The whole picture is a bit confused because of the various names and indeed different beliefs of the after life presented in the Bible (the idea gradually developed throughout the Old Testament period through the inter-testament period). And the fact that the after life is spoken about symbolically. Also, in the Book of Revelation
Standard Christian belief is that God made hell as the place where Satan and the other fallen angels go. People who finally reject God's offer of salvation wind up there as well because God can't have sin in his presence in heaven.
The idea that God doesn't send people to hell stems from the doctrine of original sin, that people have inherited a fallen nature from Adam. Thus, people are destined to hell already, unless they accept God's offer of salvation. So it's really the person's fault if they go to hell because they didn't accept God's offer.
I would call that pretty much BS.
There's a Christian subset, called Reformed (mostly Calvinist) that believes that God has in fact predestined who would go to heaven. Although it would seem logical then that the converse would then also be true, that God then predestined who would go to hell, that belief is only held by the extreme Calvinists, termed hyper-Calvinists (by other Calvinists of course, hyper-Calvinists would consider themselves true Calvinists and thus true Christians). |