After the last post on hell someone asked, “So did God create Hell just so there could be the cross?” No, the logical connection between the cross and hell assumes that hell already existed and that is why the cross was necessary.

So did God create Hell? Not really. The Bible does say that hell was ‘prepared’ for the Devil and his angels, but I don’t think Hell is created in the same active way that God created the world. instead Hell is a sort of a by product of God’s creation. The logic works like this: God is Love. Love is not only what He is but what He does. Love is not only what He does, but what He is. One of the most important attributes of Love is that it is fruitful. Therefore God is a creator. He creates man and woman in his image. Part of being in God’s image is that we are given a little smidgen of his omnipotence. This is called free will. Within the boundaries of our human condition we can do what we like.

We can therefore reject God. If we reject God then we cannot be in his presence. Indeed if God were to make us go to heaven it would not be heaven for us because in rejecting God we also (ultimately) reject all things good and beautiful and pleasurable and true. If we reject all those things we will end up with all things miserable and ugly and painful and false.

If we are created in God’s image, then we not only have a smidgen of his omnipotence, we also have a smidgen of his eternal life. That means we will live forever somewhere. If we reject God and all that is good, where will we spend eternity? We must spend it in a place where God is not, where good is not, where beauty is not and where love is not. This is the place we call Hell.

Christ died on the cross to save us from this place.