16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
This verse got me thinking about hell and heaven and eternal life. Honestly the whole though of all that stuff scares me because I can't imagine it but I wanted to share something in "A Reason for God" by Timothy Keller that really changed my whole perspective on hell.
For a long time I struggled with the thought of people who I loved or just people in general who had to suffer in hell for all enternity... i know it is what we deserve it just seemed so hard for me to understand.
I read the chapter titled "How can a loving God send people to hell?" and here is what it presented: God ultimately gives us what we desire most. People reject the son of God because they don't want to let go of themselves. This is the flesh inside of them that does not want what the Lord has to offer. They can't let go of the pride, self indulgance, love for money, fame, sex, drugs, love, or anything else apart from God. They ultimately choose one or several of those things over the Son of God. And God will ultimately give people what they desire most. So those who do not choose God spend eternity with whatever they chose above God without the love of God. So therefore there is nothing good anymore and they choose to fall deeper into the fleshly desires for forever. Apart from God, they glorify the flesh and it is a miserable "hell".
C.S. Lewis describes a illustration of a busload of people from hell who drive to the outskirts of heaven and even though they see the Kingdom of heaven they still are not willing to sacrifice themselves and there fleshly desires for the Lord.
SO ultimately God does not cast people into hell, rather he gives people what they desire most: God or their own desires.
Cameron- thank you so much for this post. I had been thinking about our discussion on predestination, I mean, I'm still praying over it, but that made it a lot more clear and helped me soak it in twice as much. Well, anyways, basically, I appreciate that you posted and explained something so hard for me to understand on here.
ReplyDeleteI loved this because I've been struggling trying to explain to my parent's that yes, those without God go to hell. They don't understand how a loving God could let that happen. This definitely gave me a basis for figuring out how to best explain! Thanks a million. :)
ReplyDeletethis is good cam. thanks for sharing. God loves us all, but if there was nothing to save us from (life eternally separated and without God) then Jesus wouldn't of had to come in the first place. we had to be saved from something...
ReplyDelete