You Don't Have to go to Hell

For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. (2nd Thessalonians 1:6-10)

Gospel means "good news." It is the most wonderful news in the history of mankind. Because of His great love God has poured out His grace on us in Christ Jesus and paid for us to have eternal life with Him forever. It is a gift -- we can't earn it -- all we have to do is receive it by faith. It requires some humility to be able to receive the gift, but that's pretty much all. Once we become born again and start walking with the Lord then He works in our lives to change and transform us. Our walk with Him then becomes a relational proposition. We have responsibility to do certain things to grow and the Lord helps us in ways we sometimes see and sometimes don't. Our walk with the Lord is the pinnacle of the human experience. We can now truly love Him, but only because He loved us first (1st John 4:19).

One thing we don't like to talk about too much anymore is that the Gospel is good news because there is bad news. Paul speaks to judgement in 2nd Thessalonians 1 that leaves little room for debate. People argue about Hell and what it may or may not be. I even saw an article by a Universalist titled, "What in the Hell is Hell?" It was basically a mocking critique on the concepts of Hell and eternal judgement. There is little debate that the New Testament writers (in accordance with the Lord Jesus) all viewed judgement as a real event. There is very little else you can do with a Paul's statements like "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord." I'm not sure how else you take that. I'm amazed how Universalists cherry pick Paul. The intellectual inconsistency is staggering.

For some reason we lose sight of the fact that we are just messengers. Unbelievers get really offended if you believe the historical tenets of the Christian faith. We don't create the doctrine and we have no vested interest in seeing someone go to Hell. I find it somewhat ironic that people who reject Christianity get offended by believers who actually ascribe to historical, Biblical Christian beliefs. I'm not sure they are always quite as confident in their beliefs as they pretend to be.

Somewhere deep down that God spark sure seems to gnaw at people. That is the love of God that woos and calls to them. God is full of mercy and compassion and it is His desire that no one perish. And yet, people do when they refuse to accept the wonderful free gift that is laid out for them. The gospel is the best news in the history of mankind, but part of what makes it such great news is that there is truly bad news for those who reject Jesus.