I do also. It’s more than a state of mind - that’s an answer that I get a lot.
What sends a person to Hell? I’m interested in hearing everyones view
I believe that the “rejection of JESUS CHRIST” (the “what” in the question) sends a person to hell.
Another question that goes with this is “Does GOD send a person to hell?” No, the individual person does, not GOD. GOD gives humans the ability to choose. You either ask JESUS in your heart to save you or you don’t. These are my beleifs as a Christian.
I believe that the “rejection of JESUS CHRIST” (the “what” in the question) sends a person to hell.
Can you reject Jesus Christ if you have never heard if Him? There are some places on Earth where people never hear the gospel of Christ. Do they go to hell?
Ooooh, Big Fred is asking a very intriguing question. I’m interested in seeing the forum’s answer to this. Hopefully they will be well-thought-out and not just reactionary in nature.
I’ll be happy to give my opinion but I’d prefer to hear some others first.
I highly recommend the book “What About Those Who Have Never Heard” by Fackre, Nash and Sanders. It gives three views of this issue, and each author quotes scripture to back up his or her own views.
Personally, I believe that you must believe in Jesus Christ in order to receive salvation. But I also believe that according to Romans 8:29-31 and Hebrews 9:15 that only those who are ‘called’ by the Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus are saved - in other words, you can’t receive Salvation unless the Holy Spirit brings you there.
Also, Psalm 19 says that ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.’
So… God is clearly in evidence throughout creation; anyone looking into the sky or seeing nature can see evidence of the Glory of God. And the Holy Spirit can bring whoever he calls anywhere in world to Salvation through Jesus Christ; it’s not dependent upon any human effort. But we still must be faithful to the ‘Great Commandment’ - to go unto all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation.
Can you reject Jesus Christ if you have never heard if Him?
Good question Big Fred. If GOD raptures THE CHURCH before a person has heard it then it would be rejected - this is only assumption and this could be a whole new thread (tribulation). I based my answer on the fact that a person has heard and has rejected JESUS. This is how I interpreted and understood the original question “What sends a person to hell?”
There are some places on Earth where people never hear the gospel of Christ. Do they go to hell?
Do you know exactly where these places are? All I can say is that if a person does hear and rejects then they will send themselves to hell.
The simple answer is - unrepentance sends us to hell. We come into this world as sinners, headed for hell, and only those who repent and come to Christ are going to Heaven. The only exception to this in my view would be the small child who has had no opportunity to come face to face with his sin.
My understanding of the gospel is that you accept Jesus’ free offer of salvation, you go to heaven. You don’t, then, well, the only alternative is hell.
Now, I too have questions about those who haven’t heard the gospel, or who are too young to understand. I personally do not think an infant or young child who had not yet understood the gospel message would go to hell.
The question was asked “where are those places” where people hadn’t heard tthe gospel preached. I think it’s absolutely conceivable such places exist, whether I know where they are or not. The question is would those people be doomed to hell, having never heard the gospel. Applying my standards of fairness, I would say no. But we have to be careful when making such assumptions.
The bottom line for me is: I don’t know, but I hope not.
Hmmm....I reject the idea that someone is “people send themselves to hell”.
You don’t give yourself a fine when you get caught speeding. That judgment is administered by a judge. You can argue all day that a person was aware of the law, they were aware of the punishment, that they knew the shouldn’t have been speeding.......but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the JUDGE who administers the punishment. Speeders don’t give themselves fines.
It’s the same way in this discussion: saying that a lost person “sends himself to hell by not accepting Christ” appears to be an attempt to dilute the picture of God as being capable of burning someone for eternity for their sins. Let’s not try to paint this picture as something that it’s not: if you believe that people die and burn in a literal hell, it’s God who sends them there.
Its a little different scenario, Tony. Salvation is the gift of God. Our part is to accept or reject it.
Its like having a multimillionaire rich uncle die and leave you all his estate. The lawyers send you a certified letter and all you have to do is verbally accept the gift. If you fail to do so, it would be your fault, not the fault of the uncle. He provided. You just didn’t do your part.
God provided salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. He has done His part. If we fail to accept the free offer, then the guilt is on us. The bible plainly says it is NOT God’s will for anyone to perish. If we do, it is completely on us. However, God is just. He will not allow anyone to circumvent the easy way He provided.
Your analogy is punishment for wrong doing. Sin doesn’t sin someone to hell. Rejecting Jesus Christ does. In your analogy, the speeded has to pay for his wrong doing. In salvation’s plan, Jesus paid for our wrong doing and gave us exemption from punishment.
Its a little different scenario, Tony. Salvation is the gift of God. Our part is to accept or reject it.
True, but we’re talking about the punishment involved with NOT accepting it. That is a judgment.
Its like having a multimillionaire rich uncle die and leave you all his estate. The lawyers send you a certified letter and all you have to do is verbally accept the gift. If you fail to do so, it would be your fault, not the fault of the uncle. He provided. You just didn’t do your part.
I agree with you as far as that analogy goes. But, let’s make it a complete picture. Let’s say that the deal also involves that—if you DON’T accept the inheritance—that you’re going to be put into jail for life.
While it’s completely true that you could say that person went to jail because he didn’t accept the gift...the fact remains that his “being sent to jail” was a judgment that was administered by someone else.
God provided salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. He has done His part. If we fail to accept the free offer, then the guilt is on us. The bible plainly says it is NOT God’s will for anyone to perish. If we do, it is completely on us. However, God is just. He will not allow anyone to circumvent the easy way He provided.
Your analogy is punishment for wrong doing. Sin doesn’t sin someone to hell. Rejecting Jesus Christ does.
Forgive me, but this is the kind of semantics that seems to stem from a reluctance to portray God as being the one doing the judging. Of COURSE hell is a punishment! How on earth can it be construed as anything else? And, as such, it is a punishment being administered by one person: God.
Why are Christians who believe in a literal hell so reluctant to say that it’s God who’s sending people there?
Hell is not punishment for mankind. It was created for Satan and his fallen angels. It was not created as punishment. Of COURSE, hell is bad, but it wasn’t created for mankind. It is the place we CHOOSE if we reject Jesus. We were created with a will. Hell is the choice of our will. God’s judgement is that we haven’t accepted His SON so we don’t have admission to Heaven. He made the way for all to go to Heaven. If He was going to send anyone to Hell, he wouldn’t have sent His Son to the cross. Hell is a consequence of our actions, not Gods. He IS just, so he doesn’t grant admission to Heaven without the covering of Jesus’ blood, but again, it is our choice to reject His plan.
Tony, where in the Bible (any translation you choose) do you get your basis for this belief
FamilyMan, I’m sure neither of us is very open to changing our perspective on the issue so it’s probably redundant for me to state my reasons for thinking otherwise.
I’d be interested in more discussion on the secondary question about people who have never heard the gospel.
Hmmm....I reject the idea that someone is “people send themselves to hell”.
Well sure, not literally. It just gives GOD confirmation of our answer, though. But glad you brought this up. Maybe I put this too bluntly, but I didn’t want to sugarcoat it either at the same time. But it gotcha thinking, though. Simple - if you accept Jesus Christ you go to Heaven, if you do not you go to hell. It’s your choice which you choose – again, like I said God gave you the ability to choose and you choose WHERE you will spend eternity. GOD doesn’t hold a gun to anyone’s head and force anything upon them (some Christians will do that , though). Sure, they do not send themselves physically – but they have the choice where they will spend eternity or the destination. Just like it is their choice to speed. By speeding there are consequences. By rejecting Jesus Christ there are consequences as well – in this case, not going to HEAVEN, since “people sending themselves to hell” is too strong an answer. Sorry, just didn’t want to sugar coat it for people.
You don’t give yourself a fine when you get caught speeding.
But you set yourself up for it and you assist in determining the punishment, though (how fast you were going, whether intoxicated or not, etc.)
That judgment is administered by a judge. You can argue all day that a person was aware of the law, they were aware of the punishment, that they knew the shouldn’t have been speeding.......but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the JUDGE who administers the punishment. Speeders don’t give themselves fines.
Of course we don’t choose the punishment – if we did then 1) we would all not be found guilty and 2)we would be equal with GOD and that is not true at all. Simple, you break the law, you pay, unless of course you have status power to get out of it. (and it happens a lot – no accountability)
I understand that GOD is the final judge, but a person’s rejection brings them to that point – the judgement itself, which the decision has already been made by that person. Do you think God will change his mind at the judgement? I don’t think so. He already knows who will and won’t be there. If he didn’t then he would not be omniscient. Come on, I know that people do not have the power that GOD has for judgement, but people make the decision. That’s the point I am trying to make.
It’s the same way in this discussion: saying that a lost person “sends himself to hell by not accepting Christ” appears to be an attempt to dilute the picture of God as being capable of burning someone for eternity for their sins. Let’s not try to paint this picture as something that it’s
not: if you believe that people die and burn in a literal hell, it’s God who sends them there.
If you want to get technical, I never said anything about the punishment – all I stated was the place they would end up. I only know that hell is real and scary and would not wish it upon anyone. I would never try and discredit GOD at all. But since I am human I do make mistakes.
No worries. And I don’t want to get too deep into semantics. I was just making a side-point that many Christians don’t like to just come right out and say “God sends people to hell” and they will invent a combination of words and phrases that allow them to feel better about what they’re saying.
On the issue of “where are there people who have never heard the gospel”, let’s not fall into the trap of only thinking about where those places exist today, on April 30, 2008.
Right now there are around 6.5 BILLION people on the planet at any given time. Even with all our conmunication and transportation technology, there still exist societies that are isolated. Even if that were arguable, you can go back 100 years and definitely agree that there were billions of people on the planet, many of whom were not in “developed countries”. Go back another 500 years and the number of “undeveloped peoples” could be staggering.
So, whatever figure you arrive at....figure that—on any given day, week or month—there are a large number of people dying.
We don’t even need hard numbers to show that there have obviously been millions (billions?) of people who have lived and died on this planet who have never “heard the gospel”. But the only way to see this is to suspend our belief in the idea that Christianity and communication are as ubiquitous today as they were 100, 200, 500 or 1000 years ago.
No question about it: there are probably billions of people who’ve never heard the gospel.
So, my question is: is someone on this forum saying that God has sent all those people to hell to burn for eternity even though they never had an opportunity to know they were in need of salvation?
