“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” God said through the prophet Hosea (4:6). Ignorance will, indeed, destroy us. Our ignorance of history and Leftist ideology is wreaking havoc on America right now, tearing the country to shreds. But there is no ignorance worse than ignorance of God’s Word, of New Testament Christianity.
The question in the title of this essay is one heard occasionally by those who don’t want to submit to Christ. I heard a form of it this morning from my sister. “I take a little bit from every religion or philosophy—Jesus, Buddha, all religions teach basically the same thing. If I’m a good person, I can’t believe a loving God would send me to hell.” Ignorance, but common ignorance.
The truth is, God doesn’t 'send' anybody to hell. He gives us freedom of choice to set our own destination. He does have conditions for going to heaven, and one of those is that we must believe that Jesus of Nazareth is His Son and died on Calvary’s cross for our sins. It doesn’t matter how “good” we are, we are all sinners to one degree or another and thus have offended a perfect, righteous, holy God. Sin cannot abide in His presence. He sent His Son Jesus to remedy that. It is the supreme act of love.
If we reject Jesus, we are rejecting that love. We make the choice. “God, I don’t want to go to heaven on your terms, I want to go on my own terms. You better let me into heaven on my terms or I’m going to think you are a bad God.” I seriously doubt that kind of reasoning is impressive to Him.
The fact of the matter is people aren’t lost and hell-bound because God doesn’t love them; they are lost and hell-bound because they don’t love God. If they don’t love Him enough to want to have fellowship with Him here on earth, I doubt they will want to spend an eternity with Him in heaven. So, by making the choice to go to hell, they are, in effect, choosing exactly what they chose on earth—to not be part of God’s kingdom. They spit in God’s face all their lives and yet demand He give them heaven in the end. And they call that “love.” There is a thing called “justice,” too, and that will play a role in the final day as well.
You don't just invite yourself into God's home (or anybody else's, for that matter). I set the conditions for who enters my abode, and everybody else does the same. But, for some reason, it's not supposed to work that way with God. He is obliged to let everybody into His home, on their own terms, regardless of what they do, and He can have no say in the matter. If that weren't so serious, it would be uproarously preposterous. But that appears to be what most people believe.
Apparently, God loving us means He has to give us everything we want regardless of how we treat Him. Us loving God means He has to give us everything we want regardless of how we treat Him. It's all, and totally, about what WE want.
People don’t accept Jesus for one reason—they don’t want to do what He says. So be it. It’s their choice. They decide where they want to spend eternity, not God. They will receive what they have lived all their lives for--an eternal destiny away from Him.
The real question is not 'how can a loving God send anybody to hell,' but 'how can a just, holy God allow any of us miserable, rebellious sinners into heaven with Him.' But, as always, humans are selfish, self-serving, full of hubris, and we make our own rules. And then demand God follow them. No wonder Jesus said, 'Few there be that find it.'
