Money, Hell, and Unbelief

The doctrine of Hell is one of the most unpopular and avoided topics in the Christian faith. The irony of this is that the founder of the faith, Jesus Christ, taught more about Hell in extended warnings and graphic, vivid detail than all other biblical figures combined. Many will object that a “God of love wouldn’t send anyone to eternal, conscious torment - but did Jesus not believe in a God of love?

The parable contrasts two characters on the extremes of society, which can easily be misunderstood. Jesus is not saying that the rich are necessarily out of the kingdom or that the poor are automatically in. The key lies in a name - Lazarus is the only character formally named in any of the parables and his name means “God is my help.” In contrast, the rich man has his good things in this life - he had built his identity on riches and his good things were as good as it gets. In Hell, he becomes permanently what he was always becoming. Consider what happens in this life when someone lives a life of entitlement, self-absorption, hedonic pursuit, blameshifting, denial, and unwillingness to admit fault. If the psychological and relational breakdown of such actions are evident in this life, what would they become in a million years?