How do religious people cope with the existence of Hell?

[TDAS04]

This is by far the most challenging Christian doctrine, and I don't have a good answer for you.  Annihilationism makes sense to me, but we still have a problem even then with why few seem to be saved according to the Bible.   How do I reconcile this with a loving God?  I think the answer has to do with the justice of God, the capability to make choices, and the finality of our decisions. 

You’re now an Annihilationist?

[TDAS04]

Good question from the OP.  I say that as a Christian—albeit a pretty liberal one—who believes in Jesus and has had a strong emotional attachment to him for some time.  I certainly love his moral teaching about loving one’s neighbor and helping the least among us, but I also accept his divinity and that his death and resurrection result in forgiveness for all of our sins—and I sincerely hope that it’s for all people.

The concept of the God I love, and who—I was taught—loves me, condemning some people to eternal suffering in hell may be just too unpleasant for me to accept, especially if eternal fate depends on whether or not an individual holds the correct beliefs or if God just decides who will be saved and who will be damned by deciding who will have faith and who will not.  It can seem like a damper on the joy of a loving Jesus getting you to heaven when so many people you like or love on Earth probably won’t be there.  This is a major reason I stay on the more liberal side of Christianity and don’t think I would be very happy in a conservative religious group.

Of course, many fundamentalist may doubt I’m a Christian for not believing God sends people to hell.  After all, they believe the Bible rejects universalism, and if I don’t believe in something the Bible says, they may think I’ve not truly accepted Christ—and thus—I’m going to you-know-where.

Maybe the Bible does make it challenging to argue for universalism (though I’m skeptical if it really precludes the belief as much as some claim).  However, the idea that God sends people to be eternally tortured in hell seems to go against both the heart and mind.  One can say “Anne Frank was not saved because she didn’t have faith in Jesus Christ” or one can more bluntly state “Anne Frank went from Hitler’s ovens to God’s ovens.”  How can one not be appalled by such a notion?  Of course, there’s that thing about whatever God does is right, and even if it doesn’t seem right to us, it is right because God is God.  But of course it seems natural to be repulsed by the idea that God would impose eternal suffering on the victims of such horror, who seemingly suffered enough on Earth.

I also remember hearing about a Native American boy who witnessed much of his family get killed by American troops.  American missionaries told him he could go to heaven by believing in Christianity, but he replied that if Christianity is true, he doesn’t want to go to heaven because his family won’t be there.

I have been attending a few progressive mainline churches, which tend not to talk about hell much, if at all.  Some of them may even be open the possibility of universalism, even if they don’t take an official position.  I’ve currently been attending services at a progressive Lutheran (ELCA) church, where the pastor has stated that non-Christians also go to heaven and that Jesus died for all of our sins, and not even holding wrong religious beliefs can keep one from God’s grace.  I like these beliefs, and I choose to believe them, even though I’m never sure how anyone can be certain of any religious beliefs.