Will Christians be punished? Will some non-Christians be saved?
Is the New Jerusalem just for the best believers, and who will be in the nations of the saved? Do all non-Christians go to the lake of fire? Will some Christians go to hell? The general Evangelical position on this is quite black and white because we rightly wish to emphasise salvation through grace alone. But this more grey account is for those people who do not fit into categories; its the mop-up operation. Yes, everyone stands condemned without Christ, (John 3:28) and salvation is only through grace and Christ’s blood. But we should consider this alongside Matthew 25. No one fully knows the answers to these questions fully, all we really know is that faith in God’s grace will bring us into the fullness of God’s Spirit now, and in the future, salvation.
My understanding of this subject is based on the teaching in Matthew ch25, which contains three types of judgement, and they are in Chronological order. The first is at the rapture, the second is for believers at the second coming, and the third is the final judgement for all non-Christians. The final judgement is also described in Revelations 20.
Hell Vs the Lake of Fire
The key to understanding this is to know that hell/hades and the lake of fire are separate places. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that hell is forever, even though it does say that the lake of fire is forever. Hell feels like a constant present moment that you can never escape from.
Hell comes in different flavors, depending on the level. Those in ‘outer darkness’ experience isolation and despair; those near the top who are put into virtual reality spaces, (according to Bryan Melvin) they will relive the consequences of their activities, and fully experience the rebellious intentions of their own heart. Those near the bottom will be subject to demonic torture. But the lake of fire was created for the devil and there is no getting out of it. Hell and death are finally emptied at the last judgement and everyone will stand before God. “Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done.” (Rev 20:13) This information is gleaned from various NDEs and on Rev 20. God did not create hell, it is the space that was given to Lucifer to rule after he rebelled. We go there because the spirits that we follow in this life have ownership of us in the next.
Three Scenarios For Christians – the Possibility of Punishment
In the parable of the sower, those whose heart is like the hard path, do not every really become a Christian, so we can discount this scenario.
1: Those who lose salvation:
We can lose our salvation but not accidentally. “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away”. (Matt 13) In this scenario the heart was not changed and they fall away. Calvinists would argue that these were never really born again. Yet what counts is how we finish the race. These are people who have broken the covenant and given up accessing grace through faith. These do not repent before death; this is the only way to make sense of Hebrews 6:6. Rev 3:5 tells us that names can be removed from the book of life! “He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life…”
2: Those who are unfruitful, un-restored are Purified.
“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful”. A Christian living their own way, no longer in obedience and faith (like the lazy servant in Matt 25) if they die in this state will need chastisement and purification in ‘outer darkness’ before they can enter paradise.
But because God does not give up on his people we can count on him restoring and transforming those servants who’s heart has been full of thorns, causing God’s seed to become unfruitful. If we have the desire to repent then God is still at work in us. Nothing can pluck us from both Jesus’s hand, and from the Father’s hand. (John 10). We know the fearful and lazy servant in Matt 25 was a believer because he was a servant. Yet Jesus does not consign him to gehenna or the lake of fire, he orders him to outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Outer darkness is mentioned again: “while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 8:12), (and Luke 12:46). In Matt 7:23 Jesus tells people who think they are Christians to “depart from me I never knew you”. Presumably ‘outer darkness’ is a place in the second heaven where people are taken for cleansing. Having listened to many accounts of near death experiences, I have heard of several instances when God would not allow someone into heaven because they held onto unforgiveness, resentment, arrogance or fear in their heart. They would spoil heaven if they entered in that state. Bitterness of soul must be cleansed before they can enter. In the end however, they will be saved, ‘but shall be saved through fire’ (1Cor3:15). Judgment begins at the house of God. Having all of ones life’s worth and meaning destroyed, and the burning shame of being stripped of their natural ego-based goodness; this sounds like punishment of a sort. Notice Paul did not state how long this process would last.
3: The Fruitful Overcomers.
Those who respond to the word with a good and honest heart and who are enpty enough of thier own ways to be able to be filled by God’s overcoming Spirit will receive a reward. (Luke 8:15) Most Christians go directly to paradise, after all, even the dying thief on the cross went directly to paradise.
A real Christian must not only come to God through the cross for sins forgiven, but also allow God to invade all of their heart, changing their values. They have come to the end of themselves, acknowledging their spiritual poverty. They must learn to walk every moment with God and listen to his voice. They do good works motivated and inspired by love for God, and not to please people. For those that do go through God’s high and narrow way, there is assurance of salvation, and God is with them every moment (John 10:28). The thief on the cross went straight to paradise because of his humble and courageous faith. Had he lived he would have been a disciple.
Christ’s redemption is for those who recognise their spiritual poverty, these are empty enough to be transformed by God’s Spirit. Some emphasise grace alone, some emphasise works, but we are saved to do the good works that God had planned for us. Faith without works is dead.
Three Scenarios for Non-Christians
1: Will Some non-Christians be Saved From Hell?
The first question must be, can someone successfully pay for their own sins in hell? Secondly, can they have a change of heart from within hell, asking Jesus to save them? And thirdly, does doing good for the least of Jesus’ brothers qualify someone for the ‘nations of the saved’?
The only reason these three question are being asked is because at the last judgment it seems to suggest in Rev 20 that those in hell will stand before God and be judged on their works; why do this is they will all be put into the lake of fire, and they have already been paying for their sins in hell? As the Bible does not seem to answer these three questions it is unwise to jump to conclusions, and so these are mere speculations.
We know that it is faith and repentance that allows us to access God’s grace, based on God’s atonement for sin. Humility is one prerequisite for faith to develop. Faith affects heart change and behavioral change and exults our image of God. We are all condemned because we all must pay for the wrong we have done; justice demands this. There exists a spiritual cause-and effect, as well as a physical cause-and-effect (or karma). But having paid for sin and transgressions in hell, can some people’s good works and belief in the goodness of God save them when they stand at the judgment seat? Will this qualify them to be among the nations of the saved who live outside of the New Jerusalem? Or are those in the nations of the saved instead those who have come through the millennium reign of Christ and been judged faithful? During a temporary visit to hell many people call out to Christ and are rescued, but this opportunity may only be for those who are temporarily dead, and not for those who suffer the ‘first death’ and are permanently dead. The second death is the lake of fire.
What we do know is that there is one royal route to heaven and that is through trusting in God’s mercy, salvation and righteousness. Those in his kingdom make him their king. However, perhaps when a person’s heart is towards God and goodness, despite not knowing him, and they have done good to Christians and to the humble, then this will be taken into account at the last judgment. The Bible always states that good people get into paradise. Even Jesus told the rich man that to get into heaven he must keep the commandments, which of course is impossible because even if we abstain form transgressing against our neighbor we will inevitably put other gods before God or fail to trust him. In the case of the ‘rich young ruler’ his own goodness and his wealth were his gods; perhaps this is why Jesus emphasised that no one is good. Righteousness comes from God and is meant to be used for him and through him. When a persons heart is towards goodness they begin to realise just who poor and wretched their own goodness really is. We also know God saves the most wretched of people, while the self-righteous condemn themselves to spiritual independence and isolation.
2: The Simple Faith of a humble Non-Christian
Then there is another scenario; a non Christian who has not refused Christ, and who believes in a good, just, creator God, and who wants to be like God in their character, and as result they follow their conscience, may avoid hell altogether and go directly to paradise. This is essentially what God wants from us after all. This appears to be what Romans 2:13-16 is saying (unbelievers are judged according to their conscience). When John Fenn visited heaven he met a homeless Indian boy raised Hindu, who before he died had prayed to know the God who created everything. These might experience a life review to deal with their sins and to affect heart change. A life-review is a kind of refining, cleansing experience.
This scenario only applies to people who have never heart of Jesus salvation, and perhaps only to children or naive people, and there is no guarantee of salvation. So this is not something we should talk about often. There is an urgency to bring the gospel to sinners, even if a minority might make it to the ‘nations of the saved’ without having conscious faith in Christ in this life. In this scenario it is not primarily a persons righteousness that causes them to escape hell but their faith, however simple.
3: the Worst-Case Scenario
An unbeliever simply goes to one of the levels of hell, and then after the final judgment goes to the lake of fire forever.
Purgatory and the Four Levels of Sheol
The Catholic version of purgatory is a skewed view of Sheol in that they seem to teach that most Christians, rather than just a few, go there to pay for sins unforgiven, and that the prayers and deeds of the living will get them out of purgatory more quickly. Even though there is some truth in the idea of purgatory it is a mistake to assume that many Christians must go there to finish paying for their sins as this can detract from the work of the cross. Even though a minority of Christians go to somewhere like purgatory, it is not to pay for sins, more to be cleansed and sanctified.
Thomas Aquinas taught that there are four levels of hell, or Sheol. Aquinas may have based his understanding on the four sections of Sheol in 1 Enoch. Sheol is a general Hebrew term for the temporary holding place for the dead, it is not specifically referring to a place of punishment.
-Gehenna – punishment for the damned.
-The limbo of the children – where those who are less morally responsible rest temporarily.
-The Limbo of the saints – Abraham’s bosom; now empty since the resurrection.
-Purgatory – where wayward Christians go to be cleansed.
However, most Christians will go straight to paradise, just like the thief on the cross, so they will bypass however many levels of Sheol there are. This may not be an accurate picture of the afterlife but it is nearer to reality than most other attempts at defining it. At least the early church fathers and the Medieval Scholastics were trying to tackle this difficult subject.
Is God interested in the morality of non-Christians?
To set the scene; we are all born with the tendency to selfishness and rebellion against God, and therefore to moral independence. However God would not judge someone before they had moral awareness, just as he does not judge the animals. Sin is only sin when the individual has a choice, animals and infant babies cannot exercise moral choice.
It seems that the more a person is morally aware the more they are held accountable. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked (Luke 12:48 ). This is why Israel was judged harshly when she sinned in the wilderness, and by the exile to Babylon etc. God treats his people both more graciously and more harshly than other people. But God has never enjoyed punishment and warned Israel many times of the consequences of sin. He gave the Gentile Ninevites 40 days to repent, and even after stating that they would be destroyed he did not destroy because they repented. The Jonah story shows us that God is interested in the morality of non-Hebrews/Christians; God was satisfied with their repentance and moral change. Why would God be interested in their moral improvement if they are all going to the lake of fire regardless?
God’s purpose is to get people to understand, and to be motivated by his own eternal morality, despite how hard life is and despite how they feel.
The old testament does not talk much about hell or even who goes there, which is surprising considering how important it is. There was a greater emphasis on rewards or punishments in this present life. In the light of the new testament we can see that God looked at whether people believed that He was good, and therefore wanted to be good themselves, and whether they followed their conscience, whether Jew or Gentile. We can see evidence of this in Romans 2;13-16. Faith was demonstrated by their works. (Heb 11)
In Conclusion
Essentially all are condemned by justice, but it is all about the condition of the heart; is it moving towards God or is it rebellious? Is it trusting in its own goodness or in God’s?
God does not enjoy condemnation, “he wants all men everywhere to be saved”. When talking to non Christians we can mention that they are automatically condemned, but we cannot say categorically that they are going to the lake of fine. Some Christians enjoy telling non-Christians they are going to the lake of fire, however they themselves need to fear God as he expects so much more righteousness from believers, and just praying the sinner’s prayer will not guarantee them a place in the ‘marriage supper of the Lamb’. Christ taught that Christians should generously forgive the non-Christians who attack them; yes God will bring about justice, but mercy triumphs over judgement.
Jesus did not say we are saved by correct knowledge or doctrine. It is in fact about heart direction; we relate to God through our heart. God will reveal Christ to the lost at the right time.
Is God under obligation to punish all sin?
The Bible does not state this explicitly but it is implied, so I think we need to assume God must punish all sin. The wages for sin is death. Yet faith in God’s goodness and humble repentance seem to be enough to put us in a right standing before God.
Jesus told us that whoever does not believe in him is condemned by default and God’s anger remains on him. (John 3; 36) So punishment is expected, but how much? On the one hand, hell is the outworking of the choices we make and the direction of our own heart away from God. So we make our own punishment in hell to some degree. In contrast, the Lake of Fire is designed to be the full extent of God’s judgement for unrepentant, evil people and fallen angels.
Is God interested in calculating precise amounts of punishment? I would suggest that he is not as only one single perfect savior paid for the billions of sins of billions of people. This does, most likely not balance out mathematically, however God is very pleased to accept us on this basis. The question is how much punishment does it take to pay for one’s own sin? We are not given an answer and maybe there is no answer, but perhaps suffering in this life and in the next can sufficiently pay for their own sin, and to move their heart to humility, repentance and faith.
If punishment is unavoidable then so is reward for righteousness, even though our own goodness lacks the quality of character that is required to produce the best virtue.
Christ preached to “souls in Prison” when he was physically dead. (1Pet 3;19) This would seem like an unfair advantage if faith in Christ while one is alive is normally the only way to avoid the lake of fire. It could be that Christ again will preach to souls in hell at some point, perhaps at his return.