Christ First Forum

My God Won’t Send Me to Hell! - Ron Graham - twotug@embarqmail.com

“But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee?” Jeremiah 2:28a. Clearly many people create their own god–one which will conveniently suit their personal needs. Basically what they’re creating for themselves is a designer god. “My god won’t send me to Hell!” Here we go.

Why would a loving God, a God who is described as pure love, condemn any of his children to Hell? This is very a common question especially among those who don’t believe the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or who have little to no Bible knowledge. Believe it or not even Christians ask this question, and few are able to give a sound, Biblical answer.

A common statement from non-believers is “My god would never send anyone to Hell, he’s a loving god. Only an evil god would create people and then send them to Hell.” Good point, but since these folks are non-believers their god is Satan. And his main modus operandi is to convince man that he is god and that he would never send anyone to Hell. Well he certainly isn’t God, but he is very efficient and persuasive when it comes to promoting his lies. After all he’s been at it for 6,000 years give or take a year or so.

What I tell these folks is that my God wouldn’t send any human being to Hell either. Now this really throws them for a loop and even some of my readers might be scratching their heads right about now.

Here’s what I tell these doubters. Since I’m a believer “In Christ” my God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. My God is the God of the Old Testament and of the New. My God is the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, Creator of the universe and everything in it. There is no other God. Now they’re saying “Well, your God sends people to Hell; He’s not my god. The God of the Old Testament was a horrible and gruesome God full of hate for the very people He created.”

So, what do we tell a person such as this? They don’t want anything to do with the God of the Bible because they assume He sends people to Hell. They’ve made up their own god, thanks to Satan, to associate with and to accommodate them in this life. Then they classify and condemn God, God Almighty, the one and only true God, as evil, unloving, and uncaring.

To obtain a little knowledge can be useful but sometimes a little knowledge of the Bible can be dangerous, even destructive. This is exactly how cults get started. People try reading the Bible without any discernment from God and they usually begin in the Old Testament and find scriptures where God condemned whole cities. Or they read where God would command his people to go into a particular city and kill all inhabitants. But because they don’t understand what God was doing in those instances they look at God as an evil and maniacal God, completely out of control, and certainly without love.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Arguably the most quoted verse in the entire Bible. If God loves the whole world why does He condemn some people to Hell? How can this presumed hateful God of the Old Testament be the same God of the New Testament?

There are many picture types of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament; Bible teachers will claim Jesus Christ is on every page. Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:39. When Jesus made that statement to the Pharisees the only scriptures in their possession were what we call the Old Testament. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1.

Clearly Jesus the Messiah is the God of the Old and New Testament. The writer of Hebrews tells us “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8. So God never changes and since Jesus is God and always has been He must be the same God, Old Testament and New.

How can that be? Jesus is very loving when we read about Him in the New Testament. Jesus never changes He was as loving before the foundation of the world, when He and the Father came up with the plan to save their Creation from destruction, as He is today.

Now that we’ve established that Jesus Christ is the God of the Old and New Testaments let’s get back to the question at hand. Why does God send people to Hell? The simple answer is He doesn’t.

“Wait a minute, you’ve told me that if I don’t accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, if I don’t believe He died for my sins and repent then I will go to Hell when I die.” Yep, that’s what the Bible tells us. “Well I’m not going to believe in who you call your God so why am I going to Hell if your God doesn’t send me there?”

Wow, you’ve just about got it. God, in His word, gave us the keys to entering Heaven. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. God Almighty tells us that only through Him (Jesus Christ) may we enter Heaven, and that any other means of getting there which we perceive is a possibility is actually just foolishness. “My god would never send anyone to Hell!” Nor would mine, but the question remains, who’s your god?

You don’t want to believe the truth so you’ve made up your own personal god who won’t send you to Hell no matter how you live your life. This is exactly what Satan promotes. You might want to rethink placing your faith in some nonexistent god. Here’s what has happened, you’ve accepted the following lie from the enemy. “God will never send me to Hell, I’m a good person” While it’s true that God doesn’t send people to Hell, we can see the lie of the enemy in that statement, “I’m a good person”. “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Mark 10:18.

People who want to believe they can get to Heaven just by being good are horribly deceived. Many people live an exemplary life and are convinced they’re going to Heaven because of how they’ve lived, how generous they are, how loving they are, how respected they are. The cults will confirm this same lie just to get you into their fold. But it’s all still a lie, and a very destructive one at that.

Being sent to Hell only comes from one entity, you. You are the only one that is responsible for your eternal destination. God made it easy. “...believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29b. It’s not very difficult, it only takes faith. But then again so does belief in your designer god, or no god. If you think you can get to Heaven by being good and nothing else, that my friend, still takes faith, albeit your faith is in a lie.

Many have said they just don’t believe this salvation thing can be that easy, there must be more to it than that. They just can’t get their minds around the fact that God had to die a horrible death on some old cross so the rest of us could go to Heaven instead of Hell. That unbelief is the condemnation that people just don’t understand. A hardened heart will never get it, and Satan is diligent in his efforts to keep you in that state of mind.

God made it easy for His creation to believe and be saved. But it was not easy for Him. He had to stand by and watch as man spit, beat, and humiliated His Son. Then surely the tears flowed as He watched man drive spikes into the hands and feet of His only begotten Son when they placed Him on that cross. God’s creation was instrumental in placing Jesus the Christ on that cross. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

Nope, it couldn’t have been easy for God. Yet, He loved us so much He was willing to watch from the sideline as His Son died. Now the awesome part is God (the Lord Jesus Christ) arose from the grave three days later. That accomplishment (prophesied throughout Old Testament Scriptures) is what it took to redeem mankind in God’s eyes. The only thing we must do to be redeemed (saved) is to believe that He did what He said He did. “...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...,” Acts 16:31. Yes, it must have been hard for God and we may never understand just how hard but God doesn’t ask us to attempt to understand His pain. He only asks us to believe.

People, you can believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior or choose not to believe, but you can’t blame God for sending you to Hell. He did His very loving part in sending His Son Jesus our Messiah to die for our sins. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and we must do our part, and accept that fact as truth. God’s free gift of everlasting life is not costly; His free gift of salvation is not a hindrance. He did all the work. We get to enjoy all the benefits of eternal life without paying a cent, or being nailed to the old rugged cross ourselves, which, by the way, should have been our punishment not Jesus’.

You may be steadfast in your unbelief but that rebellious attitude will not diminish the fact that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. My God, Jesus the Christ, will not send you to Hell. Only your unbelief can do that. God made Hell for Satan and his minions of evil, it was not meant for mankind. But it’s there and wide open to anyone who chooses to follow Satan and enter that realm for eternity. Satan and all those angels that fell from grace with him prefer Hell. By the way, there’s no truth to annihilation, and there isn’t any truth to the Catholic concept of purgatory, both of those doctrines are unbiblical.

You’ve made your choice to continue in your rebellion to God, to live your life in unbelief and spend eternity in Hell. Remember this, when you die in that state of mind there’s no going back on that decision. There will be no reprieve from the governor, or the president or any other earthly leader. There will be no commutation of your sentence or any time off for good behavior. Once you’re there, you’re there for eternity.

If you’re not a believer today, right this minute, God says you’re already condemned. “...he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18b. God’s not condemning anyone to Hell with this statement. He is, though, making it quite obvious what the consequences are in rejecting His free gift of salvation. Those who are condemned are so destined because of their unbelief. Consequently, those folks are sending themselves to Hell because of their own foolish rebellion. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18.

This foolishness doesn’t need to last. You can come out of that lost state and believe the truth. Your life doesn’t need to end in rebellion. Just say yes to Jesus Christ right now. Become born again. Place your faith and your trust, even your very lives, completely in His hands. If you would still rather not believe in the God who saves instead of the god who destroys then your destination is already set, Hell it is. My advice–choose life.

So go ahead, you keep your god, because he won’t send anyone to Hell and I’ll stay with the one true God, Jesus Christ, who similarly will never send anyone to Hell, but who will allow you to make your own decision as to where you would like to spend eternity. I can tell you this, only one of us is right. Are you willing to stake your eternal existence on a god which the enemy planted in your brain and who is completely nonexistent? Eternity is a very long time, without end.

The last thing Satan wants is for you to believe in the God of the Bible. He’s working overtime trying to get you to see things his way. He uses many deceptive devises. He convinces men who’ve hardened their hearts against the God of the Bible to promote his schemes and many are more than willing to do so. He wants you to either believe in a god that doesn’t really exist or, better yet, no God at all. Either way you lose.

Choose Christ and live.

God bless you all,

Ron Graham
twotug@embarqmail.com
All scripture is from the KJV
Frank, I thought that this article was pertinent, as it is the belief of many in the "emergent church" movement. Please delete if it has already been posted, or if you think that it shouldn't be here. thanks. Troy

. . . and here is the flipside:

Christians Must Present God as a Good God, Says Evangelical

LONDON – The most important role for Christians today is not to rehabilitate the church, but rather to help people realize again that the God Christians serve is a good God, said the former head of the U.K. Evangelical Alliance.

Joel Edwards, who stepped down this year to head Christian anti-poverty movement Micah Challenge, said Friday night that a worse problem in the world than people's disobedience was the “defamation” and “demonization” of God.

People outside the church see God as vindictive, mean, prohibitive and a killjoy, he said.

“We’re obsessed with an incredibly good God [inside the church] and outside people have got a very different take on God and it seems as if we live in these two worlds,” he noted. “God has such a bad image and we share that bad image … a lot of our effort is about rehabilitating how people see us.”

The evangelical leader said the biggest problem affecting the human race was the misrepresentation of God, with Christians in particular representing God as an ogre and a bad guy. Very few people, he said, actually think of Christians as being about abundant life.

“The whole of Christian messaging and lifestyle, and sometimes church, is all about the God who’s always telling people what not to do. That’s why people think we’re so boring and depressing," he lamented.

While "dressing up" services and engaging the congregation in social activities are important, this is not the primary purpose of the church, he contended.

“There is no greater task of the Christian church than to present God as a God who is fundamentally good, fundamentally pro-people,” he said. “The importance of what you do isn’t just about rescuing people from having a bad view of Christians, this isn’t just a PR jobs for Christians.

“We’re not even called to rehabilitate the church or Christian integrity or Christian perceptions," Edwards continued. "We are called to get people to understand again that the God that we serve is a good God and that his goodness is demonstrated in his liberation of men and women from every kind of situation.”

He noted that the church so often talks about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked but comes across as a “drop-out club” and a religion that is only really good “if you’ve got a problem.”

“It’s not just about rescuing people who are depressed,” he said. “It is still the case that people see our ministry as an antidote to distress but that we haven’t got anything to say to anybody who might actually be okay.”

He pointed to the words of Jesus to Jewish men at the Feast of Tabernacles: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”

“This is life abundant. Life abundant says when you think you have drunk to the overfill I can still offer you a quality of life you haven’t even begun to think about yet," he said.

Edwards' address was made at the first anniversary celebration of City Chapel, an East London church planted by Global Day of Prayer London convener Jonathan Oloyede with the vision of being truly multi-cultural and soul-winning.

“We don’t preach doctrines, we don’t preach concepts,” he emphasized. “We are preaching a person. We sense that sometimes the lens on Jesus is blurred in the church and we want City Chapel to be a church where you see the Christ in high definition.”

Also speaking at the celebration was Labor Vice Chair for Faith Groups Stephen Timms who said there was a need for more people to serve their communities from a perspective of faith.

ChristianPost

God must be presented as a whole. . not just the love side or just the justice side. He must be presented as He is in Scripture. Pure love but fair justice for sin.

They say that God isn't presented in a favorable image. Well, wonder why. Could it be, that if He is presented as set forth in the Bible, that would be an image contrary to what they desire for their lifestyle? That's it. They want a "god" for their self-imposed lifestyle, that will allow them to do what they want, without any conviction of sin whatsoever. Welcome to the great apostacy, the Laodicean Church.

Good posts everyone.