If only it were true...

That would make things much easier. No need to evangelize. No need to preach. No need to disciple, train, and send. No need to send missionaries. No need to raise money to support those who would respond to the call to go. No need to start more churches. No need to read your Bible because it would be full of lies because of this subject. No need to take Jesus seriously because He missed it on the Rich man and Lazarus. Frankly, if Hell is not real and everyone gets to go to "heaven" (if we are even sure that is real), then we might as well close the doors on all the churches and go home.

If only it were true...

C.S. Lewis once was told of a gravestone inscription that read, "Here lies an atheist - all dressed up and nowhere to go". Lewis quietly replied, "I bet he wishes that were so".

You see, without going into total apologetic mode and proving by the preponderance of the Biblical evidence that Jesus and the other writers of Scripture were talking about a real place, can I just say that intuitively I believe that such a place HAS to exist. It has to exist because I believe that evil and wickedness must face its final justice and judgment. I have a hard time buying into the notion that Adolph Hitler gets a pass on the 6 million Jews he was directly guilty of exterminating. I have a hard time believing that Joseph Stalin gets his "heaven ticket" stamped after sending over 10 million to death camps in Siberia. I have a hard time believing that the pilots of those planes on 9/11 get a handshake from St. Peter as they stroll into the celestial city. Do I have to go on? Do we really think that every unrepentant child molester, murderer, serial killer, and despot gets an automatic pass?

In a national poll conducted several years ago by USA TODAY it was found that 67% of American adults said they believed in hell but less than 25% believed they would go there. However, 25% believed they had friends that would be there. The Barna research Group did a recent study and found that 25% of those who call themselves "born-again" Christians said that ALL people are eventually saved or accepted by God and it doesn't matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same thing and an even larger percentage (40%) indicate that they believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God. That's right...I said 40% of those describing themselves as "born-again". I will save you from the rest of the statistics on other important truths...it gets worse.

Now perhaps you can understand why I feel like discipleship is of paramount importance in our church and every church that seeks fidelity to God and the Scriptures. Whether you believe Hell to be unfashionable or not...it is all too real.

Let me simply leave you with this...

God wants no one in hell. I repeat...no one. He does not send people there any more than an earthly judge capriciously sends people to prison. People go there because of CHOICES they have made. Don't blame God. He is like the man on the side of the road waving frantically to keep you from driving off the cliff and when you choose to ignore him, you then blame him for the cliff and your destruction instead of your choice to heed the warning. This whole theological argument over hell is really the natural landing place of a culture that refuses to take personal responsibility for any of their choices...even eternal ones. God is holy, perfect, just...as well as merciful, kind, and loving. He sent His son, Jesus Christ that whosoever believes in Him would not have to go to such a place.

Personally, I am glad our society is wrestling with the question of Hell. Perhaps in the midst of all the intellectual bantering the Holy Spirit might have a place to reach into the hearts of some and answer the question on the cover of TIME magazine. Last time I read the Bible...I can count on the Holy Spirit leading them straight to Jesus.

Planting a Cross

Pastor Baird