Yo, Man! "What's up with HELL?!"
During my very last class of the semester I had a very interesting and probing question from one of my most cherished, clever and engaging students, who happens to be a non-Christian. After discussing the warm up ? in pairs and a few volunteers offering up their answers, he asked me,
"What's up with hell? I mean why do Christians talk about the love of God and at the same time can mention hell?"
I really appreciated his question because it's an important one. I explained to him (after offering up a quick prayer to God!) that the good news is not really good news at all if you aren't aware of the bad news, which is your spiritual and moral bankruptcy before God. As a quick example, I asked him if he considered himself to be a good person. He replied that, "yes", he thought so. "Exactly!", I replied. Only those who come face to face with the law (the 10 commandments as a starter...) and confessed/admitted that they are indeed a wicked person deserving eternal punishment can they even begin to realize/appreciate all that Jesus Christ did for us by dying on the cross!
God is "not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9) but at the same time he has given everyone "free choice" to do good or evil, to accept Him as God or not. I asked my student if someone killed his mother and the judge let him off, would he consider the judge to be fair or wicked. He answered "wicked". That's the whole point. God took the whole punishment for us through the death of Christ. God is also JUST and therefore sin MUST be dealt with.
I apologized to him and mentioned that many members of the modern church are too lenient in discussing and in fact avoiding the whole conversation about hell at times. I know this to be especially true in Korea. People are so quick to talk about the love of God without any discussion of the law and their NEED for a Saviour. Even well-known Christian writers seem to downplay the situation of hell. CS Lewis in "The Great Divorce" and Lee Strobel in "The Case for Faith" as two passing examples.
Jesus Christ spoke of and believed in a literal hell. Therefore, I don't see why I shouldn't. As soon as someone else comes along that is as pure/righteous/merciful as He is, that is also able to resurrect themselves from the dead and to change countless lives as He has mine, maybe then I will be open to further opinions on this topic....
"What's up with hell? I mean why do Christians talk about the love of God and at the same time can mention hell?"
I really appreciated his question because it's an important one. I explained to him (after offering up a quick prayer to God!) that the good news is not really good news at all if you aren't aware of the bad news, which is your spiritual and moral bankruptcy before God. As a quick example, I asked him if he considered himself to be a good person. He replied that, "yes", he thought so. "Exactly!", I replied. Only those who come face to face with the law (the 10 commandments as a starter...) and confessed/admitted that they are indeed a wicked person deserving eternal punishment can they even begin to realize/appreciate all that Jesus Christ did for us by dying on the cross!
God is "not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9) but at the same time he has given everyone "free choice" to do good or evil, to accept Him as God or not. I asked my student if someone killed his mother and the judge let him off, would he consider the judge to be fair or wicked. He answered "wicked". That's the whole point. God took the whole punishment for us through the death of Christ. God is also JUST and therefore sin MUST be dealt with.
I apologized to him and mentioned that many members of the modern church are too lenient in discussing and in fact avoiding the whole conversation about hell at times. I know this to be especially true in Korea. People are so quick to talk about the love of God without any discussion of the law and their NEED for a Saviour. Even well-known Christian writers seem to downplay the situation of hell. CS Lewis in "The Great Divorce" and Lee Strobel in "The Case for Faith" as two passing examples.
Jesus Christ spoke of and believed in a literal hell. Therefore, I don't see why I shouldn't. As soon as someone else comes along that is as pure/righteous/merciful as He is, that is also able to resurrect themselves from the dead and to change countless lives as He has mine, maybe then I will be open to further opinions on this topic....
posted by Andrew Brown at 1:02 AM
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