Thoughts About the Afterlife
Heaven and Hell are real, literal places according to the Bible. [1] It is true that the doctrine of Hell has been preached in the past by "fire and brimstone" preachers to scare people into "getting saved". This has caused many to believe that accepting Jesus is some sort of fire insurance, but that's not the point. The point of salvation is to restore people's broken relationship with God. If people will admit it, they sometimes feel real guilt over things they have done or are doing that violate God's rules (the 10 commandments).
God is the source of all love, joy, peace, contentment, mercy, grace, beauty, and forgiveness. Without God it is impossible to have any of these intangible things. (Of course, some people will disagree with this statement. Some will say that society can have all of these things without God. However, without God's moral standard of right and wrong, who is to say what love, joy or peace is? Mindless, blind chance has no concept of such things).
Asking this question "Does God Send People to Hell?" implies that people believe they are passive victims of God's actions [2]. However, by giving people free will, God has given people the freedom to choose Him or reject Him. If a person has rejected Him their entire life, He will not push Himself on that person and force them to endure His presence forever in Heaven. He will honor the conscious choices that each person makes. If a person prefers darkness and the isolation that selfish, self-centered living brings, then God will not overrule that preference and will allow that person to be separated from Him forever in Hell. [3]
There are scriptures (Rev. 14:10 and Matt. 25:41) which state that God does turn unrepentent people (through their choice) into the lake of fire. [4] However, God originally created Hell in order to quarantine the devil and his angels and prevent them from causing eternal destruction and mayhem. "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." (see Matthew 25:41)
C.S. Lewis summed up the reason why people end up in Hell in his book "The Great Divorce" in this famous quote:
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice (by Humans or Angels) there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened." [5]
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1 Comment(s)
The choices are very clear. It's sad that too many people choose their own way rather than God's way to peace and salvation.