God Sending People to Hell

God doesn’t want people to go to hell. He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), but we can reject his offer of salvation.

Although Scripture and the Church use the language of punishment in connection with hell, this has to be properly understood.

“It is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises already set by people in this life . . . ‘Eternal dam- nation,’ therefore, is not attributed to God’s initiative because in his merciful love he can only desire the salvation of the beings he created. In reality, it is the creature who closes himself to his love. Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed with death that seals his choice for ever. God’s judgment ratifies this state” (John Paul II, General Audience, July 28, 1999).

Consequently, “God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end” (CCC 1037).

It is not that God chooses to send a person to hell. The person chooses to remain separate from God, to reject his offer of love and forgiveness, and God respects the person’s choice. He will not force a person into union with him if that person chooses to be separate.

At the end of life, our choice becomes definitive. We will not change our mind after death, which is why both heaven and hell last forever (cf. CCC 1035).

But as long as we are still alive, we can still choose to turn to God, no matter what we have done, no matter how bad our sins have been. “There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest. Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin” (CCC 982).