What Is Hell? Why Would People Choose to Stay There?

Would people in Hell choose Heaven if given the chance? In the popular modern show The Good Place, people can and do. In C.S. Lewis’ classic portrayal of a bus ride from Hell to Heaven, all but one do not. That may be surprising.

One reason for our surprise is that Protestants tend to think of hell as a prison cell where people want to get out, where God keeps them in because of their deeds and deservingness.  Which raises many challenging questions about the character of God. But Lewis portrays hell as a state of being where God calls people towards Him, where the people say "no," because of their desires and determinations.  Which makes more sense since we see people today choose self-deception and addiction, where our attempts at truth-telling and love feel like torment to them. This was actually the way the early Christians understood Hell. Lewis expresses this idea to a modern audience, with modern stories.

Lewis cautioned that this was an imaginary work, but his The Great Divorce highlights major themes in Scripture that help us explain Hell responsibly from the perspective of the early Christians: The human being is a human becoming. Sin is a corruption of one’s own human nature which can get deeper and deeper. God’s divine fire is not retributive but restorative — not for inflicting pain for its own sake but for purifying and cleansing. Jesus as the restorer of human nature and cure for the corruption.

We offered this class as a book discussion group in four 90 minute sessions. This can be customized based on your group’s need. Sign up on our Thinkific page.