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It's likely the most difficult problem in the Christian faith. It was a major reason that Bertrand Russell, John Stuart Mill, and countless others rejected Christianity. It was an ax that began to chip away at Charles Darwin's early faith. How could he accept that his closest relatives and loved ones would be spending an eternity in agonizing torment? Yet the Christian doctrine of an everlasting hell has turned out to be a completely unnecessary problem. A close examination of the Bible rejects any form of universalism that trivializes personal obligations to God or denies the possibility of permanent condemnation. Yet Christians can fully affirm the goodness, justice, and love of God. They have no reason to believe in a never-ending hell of excruciating suffering. This study reviews the biblical and philosophical evidence behind the various Christian views of the afterlife for those who reject their God: universalism, eternalism or traditionalism, and annihilationism. It concludes by taking a position between universalism and annihilationism: God will forever honor the final choices of those who reject God, and yet, in the end, all things will be reconciled to God.

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Dennis Jensen looks at two very important problems that have led many to reject religious belief generally and Christianity in particular: Why has God allowed the extreme suffering we find in our world? And Can religion be blamed for much of this suffering? He looks at not only the evil so often associated with religions–inquisitions, holy wars, pograms, witch hunts–but also some of the difficulties found specifically in the Bible. Did the God of the Bible command or advocate mass murder, homophobia, slavery? Is the New Testament anti-Semitic? Jensen argues persuasively that a fully biblical teaching does not advocate subservience of women in today's society, church, or family. It does not condemn all same gender sexual relations or transgender identity. It does not teach an eternal hell.
As just one of the many fascinating topics he tackles, one of the more important biblical reasons suggested for the existence of evil is that God wants to know whether we will seek to stop or alleviate the suffering we see, whether we will learn to have God's heart, whether we will hate evil and anguish over the hurting as God does.

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