Do People go to Hell Just Because They Died at the Wrong Time?

Let me be clear, I am no theologian, I have no teaching authority, and I am not a good person.  I just ask questions, and hope to learn from them.

When I was small, I was always afraid that I would die before I had time to confess and repent of my sins.  Later on, I wondered what happens to people who never heard of Jesus, and therefore, never accepted Him as their Saviour.

The answer is in the Bible.

 2 Peter 3:9 says, “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.”

My Bible tells me that salvation is the finished work of Lord Jesus.  We can never earn salvation, not even if we labored a thousand years and paid a billion tons in pure gold.  Salvation is worth infinitely more than that, the blood of Jesus.  He paid the price of our sin debt, and wiped it clean.

So then, why do some people go to Hell for all eternity?

In my fallible view, God never sends anyone to Hell; they send themselves.  They do this knowingly, wilfully, and persistently, of their own accord.  Satan offers Hell to people, but he cannot trick us into going there.  Why would anyone reject the free gift of salvation?

Again, the Bible mentions two unforgivable sins:  blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and taking the mark of the beast.

My fallible view is that both of these are the same sin.  They are the permanent, irreversible transfixion of a soul into ultimate evil.  The lost soul insists, and persists, in this unspeakable abomination. 

So then, my fallible answer is that going to Hell does not depend on chance, nor on any conditions beyond our control.  It is a fully informed, deliberate decision.  It is a knowing rejection of God, a refusal of His mercy and forgiveness.

Why would anyone do this?  I do not know, and hope never to know, because it would be like looking upon an unimaginable horror.

Instead, I wish to look upon the beauty of salvation, and with eternal gratitude, to know the joy of fellowship forever with my Lord and Saviour.

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the Trinity?

Christianity Made Simple – 04 What is the Trinity? Of course, a central theme in both Christianity and Judaism, is the belief in God.   Not only that, but we believe that there is one, and only one, God. In ancient times, there were many religions, and most of them taught that there are many gods, not just one.   The idea of only one God was rare, and it made the religion of the Jews very different from the others in the region where the Jews lived. But in modern Christianity, the description of God seems to break away from the idea of just one God.   We worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.   How can that be, if there is only one God? The opening words of the Bible tell us that, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”   Genesis 1:1 This verse portrays God as the Father, that is, the Creator.   In the New Testament, Jesus says of Himself that, “I and my Father are one.”   John 10:30 How can a ma...
Read more
  Christianity Made Simple (2)   Note to the reader:  The automatic formatting of this blog places the newest entries first.  To read them in order, start with the oldest entries. Why is there something, instead of nothing?   Why are things this way, and not some other way? These two questions have perplexed scientists and philosophers for thousands of years.  They are not idle questions.  As we shall see, they lead us to the problem of evil.  Why does it exist?  How can we overcome it? The very first line of the Bible, Old Testament, Book of Genesis, starts us off on the right track.   “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”   All the wisdom of man, all the science, all the great minds of philosophy, have found no better answer than this.   Without the right answer, we pay a heavy price. There is a problem.   Even though God created the universe in a state of perfection, we can clearly see that t...
Read more