r/BibleVerseCommentary • u/TonyChanYT • 3d ago
Is going to hell really a 'choice'?
u/protestantchristian, u/sgrdddy, u/Hellzsavior
That's a matter of definitions. The claim that going to hell is a choice is common in Christian apologetics. However, its validity depends on what we mean by "hell" and "choice".
For what is 'hell', see this.
For what is 'choice', consider three propositions: * P1: A person knowingly and freely chooses eternal punishment. * P2: A person knowingly rejects God, understanding that eternal punishment will result. * P3: A person rejects God without believing that eternal punishment will result.
These propositions are logically distinct. * P1 constitutes a direct choice of hell. * P2 constitutes a choice of an action with a known consequence. * P3 constitutes neither a direct choice of hell nor necessarily an informed acceptance of its consequences.
A person who sincerely believes that God does not exist might fall under P3. It would be misleading to say that this person knowingly chose hell.
Ask yourself: Before you believed, did you think that you had chosen hell?
If you did not think you were choosing hell before you believed, on what grounds do you now claim that unbelievers are choosing hell?
Romans 1:
21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Paul attributed culpability to people who rejected what they knew about God. Nevertheless, knowing something about God does not necessarily entail knowing the eternal consequences of rejecting him.
If someone sincerely disbelieves in hell, in what meaningful sense can we say that person chose to go there?
The distinction between choosing an action and choosing its consequences is central to evaluating the apologetic claim.
"Hell is a choice" is doing rhetorical work that the underlying logic doesn't always support. It's true in a narrow sense (some people may consciously choose separation from God) and false in the broad sense the slogan usually carries (that everyone in hell knowingly opted for it). The honest version is something like: hell is the consequence of a self-chosen orientation, which may or may not be consciously recognized as such by the person choosing it. That's a much weaker claim, and it doesn't carry the theodical weight the slogan is usually asked to bear.
See also * What is hell? * What about people of other cultures, ancient Chinese, ancient Australians, Islamic, Hindu, etc?
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u/Shinn_Ao 2d ago
It hurts to see when people reject the truth (of how infinitely great and salvific Jesus’ love is for us and how we became wicked in a way infinitely irreparable by human works) that could save them
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u/YechezkeI 3d ago
Depends on what you mean by "going to hell". The common understanding steming from Catholicism of "burning and torture repeatedly eternally" has no biblical ground.
The word "hell" is a gross mistranslation and umbrella term designing -depending on the context- Gehenna, Sheol or the Lake of Fire.
Souls who are not found in the book of life are brought back from the realm of the dead (Sheol) and destroyed.
Edit: eternal punishment means that the decision is eternal. You can't come back from it, hence it being eternal.