God's Love for Sinners and the Problem of Hell

Sources

1. Isaiah “The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? -- Isaiah 33:14”
2. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Hell — The place of disembodied spirits -- Ac 2:31. Which Christ visited. -- Lu 23:43; Ac 2:31; 1Pe 3:19. Contains, a place of rest, Abraham's bosom. -- Lu 16:23. Paradise. -- Lu 23:43. And a place of torment. -- Lu 16:23. The place of future punishment Destruction from the presence of God. -- 2Th 1:9. Described as Everlasting punishment. -- Mt 25:46. Everlasting fire. -- Mt 25:41. Everlasting burnings. -- Isa 33:14. A furnace of fire. -- Mt 13:42,50. A lake of fire. -- Re 20:15. Fire and brimstone. -- Re 14:10. Unquenchable fire. -- Mt 3:12. Devouring fire. -- Isa 3”
3. King James Version “[KJV] Psalms 104:35 — Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.”
4. Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Eternal death — The miserable fate of the wicked in hell (Matt. 25:46; Mark 3:29; Heb. 6:2; 2 Thess. 1:9; Matt. 18:8; 25:41; Jude 1:7). The Scripture as clearly teaches the unending duration of the penal sufferings of the lost as the "everlasting life," the "eternal life" of the righteous. The same Greek words in the New Testament (aion, aionios, aidios) are used to express (1) the eternal existence of God (1 Tim. 1:17; Rom. 1:20; 16:26); (2) of Christ (Rev. 1:18); (3) of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 9:14); and (4) the eternal duration of the sufferings of the lost (Matt. 25”
5. Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Love of God, The — Is a part of his character -- 2Co 13:11; 1Jo 4:8. Christ, the especial object of -- Joh 15:9; 17:26. Christ abides in -- Joh 15:10. Described as Sovereign. -- De 7:8; 10:15. Great. -- Eph 2:4. Abiding. -- Zep 3:17. Unfailing. -- Isa 49:15,16. Unalienable. -- Ro 8:39. Constraining. -- Ho 11:4. Everlasting. -- Jer 31:3. Irrespective of merit -- De 7:7; Job 7:17. Manifested towards Perishing sinners. -- Joh 3:16; Tit 3:4. His saints. -- Joh 16:27; 17:23; 2Th 2:16; 1Jo 4:16. The destitute. -- De 10:18. The cheerful giver. -- 2Co 9:7. Exhibited in The g”
6. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 8: Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts, Epistles, Apocrypha, Decretals — CHAP. VI.--PURGATORY AND HELL.: "Such is the nature of the one and only God, who made the world, and who created us, and who has given us all things, that as long as any one is within the limit of piety, and does not 240 blaspheme His Holy Spirit, through His love towards him He brings the soul to Himself by reason of His love towards it. And although it be sinful, it is His nature to save it, after it has been suitably punished for the deeds it hath done. But if any one shall deny Him, or in any other way be guilty of im”
7. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 4: Tertullian IV, Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen — CHAP. X.--ON THE RESURRECTION, AND THE JUDGMENT, THE FIRE OF HELL, AND PUNISHMENTS. (part 7): punishments of fevers, and colds, and jaundice,[5] and with the pains of 296 feebleness of vision, and alienation of mind and paralysis, and blindness, and weakness of the reins. If any one, then, at his leisure gather together out of the whole of Scripture all the enumerations of diseases which in the threatenings addressed to sinners are called by the names of bodily maladies, he will find that either the vices of souls, or their puni”
8. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 9.--OF HELL, AND THE NATURE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS. (part 1): So then what God by His prophet has said of the everlasting punishment of the damned shall come to pass--shall without fail come to pass,--"their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched."(3) In order to impress this upon us most forcibly, the Lord Jesus Himself, when ordering us to cut off 461 our members, meaning thereby those persons whom a man loves as the most useful members of his body, says, "It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than ”
9. Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 1: Augustine — Confessions, Letters — CHAP. III. 6. As to the first man, the father of mankind, it is agreed by almost the entire Church that the Lord loosed him from that prison; a tenet which must be believed to have been accepted not w (part 1): 517 ham, into whose bosom also the pious beggar in the parable was received, can be understood to have been in these pains; those who are able can perhaps explain this. But I suppose every one must see it to be absurd to imagine that only two, namely, Abraham and Lazarus, were in that bosom of wondrous repose before the Lord descended into”
10. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 26: He provided a substitute for sinners, and that He spared not his own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all It was a matter of grace, i.e ., of love to sinners, to the ungodly, to his enemies, that the eternal Son of God became man, assumed the burden of our sins, fulfilled all righteousness, obeying and suffering even unto death, that we might not perish but have eternal life. It is of grace that the Spirit applies to men the redemption purchased by Christ; that He renews the heart; that He overcomes the opposition of sinners, making the”
11. CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 16: unto the end? A love so great as the love of God to his people cannot fail of its object. This love is also gratuitous. It is not founded on the attractiveness of its objects. He loved us “while we were yet sinners;” “when we were enemies.” “Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” God’s love in this aspect is compared to parental love. A mother do”
12. 2 Peter (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on 2 Peter 2:3: Men are apt to think that a reprieve is the forerunner of a pardon, and that if judgment be not speedily executed it is, or will be, certainly reversed. But the apostle tells us that how successful and prosperous soever false teachers may be, and that for a time, yet their judgment lingereth not. God has determined long ago how he will deal with them. Such unbelievers, who endeavour to turn others from the faith, are condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on them. The righteous Judge will speedily take vengeance; the day of their calamity is at hand, and ”
13. theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part (Secunda Secundae), Of the Object of Charity, Art. 6: Article: Whether we ought to love sinners out of charity? I answer that, Two things may be considered in the sinner: his nature and his guilt. According to his nature, which he has from God, he has a capacity for happiness, on the fellowship of which charity is based, as stated above (Article [3]; Question [23], Articles [1],5), wherefore we ought to love sinners, out of charity, in respect of their nature. On the other hand their guilt is opposed to God, and is an obstacle to happin”
14. Isaiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Isaiah 33:14: The sinners in Zion are afraid, and fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites,.... Meaning not persons of such a character that dwelt in Jerusalem, who had the guise and form of religion, and not the power of it, and were for fleeing to Egypt, and trusting in Pharaoh, and not in the Lord; who were seized with dread and terror, when the Assyrian army besieged them, or when it was so awfully destroyed by the angel in the night; when, observing the visible and immediate hand of God in it, they might fear the like judgment would fall upon them for their irreligion and hy”
15. Psalms (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Psalms 90:7: 90:7-10 Sinners cannot escape God’s wrath because the Lord sees their sins. Their fleeting lives are filled with afflictions.”