. But he also contends that all suffer mightily, so it seems to be a pointless discussion." The former is true and also in line with Miller's detailed exposition linked above. The latter ("mightily") is another one of those quotes I can't seem to find, unless one takes it too literally into Moreland's summary "worst possible situation" descriptor.
3. Why are People Punished Infinitely for Finite Crimes? --- my new view (see link atop) negates the need to defend this idea; thus I have removed my prior response to Jacobsen.
4. Couldn't God Force Everyone to go to Heaven? -- here again Jacobsen resorts to the "mind reading" idea, that he is sure somehow that people in hell will actually want to really return to God. He has the impression, apparently, that "unhappiness" can have only one responding result. As noted above, regret (and unhappiness) are mutually exclusive of the reaction to regret and unhappiness.
5. Why Doesn't God Just Snuff People Out? -- Moreland argues against an annihilationist perspective by noting that it is a method that treats people like a means to an end, and therefore denies their intrinsic value. Jacobsen's main reply to this is an emotional one, as he sarcastically replies: "So, instead God punishes for eternity beings of 'intrinsic value?'" Yes -- and how is this an answer? It isn't. Jacobsen needs to show that eternal punishment in the form of separation from God shows less respect more intrinsic value of persons than annihilation does. Rather than do this, he hoists the emotional flag and asks "how would you like it if...", thereby forcing the matter to subjective preference rather than objective fact.
6. How Can Hell Exist Alongside Heaven? -- in response to Moreland's point that "people in heaven will realize that hell is protecting their 'intrinsic value,'" Jacobsen once again opts for speculative mind-reading over the centuries and posits a "what if" question suggesting people in heaven might not agree. This is not a logical or factual reply but a speculative and emotional one.
7. Why Didn't God Create Only Those He Knew Would Follow Him? -- like Miller, Moreland notes that those who do not follow God have roles in the lives of those who do follow Him (as the example we gave elsewhere of Madalyn Murray O'Hair). Jacobsen finds this reply "incredibly strange" and responds first to the idea that God "could have created maybe ten people He knew would follow Him." Jacobsen retorts, "Does Moreland not know that God seems to have failed to be able to predict what two people, Adam and Eve, would do?" There's no "seems" about it, actually; as has been the case before, Jacobsen merely assumes a "seems" where no data is offered at all. The reply here is that God knew exactly what would happen -- and knew that there was no possible world where free will could exist and all could be saved. God creates ten; do they never procreate, though? And if they are immortal, does not the length of their existence guarantee that one or more will fall, if not all?

   Moreland uses the analogy of the Back to the Future movies (it is perhaps too late now to use It's a Wonderful Life instead!) which is quite appropriate: it shows that even minor changes in events can have macro-effects. But Jacobsen once more pulls out the seems of his pants and says, "Moreland seems to, as best as I can determine, be making a reference to chaos theory. He seems to be saying that God Himself is subject to chaos theory and cannot predict every reaction to every action." Er, no, he isn't! But while Jacobsen does admit that he is "not 100% certain this is what Moreland is trying to say" he then goes on to criticize Moreland for holding this position anyway! No, what Moreland is saying is that God CAN predict every reaction, and in this light, knows exactly what needs to be done to achieve any given macro-effect -- which means He also knows that there will inevitably (in a free will setting) be some persons who will never accept Him; and thus also, he knows what it takes to get those saved who WILL follow Him.

   To quote Doc Brown, though, Jacobsen doesn't think fourth-dimensionally, and rather than actually answer this point, resorts once again to pressing the emotion button: "So people who don't choose God can still be instrumental in helping people go to heaven--and their reward for this is eternal damnation? So God just uses people and then throws them away? Doesn't this smack of Sadism?" No. It doesn't, and being emotional about it does not answer the argument or negate it in any way. Moreover, such persons are not instrumental because they want to be, but in spite of themselves, which is no call for reward and certainly no reason to suspend their own punishment. The punk who trips the little old lady on the bus, and just happens to make her trip into a terrorist bomb which her weight causes to shatter and malfunction, isn't up for a reward for stopping a bomb, now, is he? The persons in question are "used", yes -- because they have already plotted their OWN trip to throw THEMSELVES away. Sadism? More like sadomasochism. Jacobsen asks then, "God Almighty couldn't come up with a better plan than this? He couldn't come up with a better way to influence people to choose Christ?" Well, if Jacobsen has a suggestion for second-guessing the means, let him submit his plan for consideration. Merely bellowing in outrage and saying "there had to be a better way" is merely all talk, no action.

   In close, other than criticizing Moreland for the "chaos theory" idea he does not hold, Jacobsen claims that Moreland's argument "amounts to an admission that whether someone eventually chooses to have faith in Christ is essentially unpredictable and dependant on who you meet, who you talk to and your life experiences." If Jacobsen means, "unpredictable" from our point of view, that is quite correct and of no relevance. As in Chapter 1, objecting to our personal lack of knowledge is not an argument against the paradigm itself. Beyond that the argument actually is that one's decision is actually a syncretistic event, in which the people you meet, the experiences you have, and your own free will decision combine. Is it possible that had you not turned that corner, you would not have been saved? Yes, but the point is meaningless, for the paradigm also holds that if you miss that corner, God has multiple opportunities to bring you into yet another situation where you will make the same decision.

8. Why Doesn't God Give People a Second Chance? -- a second chance? How about a 187th, 1296th, 78,463rd chance? Every second of every day is a chance to change one's mind, and I agree with Moreland that "this question assumes God didn't do everything he could do before people died, and I reject that. God does everything he can to give people a chance and there will not be a single person who will be able to say to God, 'if you had just not allowed me to die prematurely, if you'd have given me another twelve months, I know I would have made that decision.'" In answer Jacobsen claims a "stunningly blatant contradiction" to the answer on the objection above, but his "contradiction" is based on the false assumption that Moreland is preaching chaos theory. Hence there is nothing to answer.

   As an aside Jacobsen asks the question, "What is the point of life on Earth? A billion years from now, are you going to be sitting in heaven talking about the time your aunt died? How could any experience as a mortal human on Earth be in any way useful to an immortal being in heaven?" I find it interesting how omniscient Jacobsen "seems" to be, as he is so sure that experience on Earth will be useless in a billion years, and that he picks one trivial life-event as a subject. I'll grant this: In a billion years it may well be useless; in a thousand, a hundred, not so. And that billion would have been built on that hundred, then thousand, then tens of thousand. Jacobsen also retorts that those who die as children seem to do just fine, but how does he manage to know that every person's role and purpose a million or a billion years from now requires the same Earthly experience? Doc Brown says, "Think fourth dimensionally!"

9. Isn't Reincarnation More Rational Than Hell? -- Jacobsen does "agree that if people came back as something other than human, there would be very little to recognize." But he says Moreland did not answer the question: "Wouldn't reincarnation (as a human again) at least be a better option than hell?" I think Moreland did answer the question; it is simply that no one defines "reincarnation" in terms of a sure return to a human body. If this is the system Jacobsen wants, then of what use is it? The same person who would never accept God and would end up in hell would also never accept God returning as a human over and over again.

In conclusion as a whole: Jacobsen summarizes by asserting that Moreland's answers were "weak at best and preposterous at worst," but given the number of times he resorted to what Moreland "seemed" to argue, one has to wonder if that is a fair evaluation. He closes non-specifically claiming that "Moreland denied trying to soft-pedal hell, but I really think he was," but does not explain why he thinks this. In the linked article atop Miller offers an exegesis of standard passages. If this is "soft-pedaling" then we would like for Jacobsen to explain specifically how.