Is it unjust of God to send people to hell simply because they don’t follow Him? This charge is frequently made by atheists and other skeptics, but it is unsustainable.
The first thing that people need to understand is that God made us and so we belong to Him (Psalm 100:3). Not only that, our ongoing existence is because of Him; He continues to uphold as in every instance of our being (Hebrews 1:3). So we are not entitled to life or existence; it is something God gives as a continuous gift, and it is His right to end that whenever He wants. He does not "owe" us anything. (Most of our problems with how God does things would disappear if we truly accepted this.)
Now, we are told that our life began at birth and that it will continue forever. The first 80 or so years will be here on earth, which is what we are now living. We live in the house God made for us, Earth. We did not make it; it is His, but we are allowed to live here. In these 80 years or so, we experience both good things and bad, so that we know what they are like.
God tells us that when we leave this body (die), we will move to a new house, and we have a choice of two new houses. In one, there is only good and in the other there is only bad (and we know from this life what good is like and what bad is like).
The problem of course is that if we are bad and we enter the good house, it will no longer be all good. God has dealt with that, however, through the sacrifice of His son Jesus, who cleanses us of all sin (e.g. 1 John 1:5-10). That is the "ticket of admission," so to speak, to the good house, and God offers it freely to everyone.
To take this ticket, of course, means admitting that you are not good enough on your own, you have sinned against God who is Lord, and putting your trust in Jesus. Anyone can do this, but those who refuse cannot get into the good house, and they cannot blame God for that. There is only the bad house for them. Anyone who doesn’t like this can build his own eternal house – but wait; no, he can’t. Even those who refuse to acknowledge God are contingent beings who are completely dependent on Him. They cannot build their own house and so can only live in a house God provides, and so they must do so on His terms: "His house, His rules."
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