The Hell We Make

Trading retribution for restoration

By Martijn van Tilborgh

The core Christian message, as God intended, has always centered on “heaven and earth,” not on the concepts of “heaven and hell” as many of us were taught. If you don’t believe me, you should read the first sentence in your Bible to find out for yourself where God’s focus was when He created all things.

One might expect that if hell were part of God’s original creative plan, the author of Genesis would have mentioned it in his account of creation. When God looked at His piece of art after six days of hard work, He declared it to be “very good.” Since hell doesn’t appear to be “very good,” it seems safe to assume He never created it.

The very concept of hell was never born in the mind of God as such a place is utterly incompatible with the nature of the divine. John writes that “without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:2). It’s hard to imagine that the creator of all things would include an isolated place in His plan specifically designed to make people suffer. You know, just in case there were some naughty people who would fail to acknowledge Him as their master.

No, God never created hell. The initiative of creating such a place has been entirely the idea of humans. It was we who first imagined such a place—and throughout history, we have relentlessly brought that idea to life, creating “hells on earth” for those around us.

Scripture consistently emphasizes the quality of our present life, over our ultimate destination after death, as the primary focus of the gospel. Yet, according to Scripture, the gospel is a proclamation of good news for the poor and brokenhearted here and now. A message that sets the oppressed and captives free, a movement aimed at undoing the harm caused by human behavior and transforming the earth into a place that reflects the character of heaven.

The through line in Scripture is about the ever-advancing kingdom of God that establishes justice, peace and joy for all people. Although it appears to be a slow process, when we study history, we can clearly see that the world today is in a better place than ever before. We’re experiencing more justice, peace and joy than ever before in the history of mankind.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said it this way: “The arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Although we still have a way to go, you and I have an opportunity to join this movement, letting our lives serve as a portal to bring heaven to earth.

In Psalm 9:12 we learn that God “does not ignore the cries of the afflicted.” He seems to push humanity into higher levels of consciousness where oppression and injustice are slowly being eradicated. If you have studied your Bible, you know that we humans have a strong record of creating pretty miserable situations for our fellow human beings. Let me walk you through some powerful biblical examples of how we have created hell for one another.

Take the people of Israel, for instance. Their story is marked by repeated injustice—time and again, they found themselves on the receiving end of oppression. For over four centuries, they were enslaved in Egypt. Then came 70 years of exile in Babylon. Later, Roman occupation gripped Judea for generations. And beyond these, countless invasions and foreign powers plundered their land time and again. They could never seem to catch a break—oppression followed them like a shadow, as if it were their fate.

Let’s take a closer look at their oppression in Egypt. For centuries, Pharaoh held the Israelites in brutal slavery, making their lives “bitter with hard labor” (Exodus 1:14). They were abused, exploited and beaten—driven to produce more in less time under relentless pressure. They were not just oppressed, they were hopeless.

Enslavement was the only reality they knew. Their lineage—parents, grandparents, and beyond—had always been in bondage; it was as if they had been born into a perpetual state of servitude.

And there wasn’t really much light at the end of the tunnel either. To make matters worse, in those days, Pharaoh was considered god. And his heir was the son of god. The one who was destined to one day perpetuate their suffering. The god the Israelites had known for centuries was an abusive god who was utilizing people for selfish gain to grow his empire.

While faint oral traditions hinted at a covenant between Abraham and a better God, these were from a distant past. And who knew whether or not those stories were even true! For the Israelites, God was, in reality, an abusive tormentor.

It took 40 years of spiritual detox through which Moses deconstructed the lies he had believed about God. He slowly began to believe in a better story about a God who desired to set the captives free. A God who would deliver the Israelites from the hell on earth they had endured for centuries.

Once Moses embraced this new understanding, he risked his life to liberate his people. And as the saying goes, the rest is history. They were finally free! From that moment on, their narrative shifted. A story of this better God began to be proclaimed—a God who truly hears the cries of the afflicted and delivers them from bondage.

Each year, they celebrated the Passover to commemorate their liberation from slavery. They would poetically recall their victory over the Egyptian army by sharing the words written in Exodus 15:1: “The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.”

Finally, free from military oppression and enslaving taskmasters, they could embrace their prophetic destiny and fulfill the promise made to Abraham: to bless all the nations of the earth.

Years later, however, King Solomon, the Son of David, chose to become an arms dealer, seemingly oblivious to his own history and disregarding the yearly warnings against military oppression. The Bible tells us that Solomon, among other things, amassed wealth by purchasing horses from Egypt—of all places—and selling them to neighboring kingdoms to bolster their military strength.

With his immense wealth, he built a new palace, fortified cities, strengthened Jerusalem’s wall, planted gardens and, most importantly, constructed the temple! But here is the crazy thing! First Kings 9 indicates that he accomplished all of this through forced labor, essentially using slaves. Wow! The son of David really screwed up, didn’t he? Can you believe it?

Israel, once the oppressed, had over time transformed into an oppressor, mirroring the very empires it once despised. The human condition, yet again, led to the creation of living hell for a specific group of people. But this time the formerly afflicted were the ones doing the harm.

It goes to show that no matter where you come from, no matter your story, we all have the capacity to inflict pain on others. We have a real knack for messing up a world that began in perfection, deemed “very good” by its creator. Even after He rescues us from the pain and suffering we’ve brought upon ourselves, we often regress, seemingly having learned nothing from our experiences.

Yes, it is very obvious that hell wasn’t God’s invention. Its creation has been entirely on us. Why then do we so readily attribute pain and suffering to God, as if He would take pleasure in teaching us a lesson through such horrible experiences?

Scripture teaches that humanity was created in God’s image, yet we have, in essence, returned the favor. We have oftentimes transformed a loving God into a monster by projecting our own pain, insecurities, anger and other negative experiences onto Him. And once we transform God into our image, it becomes easier to justify our own bad behavior. After all, if God is retributive, then I’m doing Him a favor by being just like Him.

The French philosopher Voltaire made a great observation in the 18th century when he stated, “Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Scripture, and history in general, are full of examples of such atrocities. Crimes against humanity, committed in the name of God.

When the Israelites found themselves in a situation where seven other nations inconvenienced them, they decided to “utterly destroy them” and justified it by saying that God told them to do so (Deuteronomy 7:1-2). Turn on the news today, and it appears that even today we still haven’t learned our lesson.

Yet in the midst of all the pain and suffering that’s going on there is a cry to turn our swords into plowshares. There is an ever-growing movement of people who are committed to see the reign of God establish righteousness, peace and joy in places that need it the most.

So let’s stop focusing on what may (or may not) happen after we die. Let’s instead focus on saving people from the hell they are already experiencing on earth today. Let’s not screw up like the son of David, but let us join Christ in His mission to see God’s kingdom come, on earth as it already is in heaven!

Martijn van Tilborgh is the co-founder of AVAIL, a strategic marketing architect and a consultant for numerous large organizations and influencers. He is also a minister, author and speaker, as well as a serial entrepreneur. Martijn’s passion to innovate and see God’s plan unfold in people’s lives inspired him to create several successful companies, including Four Rivers Media, Kudu Publishing, Dream Releaser Enterprises, Arrows & Stones and AVAIL. His new book is Unorthodox: 40 Disruptive Thoughts That Challenge Conventional Mindsets.