(Ver 2.3)  This is Part 2 of a series of lesson on the subject of “Understanding What the Bible says About Hell“.  This is also Part 2 of another series called “Understanding Hard Sayings”.  If you want to read the first lesson about Hard Sayings then do that. There are many people in the world today that do not believe in the existence of Hell.  However, that does not change the fact that it exists.  If you did not read the first lesson in this series about the “Bliblical Evidence for the Existence of Hell” you should start reading there first. I often times wonder when terrorist bombers blow themselves up in the hope of achieving or earning paradise, what they think when they go to hell and are looking around wondering what happened.  This is obviously not what they were told would happen if they caused all of this death and destruction to their enemies.  I also wonder how many of them would do things differently now that they are locked within the eternal flames of hell, where Jesus told us there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mat 8:12).  There is no doubt in my mind that most people who are in hell are there and do not know how exactly that they got there.   I hear many people in the world speak of sinners and the people who do really evil things to other people as deserving to be in hell.  It seems that the worst the crime and the more innocent people are hurt or killed, the more deserving that people say they are for going to hell.  You can think of people like Hitler, Stalin and others who have killed men, women and children in wholesale lots and certainly they “deserve” to go to hell.  However, we are all guilty of comparing our sins to other people’s sins and thinking that ours are not bad enough to warrant such a punishment as hell.

I had a reader ask me a question about “Do people go to hell or heaven after they die and why”?   If you have read the first lessonthen you should already know that the Bible clearly tells us that Hell exists and people go there.  So the question arises, why?  This is certainly a legitimate question to ask God.  We will discover that God has already answered the question in the Bible.  What I want to do first is tell you what is NOT a factor in why people go to Hell.   It is not because you have sinned!  Being a sinner does NOT send you to hell!  However, it does not get you into heaven either.  Sin is virtually a non-factor in the process of do people go to heaven or to hell.  Yes, there are sinners in hell right now.  But, yes there are also sinners in heaven right now.  So committing a sin was not the determining factor for going to either place.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

You can clearly see that the Bible says “everyone” has sinned and failed to achieve to God’s standard of righteousness.  If it says “ALL” that would leave no one out of the Sin Camp.  That would include me and you also.  A verse found in Romans 5:12 basically says the same thing.  So we have two witnesses to the fact that everyone is a sinner.  So now people like to say, my sin is not as great as their sin, so therefore they deserve punishment, but not me.  Unfortunately for you God has already thought of this excuse defense and said the following:

Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

You can be the best sinner in the entire world and have committed the least number of wrong doings and yet God says if you fail in just one place, one point, violating just one rule, you are guilty of breaking them all. Wow! That is very strong! That also is not good news for being the best sinner either. That basically tells us that there are no sins that are greater than any other sins in the eyes of God. What do you do with that information?  God makes it sound like a very ominous and hopeless situation that we are all in. I certainly agree with that assessment and I hope that you do to.

So what have we learned? We have learned that there are no good people in the world who deserve to be saved. Everyone is technically guilty of violating the entire law of God and that will not work to get you into heaven based upon God’s standards. You see Islam and other religions in the world like to see things in a balanced scale system where you put your bad deeds on one side and your good works on another side and then see which one is greater and that determines where you go. Wouldn’t that be nice?  However, this is not what God calls a system that will work to get you into heaven.

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Hopefully you can see what this verse is saying.  Salvation or justification is not earned by doing good things.  Obeying the law is doing a good thing, yes?  But, God tells us that no flesh will be “justified” by doing the good things written in the Law!   That basically tells me you cannot do anything to work yourself into this salvation.  That means heaven is not guaranteed no matter how many good things you have done in your life.  What we have discovered are two things that are not a factor in whether you go to heaven or to hell.  It is not your sins and it is not you doing good things.  That really shocks a lot of people who have been deceived into believing they can do something to affect their outcome and destiny.   So what are the determining factors for being saved and going to heaven?  I’d like to tell you it is just a simple a 1 + 1 = 2 problem, but that would be oversimplifying the situation.  However, I will make it as simple as I can.  It appears to me from reading and studying the Bible that people go to hell simply because they reject salvation and the savior Jesus Christ.  Part of the problem comes from the fact that God’s idea of Salvation is not usually your idea of salvation and that is one of the biggest problems you face to getting saved.  You see if you were simply presented a choice of believing in Jesus Christ and not believing in Jesus Christ and that is all the choices you had that would certainly make it much more of a simple process.  However, there is an enemy in the world, a spiritual being called Satan, who works very hard at tricking you into believing lies.  While God plays by the rules, Satan does not and has caused a vast number of people in the world to believe in his lies.  So rejecting the savior Jesus Christ could be a simple acceptance of Buddhism as your belief system.  Simply by buying into a false religion you could be missing out on heaven and eternal salvation.  This is what Jesus says to us:

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Jesus is trying to get into your heart right now, if you have not let him in already.  Jesus is standing and knocking and wants to come into your spiritual house.  Did you ever think that if the omnipotent God wants in your heart, why doesn’t He just kick the door down and come in?  Isn’t He still God?  Doesn’t God always get His will done?  Apparently not!  You see God is a gentleman who abides within rules and self-imposed limitations.  God will never force anyone to get saved.  God will try to get your attention, but yet you have a responsibility to first hear Him knocking at your door and then to go open the door and let Him in.  So what happens when Jesus comes and knocks and you refuse to hear it?  What happens if you ignore Him?   What happens if you do not open the door for Him?  Believe it or not that is what causes you to go to hell.  Here are some more words of Jesus on this subject.

Joh 12:48  He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

So here is a little secret, Jesus is not going to come to your physical house and knock on your natural door to try to get you saved.  Those were all symbolic references to a spiritual situation that will transpire in a way that you would probably not expect.  You see Jesus is knocking right now at your heart, if you choose to hear Him.  Did you notice what Jesus said in John 12:18?  Jesus says that if you reject Him and His Word, it will be the Word that you heard and that you rejected that will judge you in the future.  In other words the Word of God is God and if you reject it, you are rejecting God.  That causes a lot of people to not find salvation.  They do not know how God is speaking, when He is speaking, where He is speaking or even recognize what God is saying.  God has purposely chosen to hide himself from your physical view, so that you can be an atheist if you want to be.  However, God uses people like me to try to reach you and convince you that He is real.

So I do not know everyone that is in hell right now.  I do know how they were deceived.  I do not know how many times they rejected the truth of God’s Word.  I do not know how many times Jesus knocked and tried to come in.  It could have been when they were just 5 or 6 years old.  Maybe, it was when they were 12 or 13 years old.  All I know is that Jesus said I tried to knock and they would not open the door and let me in.  It could have been that they were preoccupied by the distractions of working, going to school, shopping or whatever else people do in the world.  I wrote another blog on this subject, if you care to read it about why people are not saved and it was called “The Top 10 Enemies To Salvation! Why People Don’t Get Saved!”

Many people think that God sends people to hell, but that is really not a true statement.  The Bible says that Hell was made for Satan and his angels.  God knowing that no man could do anything to earn salvation came to the earth in the flesh and gave His life for the payment of every man’s sin.  So God by His grace reconciled man back into relationship and favor with Himself.  But, yet God still gives man a choice in what they want to do.  Then if we put Satan into the picture and see how he has deceived the world into believing his lies, that it the root of the problem of why salvation is not so easily obtainable.  God freely offers salvation to everyone, but everyone is required accept it.   To accept God is to accept His Words.  To receive God’s Words is to allow God to come into your spirit and live.  Always remember that Jesus is trying to knock at the door to your heart and get your attention, but the devil is trying to distract you with everything that he can put in front of you.  What you decide to do will affect your eternal destiny.  God has placed the ball in your court and it is your turn to move.  God says now is the time for salvation, today is the appointed day for getting saved.  So don’t delay and receive Him while you can.  If you think that you have time and can wait to get saved, you are already deceived.  If you are interested in learning how to get saved, you can read my page “Salvation How to Know if You are Going to Heaven”.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue the study of “Understanding Hard Sayings” in the Bible you may continue to “Part 3“.