The Ghost Story of Hell

After a long absence of enjoying the ins and outs of life I have returned. In my absence from this blog I have become an assistant manager and watched my wife give birth to a beautiful girl. She is now two and half weeks old. But that’s not what this blog is about, as you can probably tell by the title. Without further ado, “The Ghost Story of Hell.”

“If what you’re saying is true does that mean I am going to hell?”

What a question? How does one answer that and yet not be offensive.

“Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? That He died on the cross and took our sins? That He rose from the dead and offers us new life?”

In numerous discussions I’ve heard people say that God is so loving that He can’t really stand to see so many people go to Hell. I mean God must have a really big ego to say that we have to worship Him specifically. What about all the other religions that are all saying the same thing right?

“Worship the Lord Your God and serve Him only.”

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I’m pretty sure all the other religions are not saying the same things. The passage to Heaven is not through having a “good” heart and caring about those around you. It does not matter how much you strive to be a better person and do great things for the world around you. Scripture specifically says that the only way is through Jesus.

“That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”

It does not take much, but this one thing that God asks of us is such a huge gulf in people’s minds that many will not cross. And because of that the Lord’s judgment awaits. It’s not because God is sadistic but because the world is governed by rules and one of those is “The wages of sin is death.”

It is up to us if we will accept the free gift of Christ and fall in love with Him or if we will forever be distant from Him.

I’m not God. I don’t sit in the judgment. But I know what Scripture says. Rather than lording it over all the “sinners” of the world, this should greatly impact my attitude for them. If I am going too say that someone is going to go to Hell and give them a cursory explanation do I really care about them. If I know that someone is going to suffer eternal damnation shouldn’t I be down on my knees begging God to give me the right words and the time to say them.

Hell is too fictional for many of us. It’s like telling the story of the boy who cried wolf to a kid to scare him into telling the truth. When I told my friend Kenta that a wolf was going to come eat him if he kept lying I knew it wasn’t true. Scare tactics worked for Jonathan Edwards as he spoke to the masses (see “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”), but I think he believed in Hell as more than a ghost story.

See, we don’t want to go there because when one starts picturing their friends in the most miserable torment a burden of responsibility comes crashing down on us. Do we love our friends enough to daily pray for them and take advantage of every moment we get to show them who God is and what He offers. Isn’t it better to risk a friendship and plant a seed than for us to quietly let our friend go to the grave?

My heart has been opened to all of this and I have been praying that God give me a truly loving heart. If I love someone then I should be willing to risk ridicule, embarrassment, and possibly the loss of a friendship to show them how much I care about them and don’t want to see them in Hell. From a guy’s perspective, I know we do crazy things to win a girl and we put our heart out on our sleeve even though societally we are to remain cagey. Shouldn’t we do the same thing in this case, especially since the stakes are higher?

Pray about it. What name does God put in your head? How can you be praying for that person and how can you make sure that you get to hang out with him or her forever?