A couple of years ago, I found a very interesting (and concerning) article by Paul Prather in the Lexington Herald Leader (1). “If you want to know who’s going to hell – here are some hints” was the title, and given that the author is a pastor, it was concerning his stances. I’ll put the article quotes in italics, with my comments below, so that hopefully this won’t be too confusing of a format. Let’s dive in. 

I don’t think a lot about hell. I hardly ever preach on it. I don’t hold many opinions about it. I intend not to go there myself. But like two-thirds of Americans, I do believe hell exists. I’m less sure what it’s like. I don’t buy that it’s a place where the damned are literally burned forever in a lake of fire. When I was a young minister, a teenager in my congregation was horribly burned in a home accident. I prayed with him and his parents in a hospital burn ward as he was dying, and I’ve never seen anything as gruesome or tortuous as his injuries. Ever since, I haven’t been able to imagine the loving God I worship throwing anybody into a fire and leaving them to writhe there forever. I just refuse to believe that of him. I believe hell’s eternal fires are a metaphor for a grief or bitterness we can’t otherwise understand here, a spiritual pain that results from having rejected God’s love forever.

It is concerning that a pastor hardly preaches on hell and doesn’t hold many opinions about it. Hell is a very important part of salvation – else what would we need saving from? Aside from that matter, the notion that a “loving God” wouldn’t throw anyone into a fire of judgement for all eternity is quite strange. A loving God is the reason there is judgement. God doesn’t love abortion, selfishness, pride, sinful ways. God doesn’t look at a child being murdered in the womb and think “Eh, as long as they think they’re doing right, it’s all good. Wouldn’t be very loving of me to step in and say otherwise.” If God acted like that, it wouldn’t be very loving at all. Because He is loving, He hates evil. And He doesn’t just stand there and let it happen forever – there is judgement, and evil will no longer reign. 

It would be very anticlimactic of the Narnia series, for example, if at the end of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Aslan (God) looks at Jadis (the bad guy who caused pain and suffering on his people for 100 years) and (instead of killing her) said “Hey, Jadis, why don’t you go lock yourself in your room with your grief and bitterness for all eternity.” How would that make the Narnians feel? That’s not a very just punishment at all – doesn’t Aslan know all of the crimes she’s committed? 

Even more so, the very true God, who is far greater than a fictional series, is not going to stand by and let judgement pass on those who deserve it. It is a loving God that provides a way out of this horrible end. We all deserve God’s judgement – we all have sinned, but God gave His Son to die for us, so that we may be saved. Indeed, a loving God determines punishment for wrongdoing, and yet still gives everyone a way out of it. 

As for the author refusing to believe that God has made what He said he did (more power to you, I suppose), there are numerous Bible verses that mention a lake of fire and everlasting destruction (Revelation 21:8, Revelation 20:15, Matthew 25:46, Matthew 10:28, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:44, Mark 9:45, Mark 9:46, Mark 9:47, Mark 9:48, Matthew 13:50, Revelation 20:14, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Revelation 20:10, Matthew 5:22, Revelation 14:11, Luke 16:23-24, and Luke 12:5). The sheer number of times it is mentioned in the Bible says that it’s not open for debate. You can choose to not believe it, but the fact that God spelled it out so clearly, so many times, indicates that it’s very important and worth taking note of. 

Another issue I have with hell is trying to figure out who goes there. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot — shoo-ins. But who else? Where’s the cut-off line? In Christianity, my religion, many say all those who don’t embrace Jesus Christ as the son of God and their personal savior go to hell, and those who do embrace him are spared no matter what terrible sins they’ve committed. That’s problematic, too.

The author seems to have an issue taking and understanding God’s words. But I’ll let his argument play out. 

How could God send a person from, say, communist China to hell for not believing in somebody she’s never even heard of? How would that be just on any level, especially if God’s lets a murderer into heaven because he prayed a last-minute fire-insurance prayer on his deathbed?

To be clear, a last minute fire insurance prayer will not save you. You must fully confess, repent of your sins, and put your faith in Christ, believing that He came to earth, was 100% man and 100% God, and willingly laid down His life, rising again three days later, to save you from an eternity in Hell, separated from Him. You can read more about the Gospel here.

If, however, the murderer decided to repent, put his faith and trust in Jesus, he would be saved. God knows the intention of your heart, however. He’s going to know if you’re just saying some words as a last ditch effort to avoid Hell. He will also know if you are truly repentant for everything you’ve done. You can’t fool God. 

What happens if someone has never heard of God? This question is quite a common one, and usually because people do not like the answer. Romans 1:19-20 states (emphasis mine):

“Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Romans 2:15, Titus 1:15, and Hebrews 9:14, among others, state that all humans have a conscience. The Bible says that the works and creations of God are clearly visible to all, and that all humans have a conscience. There is no excuse – you may not know God’s name, but even if you’ve never heard the Gospel, you will know that there is something out there who created the world, and has so much power – you’ll know there is a Creator. All are without excuse. They’ve been given signs of God. In 1 Kings 10, queen Sheba (a pagan) came searching for answers and truth, and, as seen in 1 Kings, God always provides the answers to those questions. I do believe that the Bible is clear in that all have been given an opportunity to seek God, to know of His existence, and that we will face judgement for our decision to either ignore these signs or seek after for further answers. 

So yes, as a Christian, I’m more-or-less required to accept that all salvation comes through Jesus. It’s a tenet of the faith. But it doesn’t necessarily follow for me that only Christians can be saved.

You’re not more-or-less required to accept it. If you read the Bible and believe God’s Word, you are required to accept it. Let’s hear his reasonings for why people other than Christians can be saved (which, let’s be honest, doesn’t even make sense. When you are saved, you become a Christian. It’s not a dual-citizenship scenario). 

In “Mere Christianity,” the great C.S. Lewis explains it like this: “We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ. We do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him.” I suspect God judges people, Christians or not, more on what they do know than on what they don’t know. Or perhaps he judges based on what they do with what they know. I get this sense from the sermons and parables of Jesus himself, who talked a lot about hell. St. Paul implies this as well. In Jesus’ accounting of right-standing before God, a religiously unclean but compassionate Samaritan appears to have far more hope of heaven than a self-absorbed priest, and a humble, desperate tax collector is nearer the pearly gates than a smug Pharisee. Notably, in Jesus’ worldview self-righteous religious folks are the most likely to be damned. The biblical Jesus can’t abide them. Prostitutes and tax collectors? No problem. The rich likewise are doomed. For example, in Jesus’ parable of Lazarus the beggar, Lazarus is ushered at death straightway into Abraham’s bosom, while the wealthy man at whose gate Lazarus lay is banished to a hell so hot he begs for just a drop of water to ease his torment.

I would just like to point out that here, the author admits that the rich man was in “hell so hot he begs for just a drop of water to ease his torment”, and still refuses to believe that an eternal lake of fire would be the punishment for not believing in Christ. But that’s not the point of this part of the article, so I’ll move on. 

I believe C.S. Lewis was talking similarly to what I mentioned above. That there is evidence of God around us – and while you may not have been given the Gospel, you can see there is a God and you seek for truth. I’m not entirely sure what the author is implying, except that if you are a self-righteous religious person, you are more likely to go to Hell. Heaven vs. Hell is not a personality test, though. The self-absorbed religious people the author mentioned were just that – religious. Religion is not the same as salvation. Harlots and tax collectors (Rahab and Zacchaeus) both searched for truth and found God. Your occupation does not determine Heaven or Hell – whether you have repented and become a child of God is what does.

Those who ignore others’ suffering never fare favorably with Jesus. He speaks explicitly about who’s hell-bound in Matthew 25:

▪ Those who don’t feed the hungry.

▪ Those who don’t give the thirsty a drink.

▪ Those who don’t welcome aliens and strangers.

▪ Those who don’t clothe the naked.

▪ Those who don’t tend to the sick.

▪ Those who don’t treat prisoners compassionately.

I believe the author is speaking about verses 34-40, where in the parable Jesus is sitting on the throne at the Judgement Day and saying to those on his right hand (an analogy for Christians), when I was hungry, you fed me, when I was naked, you clothed me, when I was sick, you visited me….and so on (you can read the Bible verses for full context, as you should). 

However, the author stopped reading at verse 41. The goats on the left (analogy for the unsaved) are told to depart into the lake of everlasting fire. They try to make their case in verses 44-46:

“Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Just because you’re a charitable person does not mean that you are doing it out of the love of God. Being nice to people doesn’t have any bearing on whether you are saved or not. Finally, on to the end of the article:

Jesus says that on judgment day God will declare to such miscreants, “‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’” As usual, Jesus stands our prejudices and expectations on their heads. We see a single mother who can’t afford her insulin, or an ex-con at an intersection begging for a meal, or a Central American immigrant seeking refuge, and if we’re not careful and self-aware, we assume them to be sinners, outcasts or losers. Jesus says they’re the very children of the Almighty, that the kingdom of God is theirs. He says the way we treat them might even determine our own eternal destination. We see a guy in a $2,000 suit, driving a BMW, barreling past broken folks on his way to a church board meeting, and we assume he must be God’s right-hand man. Jesus says the guy only thinks he’s rushing to a board meeting. Jesus says it’s likelier he’s driving headlong through the open gates of hell. My guess is, neither heaven nor hell will be populated by the folks we expect to be there.

Nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say that a mother who can’t afford insulin, an ex-con at an intersection, or an immigrant seeking refuge are children of the Almighty. Nowhere is that said, and the author did not provide evidence of his stance either. Neither did He say that the way we treat others determines whether we go to Heaven or Hell. The only way to Heaven is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ – there is no other way (John 10:9). You should assume everyone to be a sinner, because *gasp* we ALL are. That is why Jesus came to earth, because we are all sinners in need of a Saviour. To this point, we can tell others about the Good News so that they don’t have to end up in a lake of everlasting fire. 

All scripture taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Source:

1. https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/paul-prather/article232151847.html