Why Does God Send People to Hell? (Lent 7-2018)

If there was ever a Christian turn-off, this one would be it: Why Does God Send People to Hell?

It even makes Christians uncomfortable, this whole idea of hell. It doesn’t jibe with the God of love (John 3:16) whom the end zone at football games and the Catholic priest in our devotional series launched from The Life of Pi proclaim.

In the minds of discomforted Christians (and especially those who think Christianity is stupid), they picture God sitting up in some cloud, grabbing perfectly normal people, and throwing them into some gaping chasm in the ground with hot lava boiling in the bottom. And He somehow does all this with a huge angry scowl on His face … with or without that diabolical laugh in your Hollywood version.

What a misunderstanding and a tragic one! Let me say it clearly:

God does not SEND people to hell. They send themselves there.

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God RESCUES people from hell. That’s why Jesus came.

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For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)

Food for thought:

Why is it convenient for those who hate Christianity to point to this question, thinking of it as being “checkmate” in the game of religious thought?
In what way does it all depend on God?
In what ways do people send themselves to hell?
In what ways is hell the default destination? Read Genesis 2:17 for insight.
In what ways do we have a say in where we end up? Read Romans 10:1-15 for insight.

More on this subject tomorrow with “Why is There Hell?”

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For Lent 2018, we’ll explore the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We’ll ask and answer the question “Why?” as we discover the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Join me for the 40 days of Lent which began February 14, 2018 by liking Seminary Gal on Facebook or having these devotionals sent to your email box which you can do via the sign-up on my Home page. Thank you for blessing me with this opportunity to study together the Word of God.

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Acknowledging that former years’ devotional series remain popular:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.