The Slippery Emergent Slope

[Socialite]

Before this thread becomes a 3-stepper debate, let's get back to hell

You see, some of us actually believe John 3:16:

For God so Loved the World,

That He gave his only Son,

That whoever believes on Him would not perish but have eternal life.

And this is why we believe there is something significant about having your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. If it wasn't, bad things happen

John 3:36,
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Richard Niebuhr characterized the ongoing attempt of liberal Christians to deny hell as “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” Jesus said more about hell than about any other topic. Amazingly, 13 percent of his sayings are about hell and judgment; more than half of his parables relate to the eternal judgment of sinners.

And to quote a recent Mark Driscoll blog (a guy who I admit sometimes can come off quite arrogant):

In a very important sense God doesn’t send anyone to hell. The only ones there are those who have rejected his revelation, choosing to suppress the truth he made plain to them. God made people in his image, after his likeness, with the power to say no and to reject the universal revelation of himself. Subsequently, sinners have no one to blame but themselves if they are damned.

To get to hell someone must reject the God who shows them his goodness and out of love for all “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything”; reject the Spirit who “convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”; and reject the crucified Son who said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Obviously, God has been exceedingly gracious to sinners.

People who reject Jesus in this life will not rejoice in him after this life. Hell is only for those who persistently reject the real God in favor of false gods. So in the end, people get to be with the god they love. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, either people will say to God, “Thy will be done,” or God will say to them, “Thy will be done.” Not only is God loving, but he is also just. Heaven and hell are the result of his love and justice.