Jen Hatmaker has once again ignited controversy among Christians-this time by declaring that she no longer believes in a literal hell and calling the decision "the best thing that ever happened" to her.
The best-selling author and former HGTV personality shared the revelation in an Instagram post promoting her latest Substack essay, There You Are: Laying Down My Belief in Hell Didn't Cost Me My Faith-It Rescued It.
"After a couple of years of investigation, I quietly laid down my belief in a literal hell, and it is the best thing that ever happened to me," Hatmaker wrote. "No singular growth point has changed my faith more than this."
Hatmaker insisted that abandoning belief in eternal punishment did not lead her away from God but instead transformed her understanding of Him.
"My head and heart came back into alignment, and my belief in God was rescued," she explained.
The announcement marks another milestone in Hatmaker's highly public theological journey. Once a popular evangelical author and speaker, she has spent the last decade distancing herself from many traditional Christian beliefs. In 2016, Lifeway Christian Resources removed her books after she publicly affirmed same-sex relationships. Since then, she has supported same-sex marriage, opposed the overturning of Roe v. Wade, offered resources for parents of LGBTQ+ children, and continued advocating for a more progressive expression of Christianity.
Now, Hatmaker is taking aim at one of Christianity's most enduring doctrines.
Reflecting on her childhood, Hatmaker said her earliest understanding of God was shaped almost entirely by fear.
"From my first memory, all my ideas about God were tied to punishment," she wrote, describing herself as having been "terrorized by an arbitrary, blood-thirsty God."
She also recounted a conversation from about a decade ago with a close friend who was deeply involved in evangelical circles. According to Hatmaker, the friend shared that she had once asked a teaching pastor at a prominent Reformed megachurch what would happen to her unbelieving family members.
Hatmaker claimed the pastor responded by saying, "One day in heaven, you will look at them burning in hell and say AMEN."
She said the remark horrified her.
"W-T-actual-F. This is so deranged," Hatmaker wrote. "With a God like this, who needs the devil??"
She went on to argue that this kind of thinking helps explain the harshness she believes has taken root within parts of modern American Christianity, saying it encourages believers to view others as deserving of eternal torment.
According to Hatmaker, the real turning point came several years later during what she described as an ordinary conversation with one of her most respected faith leaders.
The woman casually mentioned-while knitting-that she did not believe in a literal hell.
"Around eight years ago, one of my most respected faith leaders casually said while knitting that no, of course she didn't believe in a literal hell," Hatmaker recalled. "Wait, what. What."
She said that brief conversation unlocked questions she had quietly wrestled with for years and prompted an extended period of study into biblical scholarship, theology, history, and the original languages surrounding passages commonly associated with hell.
Hatmaker said she eventually concluded that the doctrine has often been misunderstood and has historically been used as a tool of fear, shame, and spiritual manipulation.
Rather than feeling anxious after abandoning the belief, she said she experienced overwhelming relief.
"I felt ten million pounds roll immediately off my shoulders," she wrote.
She recalled praying a simple prayer in response: "There you are."
Hatmaker said that without belief in eternal punishment, God's love finally made sense to her.
"I was no longer trying to maintain allegiance to a tyrant who willingly sent most of the world he created to an eternal fiery torment," she wrote.
Instead, she now believes life is intended to reflect the fruit of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control-rather than being driven by fear of judgment.
Hatmaker also challenged Christians to imagine what their faith would look like without the doctrine of eternal punishment.
"If you take eternal punishment off the table, what is your faith?" she asked. "What are your relationships like? What do you notice about your fear and shame?"
She argued that Christians would have to abandon fear-based teaching and evangelism, suggesting believers should stop relying on threats of hell and instead become "good, normal neighbors."
Her comments are certain to reignite a debate that has divided theologians for centuries. While Christians have long disagreed over questions surrounding the nature of hell-including eternal conscious torment, annihilationism, and universal reconciliation-historic Christian orthodoxy has consistently affirmed a final judgment. Hatmaker's latest remarks go beyond questioning traditional imagery and instead reject the concept of a literal hell altogether.
Whether supporters view her comments as a compassionate rethinking of Christian theology or critics see them as another departure from biblical orthodoxy, one thing is clear: Jen Hatmaker has once again sparked a conversation that reaches to the very heart of what Christians believe about God, judgment, and eternity.
