We often hear people talk about “the problem of hell,” meaning, “How could a good God send billions of people to an eternal hell?” That is certainly a fair question. In fact, I devoted a chapter of my recent book on Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith to that very issue. But have you ever asked yourself a very different question, namely, what if there was no future punishment at all? What kind of problems would that present? …

But here I want to focus on the opposite question, namely, what if there was no hell or future punishment at all? What would that tell you about the nature of God?

[I’d object to the premise. God does not send people to Hell, nor does Christ as the judge in the Christian faith. People choose that path for themselves through obstinate rejection of the will of God and His mercy. The Lord offers us almost endless opportunities for forgiveness and repentance. To Brown’s point, though, the free will choice this represents requires something other than eternal paradise as an option; otherwise, there is no choice to be made. — Ed]