Objections to Hell

by Pastor Gerry Miller

As part of this View from the Pew, I thought it valuable to briefly address some of the objections people raise because of biblical teaching on Hell as a place of eternal punishment for those who reject Christ. Some questions are as follows:

How can a loving God even conceive of a place like Hell much less send people there after death for all of eternity? God could have made us moral robots, forcing us all to follow Him, but this would not have fostered the meaningful voluntary love interactions that He desires with His human creatures. God will not force a human to unwillingly relate to Himself. Far more loving is God’s giving us a choice to either freely accept or reject his loving overtures with the knowledge that rejecting these overtures will have dire eternal consequences. Furthermore, the existence of a Hell has forced humans who otherwise would have been indifferent, to take seriously God’s desire of a loving, authentic relationship.

How can God unfairly punish a human for all of eternity in Hell for sins committed during a short period of a human lifespan?  The fairness of punishment for a crime is never determined by how long it took to commit the crime but rather on the enormity of the consequences of a crime. For example, a split second burst of gunfire that results in the death of a victim can deprive a victim of life for (possibly) many years. In the case of Hell, we are talking about a sin which rejects the infinite goodness of an all-powerful, all-loving God for all of eternity that is appropriately punished with eternal consequences.

Why does punishment in Hell have to be so extreme? Couldn’t God lighten up a bit? Even a “nice” place that a conscious, thinking human would spend in eternity without God would become (eventually) so boring because of lack of infinite intellectual stimulation that even that would become tortuous and unbearable. Given this, it may even be that Hell as described in the Bible may be the most merciful place a person without God could spend for all of eternity.

Why does God send sincere practitioners of non-Christian religions to Hell? Why would God send those who never heard about Jesus Christ to Hell when they never had a chance to become believers? The Bible teaches that no one goes to Hell in ignorance. Scripture teaches that all have some knowledge of truth (Romans 1:18-21) and the Holy Spirit will convict the world of their sin, righteousness and eternal judgment (John 16:7-11). The issue is not that humans don’t have the truth but rather what they do with the truth they have. As we have seen in Muslim countries, lack of Bibles or missionaries does not keep God from supernaturally revealing Himself to those who are open to accepting the truth.

The real question that must be answered is this: Why do humans ignore the offer of eternal fellowship with God by rejecting the pardon for sin that Jesus Christ freely offers all of humanity? I challenge you to think about THIS question!

Hypocrisy

by Kate Miller

Christians rarely if ever grasp the attention of national media for a good reason, and recently I heard a story about one of the supposed “leaders” in the Evangelical Christian faith that was, in my opinion, appalling. This man is the host of a program that offers advice to those who have moral dilemmas. A viewer wrote in to the show asking what to do about his wife that was deteriorating as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. The wife no longer recognized her husband and was becoming increasingly difficult to care for. The man confessed that he was having an active affair with another woman and wanted to know what he should do. The host of the program did not offer what I would consider to be “Christianly advice.” Instead, he told the man that he should divorce his wife and marry his mistress. He justified this statement by saying that because of her condition she was already dead, and as long as he made sure she was well cared for, he could live guilt free. He threw the vows of marriage out the window and encouraged a man to indulge in his selfish desires. When you consider what the Christian religion teaches, any person, believer or not, should be able to see how his advice was laden with hypocrisy.

Now I could sit here and get into all of the things that are wrong with the bit of advice that this man gave, but instead I would like to take a look at the bigger picture.

Why do Christians feel that we can pick and choose which parts of God’s teachings we will practice? Christians can actively condemn those that practice homosexuality or have abortions, but when it comes down to the more socially acceptable sins like selfishness and greed, the laws suddenly no longer apply.

I have witnessed firsthand how this type of hypocrisy can turn off a non-believer to the saving power of Jesus Christ. We are so busy pointing out the faults of others that we forget to look at our own lives. We must realize that it is not our place to cast the stones of judgment upon those who do not believe because when it comes down to it, we are no more perfect than those we condemn. Christians may not be able to see how imperfect they truly are, but if we take a moment to look at our lives, I am sure that we could all find an area where we do not practice what we preach. A Christian who does not live by the laws that God has created for us can become a stumbling block to those who observe our faith from the outside. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5). We must first correct our own faults before we point out those of another, and when we do rebuke those around us for their  sin, we must do so with love and understanding.

Morality

by Rick Rice

Ah, morality, the glue of civilization, the discernment of what is right and what is wrong. We have volumes of laws that tell us what not to do, and the earthly consequences that go with breaking these laws. We have armies of people in positions of authority who go around 24/7 “correcting” the masses who break these laws, yet this does not stem the tide. What happened to society’s moral compass? Why is it so hard for so many to simply do the right thing? I am not going to attempt to answer these questions here; I will simply refer you to Genesis 3 and tell you it has been downhill from there. That said however, we have been sent help. We do have an instruction manual to help those of us who will take the time to read it.

I would have to say, when I find myself doubting my ability to make a moral decision, I first think of the long journey we are all on to become imitators of Christ. I find that the more you imitate Christ, the more moral decisions you will make. When Christ himself was asked what the most important commandment was, he said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31, NIV).

When I need step-by-step instructions, I turn to my favorite list-maker Paul.  He says, live by the Spirit (moral) and stay away from your sinful nature (not moral). Hmmm, how do I know where the sinful nature lurks? Well, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21, NIV). If you find yourself stumbling down this path, turn around.

Ok, so now that I’ve turned away from the debauchery, how do I know I am living by the Spirit? By the fruit of course. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:22-23, 25, NIV). When the sinful nature really puts the pressure on, I turn to this piece of spiritual rebar from Paul: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13, NIV).

As you go through the rest of your day, week, life, out in this world, I recommend keeping this piece of advice in an easy to reach place: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love”(1 Cor. 16:13-14).

Faith

by Angel McAdams

Recently a new rumor started on Facebook that they would be charging people to have an account unless you copied and pasted that message by midnight that day. This of course spread like wildfire and it was even stated that it was on the news. Many people believed this because all day people kept copying and pasting that message so their account would stay free like they believed. Needless to say this was nothing but a rumor that people believed because someone put it on Facebook.

Wouldn’t it be great if faith in the person of Jesus Christ were that easy? You could just tell someone about Him or post His claims on Facebook and millions of people would accept them and believe. It doesn’t work that way with faith unfortunately. Tell someone, “God loves you” and chances are they may look at you funny and give you every indication that they think He doesn’t, because, if God truly loved them, everything in their life would go the way it should.

God makes Himself known everyday in all of the beauty that surrounds us and the amazing things in life He has created, right down to our very own existence. Yet people find it so hard to have faith in Him because they don’t feel He has proven His existence to them. People can so easily have faith in something someone they barely know states on Facebook, yet we have the amazing, enduring words of the Bible that we have every reason to believe. Time and time again God has proven His love for us, yet even that isn’t enough for some to have faith in Him. There is nowhere in the Bible that states if you have faith in Jesus Christ your life will be perfect, but yet somewhere along the way people seem to have come to that conclusion.

I know for me part of the reason I have trouble having faith in God sometimes is because He is just so amazing. Sometimes it is hard to believe that He loves me with my many imperfections. But isn’t that part of what having faith is about—encountering Someone so amazing and awe-inspiring that you know in your heart He is worth believing in? People sometimes say you have to find faith in something in life in order to survive, but I don’t believe it works that way. I think God gives us the faith necessary to even seek after Him. He searches us out and pulls at our hearts and opens our eyes to the wonder of His person, making us stop in our tracks and pay attention to Him. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.…And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  (Hebrews 11:1, 6, NIV).