Is God “Glorified” by Hell?
Yep—but not the way you might think
A stridently anti-Calvinism friend of mine recently opined that
Calvinism, by its very nature, LOVES the wrath of God. The doctrine says that God gets GLORY in the torment of the nonelect in Hell—people He predestined to go there before they ever existed. Before they ever did a single thing wrong!
Now, I have a tanker-load of sympathy for her position, being no friend of Calvinism myself. But the thing is . . . God is glorified through the torment of the nonelect in Hell.
If that statement disturbs or even shocks you, read on. My perspective isn’t Calvinistic; it’s just Biblical. While God prefers deliverance over damnation, nonetheless His willingness to execute justice does glorify Him. In fact, “glory” in Scripture often carries the sense of reputation and/or honor,1 and so God would be damaging His own reputation, dishonoring Himself, if He didn’t send the unrepentant to Hell. It would be like a human judge getting a bad reputation for letting criminals off the hook.
Conversely, if that judge consistently handed down fair, reasonable sentences, he’d garner a reputation as a just judge; she’d be deserving of the title “Your Honor.”
“God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
My friend was quick to point this out, and she’s quite correct. God doesn’t enjoy His punishment of the wicked per se—but He most certainly takes pleasure in justice itself; i.e., when an unjust situation has been rectified; when wrongs have been righted.
What reasonable, moral person wouldn’t “take pleasure” in that?
The same Hebrew word for “pleasure”—ḥāp̄ēṣ—used in Ezekiel 18:23, 32; and 33:11 is also used in this verse: “I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for I delight in these things” (Jeremiah 9:24; cf. Psalm 99:4; Isaiah 61:8).
It’s very much like how a normal, reasonable person might be expected to view the execution of a murderer: not with “pleasure” in a man’s death per se, but a feeling of satisfaction that justice has been done.
This quality in a human being reflects the Creator Himself: “For that day is of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself of his adversaries. The sword will devour and be satiated” (Jeremiah 46:10)—poetically implying that God—not in deific bloodlust, but in His zeal for justice—will be “satiated.”
Elsewhere He says that “those who are going to the land of the north have given My Spirit rest in the north country.” (Zechariah 6:8) This verse is referring
to the peace brought by Persia’s conquest of Babylonia, a peace that allowed the restoration of the Jewish people (cf. 2 Chr 36:22-23; Isa 44:28; 45:1-2). However, there is also an eschatological dimension, referring to a time when there will be perfect and universal peace.”2
God isn’t delighting in the destruction of the Babylonians (or anyone else) per se, but in the simple fact that moral balance has been restored. Because it’s His nature to love justice (Isa. 61:8), He can have no rest until that is achieved.
And God’s sense of “rest” or “satisfaction” also includes pleasure in overturning evildoers’ plans: “The wicked plot against the godly . . . . But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgment coming.” (Psalm 37:12-13) If dug-in evildoers could hear that laugh, it would terrify them.
God also finds pleasure in vindicating Himself after His name has been dragged through the mud:
The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed . . . . He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath [Psalm 2:2-5].
This is not like Calvinism, which logically implies that God predestined hordes of both humans and angels for Hell only because He inherently delights in their eternal torment.3
Rather, what the Bible really teaches is that God takes pleasure in—
Pure justice
Thwarting evil plans
Self-vindication
Delivering His people
—all of which logically require the destruction of unrepentant evildoers, as sad as that may be. After all, “they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
This isn’t God being cruel; this is God being just. That being the case, why should we think He isn’t glorified by His love of justice . . . ?
Of course He is.
“Is God glorified by sending people to Hell to be tormented forever?” my friend challenged me.
Not by anyone’s torment in and of itself—but by the sheer justice in “sending people to Hell to be tormented forever.” In other words, even though God didn’t create the lost for that purpose—which Calvinism teaches—and would have preferred to save them—nonetheless Hell satisfies God’s demand for justice.
You see, whether anyone is saved or damned, in both cases God’s justice is satisfied:
Jesus satisfied God’s justice on the cross;
The lost satisfy His justice in Hell.
In both cases, sin is paid for; an imbalance is rectified; justice is satisfied. And that brings glory and pleasure to God.
Case in point: Pharaoh
A personal example in Scripture is that of Pharaoh during the Exodus, to whom God said, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” (Romans 9:17)
Did God “have it in” for Pharaoh from before Creation (as in Calvinism)? Did God “delight” specifically in Pharaoh’s death or downfall? . . . No, but God’s wrath on Pharaoh and the Egyptians most certainly did glorify Him, and we can be sure that God took pleasure in that—since, logically and naturally, God delights in justice.
This is analogous to the victory parades in the streets at the end of World War II: did we do this because we harbored some innate hatred of Germans and Japanese, wanting to see them slaughtered—as Calvinism teaches God has an innate desire to damn the majority of those He’s created?
Of course not! But a massive injustice had been perpetrated by our enemies, and we managed to bring it to an end. A moral imbalance was rectified, and it was right to take pleasure in that—yet not in the deaths of our enemies per se.
How much more so with God, then, who is a perfectly moral Being; who loathes all sin as the ultimate enemy that’s invaded His cosmos?
Yet astonishingly, my friend claimed that while God “metes justice upon [His enemies], He derives no glory” from it. This sister in Christ means well, but her claim is directly, explicitly contradicted by both logic and Scripture. First of all, the fact that God would be glorified in His justice should be obvious: every action taken by a holy, perfectly just God naturally glorifies Him. It literally could not be otherwise.
Secondly, God actually said in His word, “I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.” (Exodus 14:4). And again logic comes into play, because this principle logically applies to all expressions of His wrath on sin. Recall my earlier illustration of a human judge: he or she would garner esteem and respect as a natural, reasonable reaction to fair and consistent judgment at the bench.
Hence when this evil age comes to a close, God’s people will unanimously, unreservedly shout His praises:
“Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, because his judgments are true and righteous, because he has judged the notorious prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality; and he has avenged the blood of his servants that was on her hands.” [Revelation 19:1-2 (cf. 15:3-4)]
Note carefully: we will shout “Hallelujah!” because of His judgment—not in spite of it.
My friend opined, correctly, that God “doesn’t need” glorification because “His glory is infinite and He glories in His handiwork.”
Sure—but His handiwork includes the establishment of justice. And it’s not about “need.” It’s about what’s right and good and entirely appropriate. “Yahweh of Armies is exalted in justice” (Isaiah 5:16).4
Dig deeper:
For example, the Old Testament’s most common word for “glory”—kāḇôḏ—implies reputation or honor in Gen. 45:13; Jos. 7:19; 1Chr. 16:24-29; 2Chr. 32:33; Neh. 9:5; Psa. 4:2; 19:1; 66:2; 72:19; 102:15; Prov. 11:16; 20:3; Isa 48:11; 66:19; Dan. 11:39; Hos. 4:7; Hab. 2:14; Mal. 1:6. So also the usual New Testament word for “glory”—doxa—in John 7:18; 2Cor. 4:15; 6:8; 8:23; Eph. 1:12; Php. 1:11; 1Pet. 1:7; Rev. 4:11; 11:13.
Editors, New English Translation (Richardson, TX: Biblical Studies Press, © 1996-2017), Zec. 6 (accessed 23 Sept. 2024).
No Calvinist will admit to this, of course, but as I’ve stated: their doctrinal system logically implies it. The Calvinist view of God’s sovereignty is that he is the ultimate cause of all that occurs in the universe—including sin. For example, John Frame has claimed that
God controls all events; he makes everything happen as it does . . . .
Scripture often says that God brings about sinful decisions of human beings . . . . This is a hard teaching, and on one level it makes the problem of evil more difficult. But in another sense, this teaching is reassuring. If evil comes from some source other than God, that would be pretty scary.
In other words, no matter what happens, good or bad, God always gets what he wants, because logically—by Calvinism’s definition of divine “sovereignty”—he could have ordained something different. If that were true, then logically it would mean that God causes unbelievers to reject Christ, because God, all along, wanted them to suffer in Hell.