Why does God condemn people who don’t keep His statutes if indeed He is as loving as people say,? Why are nonbelievers banished to spend eternity in Hell? These questions are pondered by many, but Christian apologist Lee Strobel says God doesn’t send people to Hell — they send themselves.
Strobel tackles these and other questions in detail in his recently updated New York Times best-seller The Case For Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus.
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“Jesus teaches more about Hell than anyone in the entire Bible,” Strobel writes. “Doesn’t that contradict His supposed gentle and compassionate character?”
No.
“In a sense, people send themselves to Hell,” Strobel told The Christian Post in a recent interview. “The message of hope, grace, forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus is offered to everyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith.”
Of course not everyone will accept Christ’s offer of salvation. Strobel told CP that he recently interviewed an atheist who told him that he didn’t like the God of the Bible and didn’t want to spend eternity in Heaven with Him. He would rather go to a place where his friends are going — Hell.
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Strobel says, “Hell exists because there are people who decide their whole lifetime, ‘I can live without God, I don’t want anything to do with God.’ There are people for whom Heaven would be Hell because they don’t want to be with God, they reject God, they don’t believe in God and they hate God in many ways. And to be with God for eternity in a worship setting — for them — would be Hell.”
“When they die, God seals that decision and says, ‘Okay, well, for eternity you’ll be separated from Me.’ That — being separated from God for eternity — is what Hell is.”
Strobel asserts, however, that Jesus has mercy even upon those who choose Hell. He told CP, “The Bible suggests that there are degrees of suffering in Hell, that not everyone’s experience will be the same. That some will have different levels of suffering than others. I think that’s important in understanding the mercy of God.”
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God’s perfect plan, however, is that none should be lost. “I believe anyone, anywhere, in any culture, at any time, that seeks after the one true God will have a way of finding Him and coming into His family and being saved from damnation.
“I think that opportunity of [salvation] is available to every creature on planet Earth in one way or the other. Those that reject it, those that don’t care, those that walk the other way — God will confirm that decision on their death and that will be their eternity.”
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My name is Alan Finch. I became a Christian in April of 1976. I would like to share my thoughts on the question that so many people ask in regards to “HOW COULD A LOVING GOD SENTENCE PEOPLE TO ETERNAL DAMNATION?”
For some reason John 6:44 has been GREATLY overlooked by the Church today. In this verse, JESUS clearly states that nobody can come to Him unless God draws that person to JESUS. You and I only came to JESUS because the Spirit of God drew us to JESUS.
There are billions of people who never had the Spirit of God draw them to JESUS. Since that is the case, why would a loving God sentence billions of people to eternal torment who never had the Spirit of God draw them to JESUS? The answer then becomes clear that the Scriptures are not being properly understood by the vast majority of people.
God has His own plan for each individual that He has created. In the future, in His promise of RESTORATION, God’s Spirit is going to do such a GREAT and MIGHTY work in each individual that just as God has promised in Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10&11, that at the name of JESUS ALL will bow the knee and every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST is LORD. There is no place in these verses that states that people are going to be forced to bow their knee before JESUS. Being forced to bow the knee before JESUS brings no Glory to God. The Scriptures are very clear that God only accepts a willing heart. So, ALL people are going to bow the knee before JESUS from a WILLING HEART, not from being forced.
Isaiah 45:23 states that every tongue shall swear before JESUS. The word “SWEAR” in this Passage of Scripture means to take an oath that JESUS is their Lord. In greater detail, it means to “PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO.” People who know that eternal damnation awaits them are certainly not going to be pledging allegiance to JESUS. Rather, they will be cursing JESUS.
JESUS often used metaphors in His teachings which is often been overlooked today by the Church. Once we begin to gain a better understanding of the metaphors used by JESUS then (PRAISE GOD) the Scriptures begin to come alive with clearer meaning. The problem that we have today in the Church is that much of the teaching is coming from a scholarly type of teaching, rather than from Holy Spirit revelation insight of the Scriptures. JESUS said that His Church is to be built upon Revelation.
I spent several years in putting together a 32 page document “WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST?” I put forth a pain stacking effort in trying to leave no stone unturned in Biblically expounding upon the Biblical truths that I share in my document.
If anyone would be interested in reading my document, email me at: ([email protected] ) and I will email you a copy.