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Did God create hell?

Question:

If God created everything, then didn’t he create hell, too? If he created hell, then is hell good, since everything God created was good?

Answer:

Hell is not primarily a physical place but an eternal state of separation between God and those creatures—angels and humans—who have permanently chosen to reject him. God created free will, which is good, but hell is the result of the abuse of free will. Viewed from this perspective, one might say that, God did not create hell; he only allowed for its possibility. While the lost in their resurrected bodies would still occupy a place, the place itself would not be evil. The evil is the fact that the lost have definitively chosen to cut themselves off from God—the source of all joy—resulting in self-inflicted suffering.

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