First, the basics. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, we became separated from God because God cannot be around sin. God is the source of everything good, so without Him we are left with pain and suffering with no way to free ourselves from our immense debt. Thankfully, God is gracious and loves us so much, so He sent His son to pay for our debt by dying on the cross for our sins. John 3:16, that’s the basic gospel; every Christian knows it. So where does that leave us now? Well, since Jesus died to pay our debt, that leaves us with a choice. Either we can repent our sins and live for Him, or we can ignore Him and live for ourselves. Repenting will lead to eternal life with God, while rejecting Christ will lead to eternal separation from God.
Now here’s where the problems start. Often when I talk to my atheist friends, they bring up the point of “If God loves me so much, why would He send to Hell?” This seems like a valid point at first. People always say that God is love, so why would He condemn the people He supposedly loves? Well, there are multiple answers to this question. First, God is love, but He is also just and righteous. That’s why Jesus had to pay the penalty for our sins. Along with that, salvation and eternal life with God is a gift. You don’t have to take the gift, but if you want to you can. If you spend your entire life rejecting Christ, then that shows that you don’t want the gift of being with Him forever. He respects your choice of not wanting to be with Him, and He lets you live how you want. Would someone who truly loves you force you to live with them? I don’t think so. That’s exactly why God allows you to choose where you go.