Haiti: Response to Blog Comment

Some of you may have read my blog on Haiti. I received a comment on my blog page from someone I don't know by the name of Rick. He doesn't believe in hell, and laid out a little of his reasoning. I wrote a response to his comments. When I hit the "post comment" button, it told me that I had too many characters, so that meant I would have had to shorten it, which was unthinkable. I didn't know there was a limit to the amount I could write on my own blog, even just my comment space, but I learned something new. And if you follow my blog, you know that I tend to write long posts. Yeah I know, that's the understatement of the year! Anyway, I thought it was important enough to just copy and paste in a new blog.

I have a request to make to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ:
Please join me in praying for this man named Rick. Please. Pray for God to save him. Pray for God to be magnified and glorified through these events. Pray for God's will to be done, and that His word not return to Him void. Please pray Isaiah 55:11 back to our great Jehovah God. God WILL be glorified! Pray that His glory will be mightily on display!
Here is my response to Rick's comment:



Rick, thank you for the contact and opportunity to address your views.

So in other words, the parts of Scripture that support a Christian's view on hell are recopying mistakes made through the ages, but the texts that support the non Christian's view aren't? That's pretty far reaching but I'm not ashamed to tell you that I don't have the ability to argue all the solid evidence that the bible is the inerrant word of God. I'm not very intelligent. But it's the Holy Spirit inside me that speaks Truth to me in knowing that all of God's word is right, righteous and just. The problem is how you interpret it. There is only one true interpretation, God's. Satan's is a lie. But there is hope for that too. God can and will give you the wisdom to know His Truth, if you will turn to Him, repent of your sins, and ask Jesus to save you. Otherwise, it will remain foolishness to you...the bible guarantees it!

You use Luke 9:51-56 to support your view that there is no hell. The disciples were very familiar with Elijah when he called fire down from heaven. But the reason it was done then was because the question of who was sovereign in Israel was at stake. When Jesus rebuked the disciples for wanting to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans, it was not His disapproval of Elijah, or because there is no eternal punishment in hell. It was because the disciples failed to discern the difference between the issue in Elijah's day and the unbelief of the Samaritans in Jesus' day. Jesus didn't come the first time to judge and destroy (which He will certainly do at His second coming). But He came the first time to save; not for destruction. The disciples should have had a spirit of GRACE, not a spirit of vindictiveness. That is what Jesus was trying to teach them. He was in no way saying that there was not going to be a time and place for judgement, or that there wasn't a hell. There are tons of scripture to support the fact that Jesus will one Day return to righteously judge and send the unsaved to eternal torment.

God does sometimes hurt. The entire Old Testament is full of God's anger towards the wicked, and examples of how He deals with it. Old and New Testament alike have several examples of what He does, in His perfect sovereign will, even to His children, for His glory and their own good. Read Act 5:1-11 where God caused Ananias and his wife Sapphira to drop dead on the spot for lying to the Holy Spirit. Read 1 Cor 11:27-34. Even some Christians were judged with death because of their sin and the fact that they wouldn't judge themselves. God called them home, and then they had no more opportunity to do damage to the other Christians around them. They couldn't do any more harm to the body of believers. But the judgement part of that is the fact that they lost their opportunity to be slaves of Jesus Christ here on this earth, the joy of spreading the gospel and in making a difference for all time and eternity in the lives of the unsaved. It was gone forever. Whatever rewards they would have received in heaven for a long life of service to their Lord was lost, with no further opportunities. But they did go to heaven because they belonged to the Lord. God doesn't change, so we know that the same thing happens even today, and God is righteous in His judgements, Rick.

The point is that we cannot usurp His authority to say who, what, when, where, how, and why He judges, and the effects of that. We don't know; He alone knows. And who would want to know why the exact people in Haiti who died, died that day and didn't survive? It's not our place to know why some escaped with not even a scratch and others had to have limbs amputated. God is the only One who has the right to decide whom He will have mercy on. And who knows, but for some of those who died, God knew that their death WAS merciful, for any number of reasons! And for those survivors....who knows what wonderful things God will do from a life that was radically changed forever, even though they lost their legs, or lost their home, or lost family members. Beauty for ashes, Rick. (Isaiah 61:3) There are some things God causes, and some things God allows, but He is the Sovereign of this universe which He created.

The thing for Christians to be concerned about is spreading the gospel of Christ so that when death DOES come to someone else, that person who just died will be on their way to heaven instead of hell. It's the Christian's responsibility to proclaim the truths of the Word of God, and warn of the coming Judgement. God pleads through us and through His Word for people to repent. And we plead even for you and those who believe as you do, Rick, for our gracious God to reveal Himself to you. We plead for the Holy Spirit to plant and water seeds of salvation to the lost of this world.

Just because you don't believe in hell makes it no less true. But unless the blinders are removed from your eyes, you won't know the Truth until you are face to face with the King of kings and Lord of lords. If you don't repent, it won't come until you are on your knees proclaiming Him to be God of Very God, righteous Judge, all to the glory of God the Father, right before you are sentenced to hell for all time and eternity for your unbelief; for all your sins against a holy God.

It's hard for me to tell you this, but I must. Your punishment in hell, if you don't turn to Jesus and ask Him to save you, will be even greater than that of the average pagan. And the reason for that will be the fact that you are actively leading people away from Christ. You will have the blood of those souls on your hands, and the Judge will hold you responsible. You are obviously proud of your book that helps people move closer to Satan, but I tell you the truth, if you don't repent and be saved, you will weep and gnash your teeth in torment for all eternity, and that "stupid book", as you will call it, will be ever present in your mind as you have billions and billions upon billions, never-ending years, to contemplate your prideful, wicked hardened heart in not believing. And part of your torment will be that you had every opportunity to turn away from your sin. God is so gracious and patient, and He is giving you time to repent, Rick. And don't think that it won't be put on your account that you even knew the bible well. It's not as if you are ignorant of what the Word of God says, no, you know His word well. This will be used against you as you kneel before the Lord of Glory, at the Great White Throne Judgement. So Rick, I beg you to seek God. Just ask Him to show you, to reveal Himself to you. Repent before it's too late! May God have mercy on your soul. Please, before it's too late, seek Him. Know that I am praying, and will continue to pray for you. It will be my hope in the Lord that if we meet, it will be as brother and sister in Christ, in heaven for all eternity!

I will pray for and welcome further communication with you. God was so gracious and merciful to save me, and I pray for that same grace and mercy of His to save you too.