How can a loving God send people to an eternal hell?

Les explains that God created mankind because He wanted someone He could love and a creature who could respond to that love. That is the idea behind the marriage relationship: Paul says in Ephesians that husbands are to love their wives, and God has put within her a responder who will respond to that love. In the big picture, God does this for the whole human race—He extends His love. The cross was the whole idea, that He loved us and gave Himself for us. He therefore has every right in the world and heaven to expect that love to be responded to. People sometimes ask how a God of love and mercy can send people to an eternal hell. Les says that is what God does. Why? Because He has already loved them to the very extent heaven could offer, and He gave it to every human being who has ever lived. When a human being spurns that love, God in His sovereignty has every right in the world to reject them at the Great White Throne. That is why Les teaches that this Book was given to the human race for basically the sole purpose of helping people escape the wrath of a righteous God.