Christian Apologetic, and Social Commentary in a world gone mad
Do you think you are a good person? If you are like me, you think that you are. Who wants to think that they are a bad person?
Well, there is one way to find out if you really are a good person. Just answer these questions below honestly. If the questions have a sound a familiarity, it should. The questions are based off of the Ten Commandments. Are you ready?
If you were honest you probably answered yes to all of these. I am in the same boat with you.
Have you ever told a lie? What do you call someone who lies? A liar. It doesn’t matter how insignificant the lie is, or the volume of lies you tell. A lie is a lie. The Bible says that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8).
Have you ever used God’s name as a curse word? If you have then you are a blasphemer. Blasphemy is so offensive to God that when declaring the Ten Commandments God said that he would not acquit anyone who does it (Exodus 20:7).
Have you ever looked at someone else with lust? Why lust? Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman to want her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. According to God, if you have done this, you are an adulterer (Matthew 5:27-28).
Have you ever stolen anything? What do you call someone who steals? A thief. Stealing a pack of gum is no different than stealing a DVD, video game, or car. There is no distinction between frequency or what was stolen.
Have you ever hated anyone? This is an interesting question because we all have emotions and I know that I have expressed and acted on hateful emotions towards others. Jesus said that anyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer in their heart.
If you answered yes to these that would make you a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterous murderer. Sound a little harsh? IT IS as harsh as it sounds. Here we have only covered 5 of the Ten Commandments, and we all (myself included) have violated all 5! Does this concern you? It should. Do you still believe that you are a good person?
“But, Robert I did do these things, I am not that way anymore?” Basically you are saying that you think the statue of limitations has run out and that God has forgotten that you did these things. I can assure you he hasn’t.
If you woke up and were standing in front of God, and he were judging you based on His law would you be innocent or guilty? I would be guilty.
If you are reading this saying “Robert, I don’t believe God”. Well just because you don’t believe in the judge doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to pass down a verdict to you. If you are standing in a court room, and the judge finds you guilty of committing a crime, and you say “I’m sorry judge I don’t believe you exist”. Do you think the judge will let you walk away?
If you are standing in front of a judge, and say “yes your honor, I did steal all of that money, but I give to charities”. Do you think the judge will let you walk away?
If the Judge lets you walk, how good of a Judge would he/she be?
God is a righteous Judge. He must punish violations of His law. This is true whether you believe in Him, or don’t believe in Him, whether you stole only a pack of gum, or actually murdered someone! If you violate His law he must find you guilty, and you should punished accordingly. What is the punishment? Kevin touched on that in his last post (Romans 6:23).
Now imagine that you are standing in front of a judge who is about to sentence you to prison for a crime you actually committed. All of a sudden someone walks in, stands before the judge and insists that he will pay the penalty for you so that you would not have to be punished. That would be amazing wouldn’t it! This is exactly what Jesus did for you on the cross. He stepped in and accepted the penalty for your sins. He did this out of love for you, and so that you could have eternal life and not perish in the lake of fire. “Robert, what’s the catch?” The “catch”, you must believe and confess that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and was raised from the dead. That is the catch. If you believe this in your heart you will be changed forever. Now, this belief isn’t just mentally understanding this is true – it is trusting in it as your only hope for heaven… It’s placing your faith and trust in this truth just like you place your faith and trust in the pilot and the plane when you fly across the country. It’s a no holds barred type of belief.
Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus’ payment for your sin? If not, He is waiting for you to do so (Revelation 3:20) – He WANTS you to do so! If you have trusted in Jesus, please live for him and tell others about what He has done for you! Too many of us are loving “good people” straight into Hell because of our silence.
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No Apologizing 
This is explained so well. I’ve forwarded this to several who haven’t accepted Christ. “Loving good people straight into hell because of our silence”, wow. This really grabbed my attention. Thanks!
Oh boy! What you’ve laid out here is such a perversion of the message of Jesus, it’s almost too hard to know where to begin!
But in short, here’s what you’re really saying, “Jesus loves us all, even though we are all sinners. He taught us all to be forgiving, but God is incapable of forgiveness! In fact, he is vindictive to the extreme! He intends to torture billions of people and is somehow going to be quite OK with that.”
No, sorry, but what Jesus did on the cross was to show us, in the ultimate way, how much God loves us unconditionally! Even though he took on the worst of our sinful treatment, he still responded with “Father, forgive them!” Now, you can believe that God did not answer Jesus’ prayer, but if you were to actually believe what Jesus originally taught about God’s nature, then it’s not so hard to believe.
In other words, there is no Hell, not according to what Jesus taught us in his words and deeds.
If one is willing to look, there’s substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: “You don’t know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!” Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.
Bear in mind that the historical Protestant doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures applies only to the original autographs, not the copies. But sadly, the interpolations that made their way into those copies have provided a convenient excuse for a lot of people to get around following Jesus’ real message.
I would like to thank you, first for visiting, and second for leaving a comment. After thoroughly reading your position I decided to take a look at your website. If I am not mistaken, your primary argument against Hell is that man inserted the concept of hell after Christ had been sacrificed for his sins. There is a significant impact to this line of thinking which focuses on the inerrancy of the Bible. In addition there are a number of ramifications that must be thought through with this line of belief. First we have to address your contention about the validity of the Bible.
On your web page you make three specific remarks calling into question the inerrancy of the Bible.
1. It was long after his death that some scribes (probably Greek converts to Christianity who brought with them their belief in Hades) inserted statements into the gospel texts to make it seem as if Jesus believed in Hell’s existence. (FAQ page)
2. The answer is actually quite simple—because all the writings of antiquity (including the many 100s of writings that were eventually assembled into the modern Bible) could only be preserved by hand copying them over and over and, thus, contain many errors, and more than a few were intentional. But thanks to the rigorous methods of evaluating or “weighing” copies of ancient texts, developed by textual and literary scholars, we can discern most of these errors and adulterations, and get a pretty good idea what was originally written. (FAQ page)
3. Although I am convinced a much better explanation for the “Hell” passages is that they were superimposed onto later copies of the gospel texts (FAQ page)
It is a logical fallacy to rely upon a source that one believes to be flawed as evidence or proof in support of their argument – Given your mistrust of the Bible, is it consistent or logical for you to use any Biblical text to support any of your claims? How can you trust with any amount of certainty which portions are valid and which are redactions? Arguing against inerrancy and then using Biblical text to support ones claims is also not arguing from a level playing field… If one says only portions of the Bible are true or reliable any text used to challenge their claim can simply then be dismissed as flawed leaving as “correct” only the text that purportedly support their own views – that approach hardly seems fair on consistent.
If you call into question the inerrancy of Christ’s teaching of hell because it was written after his death, then all of the New Testament is up for grabs, including the sacrifice for our sins. The simple fact is that all of New Testament was written after the death of Christ. This would, according to your own criteria, place the entire New Testament under suspicion. This would, therefore, call into question any scripture you would use to argue against the existence of Hell – thereby weakening your own argument.
In regards to your reliance upon the claims of literary and textual scholarship, we must point out that there is at least an equal amount of scholarship supporting Biblical inerrancy. In the spirit of fairness and full disclosure, trust in biblical inerrancy has been the norm since at least the formation of the canon. So there is actually a vast amount more data/scholarship and historical precedence in support of inerrancy then there is espousing the relatively new theories of critical analysis.
We would be happy to engage your assertions by logically applying biblical data. However, if we were to do so, we would appreciate being able to do so with a level playing field. Let’s let scripture speak for scriptural claims and allow the Holy Spirit to convince hearts whose view is most plausible. After all, isn’t it most logical to study and apply the sacred text of a particular theological world view as the ultimate authority governing that world view? In other words, shouldn’t we let the Bible inform us about the truth concerning the God of the Bible?
Thank you once again for your challenging post and for hearing us out by reading through this reply. We sincerely look forward to hearing from you again.
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