“Hell was not created by God, but by His creatures and their refusal of His love; and that God equally loves those in hell, but His love is inoperative where it is rejected” (St. Isaac the Syrian)
Why would a loving God allow evil to exist, or to condemn some human beings to an eternity of darkness and hell? So often this is put to believers with the presumption taken for granted that the Creator planned such a place of torment from the beginning. The premise is wrong. Sin, separation and an eternity of hell come from the decision of the human being to exist apart from the Lord Almighty and His love for everything created by Him. The choice is ours. God loves every person ever created, but in creating the human being He did not make us robots programmed to respond with affection. His love is so enormous and mysterious that we are offered the option to accept and return that love with our own, or to reject Him and it. In an ironic way, to exist apart from God eternally is a gift also. “Paradise is looking at God’s face. Hell is having to look always at Satan’s face.” N. Basarab
The Creator God blessed the human creature with four gifts: Two that are ours regardless of how we use them—existence and everlasting existence. We shall live through this lifetime and into eternity despite our life style, regardless whether we return God’s love for us or choose to reject it. That involves the other gifts: forgiveness of sin and union with God. We have free will, the freedom of choice. We can repent of sins and go on to unity with the uncreated Being of divinity offered to us not as God’s very essence, but through the energies of the Holy Trinity reaching out to us.
Why would any sensible person decide against loving the Lord of love? Who would not want to spend eternity gazing on the countenance of the Almighty and radiate His love with the love of our own, like the moon mirroring the sun’s light? It does happen that sin repeated enough times becomes a pattern that one defends and justifies, even mocking those who live for Christ and strive to serve the Holy Trinity through kind acts towards all creatures on earth and even the very earth itself. For example, analyze the parable of Lazarus and the rich man [Luke 16:19-31]:
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table…. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died…in hell where he was in torment he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus at his side…. ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue.’”
The rich man goes nameless, since there are countless like him. He never noticed Lazarus outside his mansion. Lazarus was just an object to be ignored or tolerated. Even in the afterlife he considered Lazarus a potential servant across the chasm that separated them. “Send Lazarus…because I am in agony!” Always the all-important “I,” just as it was on earth. No remorse, no repentance, not even the thought of how it happened that he was far from “Abraham’s side.” His concern extended only to his family yet on earth. Another command: “Send Lazarus to my father’s house” [16:27].
Abraham refused the request. The five brothers had ample time to repent, to study Moses and the prophets and to change their ways, but they would not, “even if someone rises from the dead.” One lifetime is enough time to know oneself, to evaluate the values that matter, and to learn the Source of love, then to return that love from the Holy Trinity so that it becomes a way of life and life everlasting.