God: How could a Loving God send someone to Hell? Matt. 5:22; 28-30
1. We are in a middle of a series that we have entitled ''God, I have a question! Today we are going to take a look at a hot topic (again no pun intended) that when discussed generally generates more heat than light. It is the topic of hell.
*** Recently, hell was in the news in the trial of Scott Peterson. After he was found guilty, Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha spoke directly to him in the sentencing phase of his trial. She looked him right in the eye and spoke these words. ''The fact that you no longer wanted Laci did not give you the right to murder her. She was my daughter. I trusted you and you betrayed me...you betrayed everybody.
Did you look her in the eye Scott as you killed her? Was she alive when you put her in the bay?
I think of Conner (Laci's unborn son) saying: 'Daddy, please don't kill us. I promise I won't take her away from you. Daddy, please don't. Stop.' Now it is time for you to take responsibility for murdering Laci and Conner, your son, your own flesh and blood....Now Scott Peterson, I say this to you: 'You deserve to burn in hell for all eternity.'''
2. Mrs. Rocha's last statement raises some huge questions. Is there a hell? The predominant 21st century world view is that hell is a myth. It is not a real place. Does anybody really deserve to go there--forever? Even those that may concede it is a real place say that very few people (if anybody) deserve to go there for all eternity.
*** For example, many more Americans believe in heaven than believe in hell. For every American who believes they are hell-bound, 120 believe they are heaven-bound.
3. Many of us wonder, “Why would a loving God send people to a horrible place like that? Doesn’t it seem cruel and unfair that God would sentence people to an eternal damnation?”
*** The late Chuck Templeton, former evangelist, turned atheist once said, “I couldn’t hold someone’s hand to a fire for a moment. Not an instant! How could a loving God, just because you don’t obey Him and do what He wants, torture you forever-not allowing you to die, but forcing you to continue in that pain for eternity? There is no criminal who would do this!”
*** As Mark Driscoll pithily puts it, ''Apparently Hell is for the other guy-the terrorist, the relief pitcher that gives up a lot of walks, and anyone who wears a suit and works in Washington DC."
*** John Lennon, the former Beatle, had a smash hit in the early 1970s with a song that included these words.
''Imagine there's no heaven; It is easy if you try
No Hell below us Above us only sky.''
***Mark Twain once expressed this view by saying, “I’ll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.”
***Ted Turner has said something similar but adds that he thinks Hell will actually be fulfilling and challenging. He said, “Heaven is going to be a mighty slender place. Most of the people I know in life aren’t going to be there. Plus-we must remember that Heaven is going to be perfect. And I don’t really want to be there. No-I’m looking forward to dying and going to Hell because it’s a mess and when we get there we’ll have a chance to make things better. Heaven is perfect. Who wants to go to a place that’s perfect? Boring. Boring.”
*** Others think of Hell as nothingness. They think people who reject God will just cease to exist. C. S. Lewis was once told of a gravestone in which the occupant obviously held to this belief because carved on the stone were these words: “Here lies an atheist-all dressed up and no where to go.” Lewis quietly commented, “I bet he wishes that were so.”
3. That is exactly what many people say - there is no hell. Lennon expressed perfectly and poetically the popular sentiment of many-there is no hell. Hell is the figment of some "hellfire and damnation'' fundamentalist preacher who sweats profusely, slings spit, and screams at the top of his lungs, "Turn or burn!"
*** It may surprise you to know that Hell is indeed a subject that is on people’s minds. In fact, a poll conducted by U.S. News And World Report back in 2000 revealed that more Americans believe in Hell today than did in the 1950’s, and they take very seriously the implications of its existence.
*** I’m reminded of the story of a chaplain who reported to a new duty station. Upon arrival some of the soldiers came to see him and asked him if he believed in a literal Hell. When he said that he did not, the men asked him to resign and he asked why. They said, “If there is no Hell then we don’t need you-and if there is a Hell we don’t want you to lead us astray.”
4. For others, if hell exists, it's just "the hell we create on earth."
*** A young lady went to her mother crying, and her mother said, "What’s wrong?”
She said, "Mother, I can't marry John. He has a religion that believes hell doesn't exist."
"Go ahead and marry him," her mother said. "He'll find out."
5. Yet, what is so strange is that even though hell as a real place and a true concept either is dead or in intensive care in our culture, the word ''hell'' has never been more popular or commonly used. Consider:
A teenage driver is known as ''Hell on wheels.''
When we witness extreme violence or a major argument we say, ''All hell broke loose.''
We say that a bad spouse is ''Hell to live with.''
A great effort means you are ''Trying like hell.''
If someone is really pumped up about something, they will say, ''I am as excited as hell.''
If you want to move quickly, you go like ''A bat out of hell.''
The odds of winning the lottery, ''A snowball's chance in hell.''
What does the trouble maker do? ''Raise hell.''
You threaten someone by saying, ''There will be hell to pay.''
If something is very painful people say, ''It hurts like hell.''
Before Georgia Tech will beat Georgia again in football, ''Hell will freeze over.''
6. So the question is -''Is hell more than just an adjective?'' A joke? A figure of speech? Is hell just a fear-mongering myth? The question of hell is a hellacious question and every question about hell deserves an answer such as these questions:
Is there a place called hell?
Who will go to hell and why?
How could a loving God send anyone to hell?
7. As I begin to share with you the answer to this question, I want you to know that I agree wholeheartedly with C. S. Lewis. He said, ''There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than [hell], if it lay in my power....I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully: 'All will be saved.''' So would I! But is impossible to be loyal to the Word of God or the Son of God and jettison hell. Truth is tough and no truth is tougher to frame and face than hell so the truth must be told. So I want to share with you heaven's view of hell.
I. The Word of God Teaches the Validity of Hell
1. Hell is not a myth. It’s not a place invented by film directors to spice up their horror movies-or a story created by parents to scare their children into obedience. Throughout God’s Word, we are taught that Hell does indeed exist.
Ps. 9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
Prov 27:20, “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
Isa 5:14, “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.”
Isa 14:9, “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.”
Dan. 12:2 says, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
2 Pet. 2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
Rev. 20:15 says, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”
*** Several years ago a traffic officer gave a ticket to a woman in Brooklyn. And when the officer handed it to her through the window, she snapped it out of his hands and said, “You can go straight to Hell!” So the officer took her to court. A few days later they appeared before the judge and he dismissed the officer’s complaint about the woman’s language. The judge said, and I quote, “It wasn’t a command, or a wish, but a statement of fact, for going to Hell is a possibility.”
1. I think this woman deserved punishment for the way she disrespected the officer but the judge was correct. Going straight to Hell is a possibility because it is a real place.
*** Paul Powell writes, “It is sobering to consider that every person who has ever lived, every person now living, and every person who will ever live, shall continue to live throughout all eternity either in Heaven or Hell.”
II. The Son Of God Affirms The Reality Of Hell Matt. 5:22, 28-30
1. Many people may not realize it but the truth is, the greatest preacher on Hell fire and damnation who ever lived was not Jonathan Edwards or Billy Sunday or Billy Graham. No, it was Jesus Christ Himself. In fact, our Lord had more to say about Hell than all the other Biblical writers combined. He also had more to say about Hell than He did about Heaven.
*** The great preacher, Vance Havner once told of a time he preached on the subject of Hell and after his sermon one of his listeners criticized his message by saying, “Rev. Havner, I don’t think you should preach any more fire and brimstone. You should preach about the meek and mild Jesus.” Havner replied, “But, He’s the one Who gave me all the information about Hell in the first place!”
2. And Havner is right. Most of what we know about Hell comes from the lips of our Lord. He repeatedly warned people not to go to this horrible, place where in Matt. 8:12 He says, “…there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” According to this Book of Truth, there is no doubt about it. Hell is an actual place.
3. Anyone who knows anything about preachers and preaching, sermonizers and sermons agree that the Sermon on the Mount is perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached. Jesus had not gotten very far into the Sermon on the Mount when He makes these statements.
Matt 5:22, “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”
Matt 5:28-30, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
4. The reason I quote Jesus may shock you but most of what we know about the biblical view of Hell comes from His own lips. Of the 1,850 verses in the New Testament that record the words of Jesus, 13% of them deal with the subject of hell and judgment. Jesus talked more about hell than any other topic. Of the forty-parables that Jesus told, more than half of those parables relate to the concept of hell and God's eternal judgment. The strongest biblical word for hell, the word Gehenna is used twelve times in scripture and eleven times Jesus was the speaker.
4. I have to warn you that the picture that Jesus Christ painted of this place is not pretty. The word Gehenna which is the word used in the verses I just shared with you to describe the eternal destiny of people who spend eternity without God, refers to the Valley of Hinnom, which was located south of Jerusalem. I have been there and I have seen it. In Jesus' day, it was used as a garbage dump where both trash and the bodies of executed criminals were burned. It was the most repugnant place in the entire city.
5. The reason Jesus compared this place to hell is because hell is a place of unspeakable, incomparable anguish and sorrow. It is a place of emotional anguish. Jesus said in Matt 13:42, “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Do you know why people are referred to as ''gnashing their teeth''? When people wake up in hell, part of the emotional anguish will be expressed by this continual, never-ending gnashing of the teeth, when people realize ''I blew it! I should have received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I had the opportunity and I rejected Him.''
6. Jesus also said that hell was a place of physical pain. In the verse we just quoted, Jesus referred to hell as a ''fiery furnace''. Rev 20:10 says, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Whatever else this says and whatever else it means, it is obviously going to be a place of terrible pain.
7. I know the question arises, ''Do you really believe it is a literal lake of fire? Do you really believe it is a fiery furnace? Do you really buy all that fire and brimstone stuff?'' My response is whether it is literal or metaphorical, whether the fire and the furnace are real or not, the pain is real, the suffering is real, and the agony is real.
A. Jesus also said it is a place of relational isolation. Matt.25:30
1. In Matt. 25:30, Jesus said hell would be a place of darkness. “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 25:30) It is called a place of darkness, because in hell there is complete isolation. You don't have any friends or any fellowship in hell. There is no partying going on in hell. Hell is a place of ultimate loneliness, because you not only miss any presence of God as you know it now, you don't even experience the presence of friends.
2. There is no fellowship in hell. There is no companionship in hell. There are no relationships in hell. In essence, hell is the place of eternal solitary confinement.
B. Jesus also said hell was a place of eternal punishment. Matt. 25:46
Matt 25:46, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
1.In other words, there is no second chance once you get there. There are no exit doors in Hell. As we read in our text, “Then they [meaning those who have rejected Jesus] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous [those who have accepted Jesus], to eternal life.” (Matt. 25:46) Hell is the only place in the universe where there is no hope. Here in this life, we can always say, ''We'll get you next time'' or ''There is always tomorrow'' or ''Wait 'til next year.'' In hell, there is no next time, there is no tomorrow, there is no next year; it is eternal.
2. As the rich man in Jesus’ story of Lazarus the beggar discovered, between heaven and Hell “…a great chasm has been fixed…” so that those who want to leave cannot do so. (Luke 16:26). The word “fixed” here, means that in Hell everything is permanent…immovable. There is no growth, no change, no repentance, and worst of all, there is no hope.
3. As Prov. 11:7 says, “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.” This is because this life, the one we are living now, has an end but eternity lasts forever, which is why they call it “eternity!!”
*** Dr. James Kennedy writes, “Every Hebrew and Greek word which is used to describe the eternality of the existence of God and the eternality of the blessedness of the redeemed in Heaven, is also used to describe the eternality of the sufferings of the lost in Hell.”
4. Death marks the final separation between time and eternity, it’s not what happens after you die but what happens before that makes all the difference. Eternal destinies cannot be changed. Once in Hell, always in Hell. Once in Heaven, always in Heaven.
*** As M. R. DeHaan puts it, “Once we have passed through the door of death, we can’t pick up our suitcase and move out because we don’t like the accommodations.”
5. Understand - this is not what I am saying about hell, this is what Jesus said. Here is the choice. If there is no hell and what I said to you about hell is not true, then Jesus Christ was neither a great teacher nor a good man. Forget about even being the Son of God, because He lied. So, which world view do you accept? The world view that Jesus gives us in the Word of God or the world view of a post-modernist who says, ''Hell is a myth. It's just not real.''?
C. Jesus said hell was a place of physical agony..
1. In the story of Lazarus and the Rich man, you may remember that in Hell the rich man asked Lazarus about the possibility of receiving the treasured relief, that a single drop of water would offer. He didn’t ask for a barrel or a jar or a thermos or a cup or a gulp. He says that just a drop would be precious beyond description. And the Bible says this kind of physical anguish will go on and on and on.
2. How good is your pain tolerance? Ever get a pain and try to grit it out? Have you ever heard of pain management? But pain doesn’t go away in Hell, ever.
*** As Erwin Lutzer points out, "The most sobering thought that could ever cross our minds is the fact that the rich man in Hell has not yet received the drop of water for which he so desperately longed."
3. I know what many of you are thinking right now, because I’m thinking the same thing. I struggle with the existence of a place of literal fire and eternal physical pain and many Christian scholars who are just as conservative as I am do as well. They say that when Jesus described Hell as a place, "…where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched…" (Mark 9:48) they say that our Lord was being symbolic. He was using metaphors. And they may be right, but understand, even if they are, they aren’t saying that Hell is not as bad as a literal lake of fire where you burn in agony for all eternity.
4. By believing these words are symbolic they are saying Hell is worse than that.
*** In his book, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, R. C. Sproul writes, "If these things are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe Hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols."
5. And whereas I may disagree with Sproul on some things, I agree with him here. If these Biblical descriptions of Hell are metaphors, then Jesus was saying that Hell is the worst possible place we could ever imagine. And the fact is when it comes to describing eternity from our perspective, all we can do is imagine.
III. The Character Of God Demands The Necessity Of Hell
1. I want to tackle the burning question that many people have about this whole subject with the favorite statement people make. ''A Loving God Would Never Send People To Hell.'' Believe it or not, that statement (as is) is absolutely true. However, there are three words in that statement that makes it absolutely false.
A. What is a “loving” God?
1. The first word is ''loving''. God is a loving God, but He is not loving in the sense that most people use that word today, meaning a sentimental emotion, some warm fuzzy feeling that is tolerant of everything and everybody. God is a loving God, but His love is a holy love. His love is a righteous love. His love is a just love.
2. God is so loving that He does not want Scott Peterson to go to hell or Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. God Himself said in Ezek 33:11, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
2 Pet. 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
3. The Bible is very clear, God hates hell and He hates people going there, but God's love is so merciful and so real that He allows people to choose hell if that is what they want.
5. We all know this world is filled with people who reject God's love every day, who have no desire to worship God's Son, who have no hunger to hear God's Word or fellowship with God's people on earth. Do you understand they would be totally out of place in heaven?
6. Can you imagine people who have no time for God, no desire for God, no hunger for God, can't stand the thought of going to church and learning about God and hearing the Word of God, dying and ending up in heaven in an eternal church service where 12:00 never comes and you never get out, spending all that time with people who do love God and are praising God and worshipping the God that they never knew and never cared for? In that sense, heaven would be hell for them.
7. In a real sense, God's love demands a hell. Think about a man proposing to a woman and asking her to marry him. The woman says, ''I respect you. I admire you, but I don't love you and I don't want to marry you.'' Now imagine that he proposes to her a second time and she declines and a third time she declines. Finally, the man says, ''You know what? I love you so much I am going to force you to marry me. I am going to force you to spend all of your life with me.'' Would you agree that really wouldn't be love? You would be exactly right and God's love is never going to force people to choose Him and God's love is never going to force anyone to go to heaven that doesn't want to.
B. Does God “send” people to Hell?
1. That leads to the second word and that is the word ''send''. Let me make this as plain as I can. God doesn't send anyone to hell. He simply gives people what they choose. A few weeks back I told you that one of the reasons why there is evil on earth is because God created us with the ability to choose.
2. If you believe that a human being has the right to choose and the ability to choose, then that demands that you believe in hell. Without hell, there is no choice and without choice heaven would not be heaven. Heaven in reality would be hell. If your choice is only limited to loving God whether you want to or not, and going to heaven whether you want to or not, then there really is no choice at all.
***God does not send man to Hell. Sin does. And man sends himself in choosing sin. As Lewis also said, “If the doors of Hell are locked, they are locked from the inside.”
3. Hell is not simply a sentence that God passes on sinners who reject Him. It is the end of a path that is freely chosen in this life (here and now) day by day. To every person on earth who kept God at arm's length who said by their actions, their thoughts, and their hearts, ''We don't want any part of you or any part of your son, no part of your salvation, no part of your praise, and no part of your worship, you keep your distance and we will keep ours.'' God says, ''You want distance? I will give you the ultimate distance. I will give you an eternity totally separated from Me.''
4. The real question is this - Why would a loving God force sinners to go to heaven? Hell is simply getting what a person has said all of his life that he wants - No God, because in hell that is exactly what you have -No God. It is simply the eternal fruit of an earthly life that was lived totally apart from God.
C. Who are the People?
1. Then there is the third word, ''people'' People don't go to hell. Only sinners who refuse to realize they are sinners, repent and turn away from their sins and receive God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ go to hell.
2. Now we are going to get to the crux of the issue of why unrepentant, unforgiven sinners do go to hell. According to the Bible what is the most horrible sinful thing a person can ever do in this life? Believe it or not, it is not murder. It is not rape. It is not homosexuality. It is not fornication. It is not treason. It is not incest. It is not child molestation. There is no question, all of these are absolutely horrible, but they cannot compare to the mocking, dishonoring, and rejecting of the supreme love of a God that went to such great lengths to save us that He sent His own Son to die for our sins.
3. The ultimate sin is when a person goes through his entire life, constantly ignoring God, constantly rejecting God, continuing to live without God and saying in essence, ''I couldn't care less about what you put me here to do. I couldn't care less about your will for my life. I couldn't care less that your son, Jesus Christ, died for me. I am not interested.''
4. If you don't think that is really a big deal and if you don't think rejecting Jesus Christ deserves that type of punishment, listen to this description of what a person is really doing when they fail to respond to God's offer of salvation. ''Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to His people.'' (Heb. 10:29, NLT)
5. The Greek word for ''trodden or trampled'' was used to describe something like salt which was considered worthless, because it had lost its flavor and simply thrown on the roads to be trampled by feet. In essence, the person who rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ and refuses to surrender their life to Him is basically saying that His death on the cross and His blood is absolutely worthless and meaningless.
*** It is the attitude of a Ted Turner, who once said, ''I don't want anybody to die for me. I've had a few drinks and a few girlfriends and if that's gonna put me in hell, well, then so be it.'' You may sit there and say you don't have that same type of attitude, but in essence, you really do if you die having refused Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
6. Incidentally, don't get the idea that if people in hell had a second chance they would do the right thing about Jesus Christ.
***C. S. Lewis said, ''I willingly believe the damned are in one sense successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.'' Even in hell people would not choose to go to heaven, because in order to do that they would have to do the one thing they definitely did not want to do on earth. Billy Graham could preach a crusade every day for one billion years in hell and nobody would ever, ever be saved.
7. Understand, to deny hell is to deny the love of God, the mercy of God, the holiness of God, the justice of God and finally the grace of God because -
IV. The Grace Of God Saves From The Penalty Of Hell
1. I am going to give you a little known fact that I want you to think about. God never prepared hell for you and me. Jesus said in Matt. 25:41, ''Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”
This place called hell was designed for the devil and his angels, not for human beings. That is why God sent Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, so that through His grace and by our faith in the Son of God and His death on the cross, we could receive forgiveness for our sins.
2. Speaking of the cross, if you still sit there and refuse to believe what Jesus said about hell, then answer this question. If there is no hell or if somehow everybody pretty much is going to wind up in heaven, why the cross of Jesus Christ? To the question - How could a loving God send people to hell?, I ask: How could a loving God send His son to die on the cross when He didn't have to? The truth is nothing short of the reality of hell can explain the cross of Jesus Christ.
3. Do you understand that hell is exactly what Jesus Christ suffered on the cross, when He took the sins of the entire world and for the only time in His eternal existence, experienced what it was like to be totally cut off and totally separated from a loving God? The only difference is where He said, ''My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?'' People in hell will be saying for all eternity, ''O God, O God I know why you have forsaken me--because I rejected You.''
4. That is why I want to talk about one last misconception about hell. Most people believe basically two things (if they do believe in hell) about who is going there and who is not.
Rule #1 - The good people go to heaven.
Rule #2- The bad people go to hell.
Let's face it. At first blush that sounds fair. It sounds simple. It sounds like a good idea. The only problem is that is not what the Bible says.
5. Do you know why? If good people went to heaven, heaven would be an empty place, because the Bible says there really aren't any good people when you compare good people to the holiness of a perfect God. Ecc. 7:20, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” The non-biblical world view says that good people can find God, but bad people can't.
6. The Christian world view is so much better. Do you know what the Gospel of Jesus Christ says? It says it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. It doesn't matter how bad or how wicked you've been. Any time you want to, you can come to God, accept His Son, Jesus Christ, and His grace can forgive you. His blood can cover you and His love can save you.
*** Two men were sitting in a restaurant. One man got absolutely angry at the other man and said to him, ''Go to hell.'' A Christian, who was reading his Bible, happened to be sitting in the next booth and he turned around and tapped this man on the shoulder and said, ''I've been reading the directions and you don't have to go if you don't want to.'' That is the message of the Bible. You don't have to go if you don't want to.
*** I’m reminded of the story I read once about a man who fell down the elevator shaft of a very tall building. About half way down a friend shouted, “How’s it going?” And as he fell past him the man replied, “So far so good!”
8. People are so busy with life in this fallen world of ours that they don’t realize that even now they are falling. It’s just that they haven’t hit bottom yet. We are all born in sin. We are born damned, on our way down to death and destruction. God is not cruel. He is merciful and we know this because He offers us a most amazing merciful deal while we are still alive and falling. Those who face Hell do so because they reject this deal. They say “No thanks” to the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.
9. The answer is no. God does not send people to Hell. Men and women send themselves there. Hell is a place for people who would not want to go to heaven-people who, in their decision to reject Christ, say they would prefer to spend eternity away from God. If you are a believer, you ought to live every day rejoicing in your salvation, thankful that you are going to heaven and grateful to God that His grace has found you.
