In Part I we looked at how a person isn’t saved by reciting magic words – it’s a matter of faith. While saying the Sinner’s Prayer is a great way to express one’s faith, it is faith that saves and not the prayer.
We also talked about what Christians mean when we use the word “saved.” It’s an understanding of the condition of your soul in relation to eternity. Life as we know it is merely one part of our journey. Death does not stop the journey but continues it.
Those who are “saved” (i.e. have faith in Jesus) will be spending eternity in the presence of God – this is heaven. To be totally honest the Bible doesn’t give explicit details about the nature of heaven. There is a lot of symbolism and imagery when people describe it (streets of gold, etc.), but no solid, “This is what heaven is like.” The most we can say about heaven is that it is the opposite of hell – it is the presence of God and a place that is wonderful, enjoyable, and the place where we are free from any problem, care, or worry.
Those who are “lost” (i.e. have no faith in Jesus) will be spending eternity outside the presence of God – this is hell. And, again, to be totally honest, the contemporary image of hell is not from the Bible as much as it is from the imaginations of writers, artists, etc. The most we can say about hell is that it is the opposite of heaven – the absence of the presence of God and a place that is generally unpleasant, uncomfortable, and not a place you want to be 😉
But the question I hear most frequently from non-Christians is:
Why would a loving God send people to hell?
People have a hard time hearing the message that God loves them when we simultaneously send the message that God will punish them if they don’t become part of the faith. While some Christians do send that message, the Bible does not. The Bible is clear:
God is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
The verse speaks for itself – God doesn’t CHOOSE to send people out of his presence. He wants everyone to be in His presence (heaven). So then…who goes to hell?
Hell is for those who do not choose God. He doesn’t send – we decide. The Bible says:
The works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance-as I told you before-that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
For know and recognize this: no sexually immoral person or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God. (Ephesians 5:5).
Hear me out – I’m not God, and the Bible doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty of a lot of these. The point is, though, that certain behaviors and actions are not acceptable to be in the presence of a Holy God (holy means set apart or different).
It comes down to love and punishment. I think about it as a parent. I love my kids. But I have certain standards for their behavior. There are some things that are not acceptable. Because they are human individuals they are going to choose to do things with which I disagree.
Sometimes their behavior warrants being put in time-out. What is time-out? It’s removing the child from the family system – they cannot be part of the family system because of the choices they made to behave the way they did.
My children want to live by their own rules (or lack thereof). Then they’re always surprised when they go to time-out. Adults are no different. We want the freedom to live our own lives the way we want and then complain when we are told that there are eternal consequences for our behavior.
The Bible says:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
Ultimately, we all deserve the BIG TIMEOUT (hell). But Jesus paid the price for our brokenness. Now we can once again be in the presence of God. But we can only approach him through faith and repentance.
When all is said and done, God is the one to judge our hearts and behavior. Not me. Not you. Not any human. I fully believe there will be people in heaven that will completely surprise us. Similarly, there will NOT be people in heaven that we always expected to be there.
In the meantime, we do our best in this life to live the life He has called us to live.
That means I may not do some things I want to do because it goes against what he wants me to do.
Because his way is supposed to come before my way.
Related Posts:
– Why You’re Going to Hell: Part I
Chris Linzey 
“It comes down to love and punishment”. This is the statement I take issue with. It really comes down to punishment. Unless you are speaking of love for everyone who doesn’t want to put up with sinners in heaven. But that really makes one wonder why God the Father can’t figure out a time-out system if Pastor Linzey the earthly father can.
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I don’t have all the answers. The Bible does say that those who reject God will suffer the lack of his presence, and that’s not a good place to be. (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
While the things that cause my kids to go to time out are really small potatoes, rejecting God isn’t. Perhaps once one gets to a place of rejecting God one’s heart is so hardened there’s no turning back.
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“Time” out vs Eternity-out. There is a huge gap there. No comparison. Again the issue is the unredeemable nature. I’m not trying to argue for a non-existence of hell. I’m arguing that you can’t downplay total wrath and death with how you would deal with your kids. God forbid!
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While it’s not an even comparison the concept is similar for both – removal as a consequence for behavior. I’m not trying to downplay the wrath of God. I’m trying to highlight the fact that hell is not God’s preference but a result of our own choices.
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I’m sorry. The love and punishment argument simply doesn’t satisfy. You punish your kids in order to correct behavior. There is a redeeming value to it. There is nothing redeeming about banishing your kids for eternity unless it was proven that they were eternally unredeemable and would thus spoil everyone else’ time in “heaven”.
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Maybe punishment was a poor choice of words, but timeout says, “This behavior is not part of this family.” Similarly, God has said, “Certain behavior excludes you from my presence.”
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