Below is a summary of my position regarding the doctrine of hell. Some of the points (or the specific details within those points) are unpopular and controversial. I am aware of the objections; I have carefully studied and considered them; and I possess biblically and rationally definitive answers against them. Some of these I have already provided in my books and articles, and I plan to address the remaining ones in future writings. Thus until undeniable biblical arguments are offered to refute any of the following points, or any of the details in the following points, I must consider all of them as biblical and coherent, and thus necessary and unnegotiable.

I am so strongly stating my insistence on these points because I am aware that some of my beliefs on the subject are very passionately opposed by many people, including Reformed Christians. However, the truth is that if we were to remove all the unbiblical, unneccessary, and unjustified assumptions that are so widely affirmed, it would become clear that the following points represent the only biblical and coherent position.

That said, I present to you the following ten points:

1. Hell is a place created for reprobate spirits, both angels and men.

2. Hell is a place whose inhabitants are sovereignly and unconditionally chosen and created by God for damnation.

3. Hell is a place in which God exacts non-redemptive but vindictive punishments upon its inhabitants.

4. Hell is a place in which God actively causes endless, conscious, and extreme torment for its inhabitants.

5. Hell is a place in which God displays his justice, righteousness, wrath, and power, and through which he glorifies himself.

6. Hell is a place that God has sovereignly created, and everything that God does is right and good by definition; therefore, it is right and good that God has created hell.

7. Hell is a place that God has sovereignly created, and through which he glorifies himself; therefore, it is sinful to disapprove of or be repulsed by its existence or purpose in any way.

8. Hell is a place that God has sovereignly created, and through which he glorifies himself; therefore, it is right and good to offer reverent and exuberant praise and thanksgiving to God for its creation, existence, and purpose.

9. Hell is a place that God warns about in Scripture, and that Christ preached about in his ministry on earth; therefore, it is right and good for believers to preach about hell, and to preach about the only way to avoid it, which is faith in Jesus Christ, sovereignly granted by God to those whom he has chosen for salvation.

10. Hell is a place that God has predestined for the reprobates; therefore, although it is right and good to indiscriminately preach the gospel to all men, so as to summon the elect and harden the reprobates, it is wrong and sinful to preach as if God sincerely desires the salvation of the reprobates or as if it is possible for the reprobates to receive faith and be saved.

Note on #2: Any condition that seems to correlate with God's reprobation of an individual has been sovereignly decreed to be part of that individual by God in the first place. A person is chosen for hell not by (or on any condition determined by) his own "free" will (which does not exist at all), but by God's sovereign will, which also sovereignly decrees and actively supplies all the conditions that God himself considers proper and necessary, such as sin and unbelief.

Note on #6: We find an analogy in the existence/creation of evil. Although evil is evil (evil is not good), since evil exists only because God has actively and sovereignly decreed it (not passively or permissively), therefore it is good that there is evil. In other words, evil is evil (evil is not good), but God's decree is good — that is, his decree that evil should exist by his active will and power. To put it simply, evil is evil and not good, but God did nothing wrong in decreeing evil; he did a right and good thing in decreeing evil. Likewise, God did a right and good thing in creating hell and in sovereignly, actively, and unconditionally predetermining the damnation of the reprobates.

Note on #7: It is right and proper to consider and discuss the topic with fear and trembling, knowing the severity and power of God, but it is wrong and sinful to consider and discuss the topic in a way that even remotely implies disapproval of or repulsion toward hell, as if to say that God did something wrong in creating it. To disapprove of or be repulsed by hell is not a sign of biblical compassion, but a sign of sinful rebellion that desires human welfare and comfort even apart from faith and holiness, and apart from dependence on the grace of God.

Note on #10: I have in mind the so-called "sincere offer" of the gospel. I will discuss this in another post this week.

Recommended:

Active vs. Passive Reprobation
Comments on "Why I am not a Calvinist"
More on "Apparent" Contradictions

Vincent Cheung, Systematic Theology
Vincent Cheung, Commentary on Ephesians
Vincent Cheung, "The Problem of Evil"

John Gerstner, Repent or Perish

Gordon Clark, God and Evil

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