Eternal Punishment

I think there are a lot of people these days who have a big problem with the concept of hell and eternal punishment, and don't talk about it, or the seriousness of sin. They choose to pick and choose a more palatable picture of God the Father and the gospel of Jesus Christ, ignoring these very important things.

Watering down or altering what the Word of God says can never be helpful in the end, so let's have a look at what's what.

First, let's talk about the purpose of man. Man was not created just to live out life and enjoy it for no good reason. Man was not created because God was bored or lonely. Man was created to glorify God. God could have created robot-people to glorify Him, or He could have created people with free choice to glorify Him. I think its a no-brainer that He did the latter. Would you feel more love from a robot that did nice things for you because it was programmed to do so, or from a human being that could choose not to do those nice things, but did them anyway? An act of love only has value if there is an option to choose not to do the act!

Second, let's talk about the nature of man. There is a habit of painting man as generally good. Yes, there are a lot of "good people" by the standards of men, but we are still all in the same boat by the standards of God. We are all sinners in His eyes, and without His grace, we rebel against Him and become slaves to sin. Even the good things we would do would be tainted by sin, because they would only be done for some man-centered motive. In short, on our own, we don't do our job to glorify God -- we take our free choice and make choices that glorify ourselves.

That might not seem right to some. Why did God create us but make us sinners? He didn't. He gives us the choice, and we screw it up. He gave Adam and Eve the first choice, and they screwed it up. Is it that hard to believe that sin has tainted us, and we by nature now will choose something against God? Do we actually have to teach our children to be greedy? To not share? To lie? To be ungrateful because of one little thing in the face of all the blessings they have? No, certainly not! They figure that out all on their own, and we (should) teach them the exact opposite.

Third, let's talk about the nature of God. There is a habit of painting God as this loving old guy with a white beard whose love for use overrides all his other attributes. Yes, God is merciful, God is kind, and God loves us; however, God is also holy and righteous, and He will not tolerate sin. He hates it. Wickedness makes God very angry, and there are limits to His patience and mercy.

That might not seem right to some. Why did God create us and then hate a lot of what we do? Is it really so hard to believe? He nearly destroyed the world once because of His hatred for sin. Why would he have a more lax attitude to it now? If He were to be so merciful that people could get to heaven by just by being "a good person" according to man's standards, even while still rejecting Him and not glorifying Him in any way, then Jesus Christ died for nothing.

In short, we have a job to do. We don't do it. Instead, we do what God hates. That makes God angry. Since He is a just God, He must punish us for it; however, since He is also a loving and merciful God, He offers us a way out of this terrible predicament through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. If we repent and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we're good. Not just Savior. Lord and Savior.

Let's assume we reject the offer, since that gets us to the point of this post. Why should we expect eternal punishment? Well, given God is an eternal and infinite being, there can be nothing less. He is outside of time, and the sin He hates would be before Him for all eternity. To satisfy His holy justice, our punishment must also be for all eternity.

Now what if people have never heard about the offer? That depends. Are these people seeking God, or not? Jesus said that those who ask will receive and that those who seek will find. I trust that God is a perfect judge of all men, and I also trust that He is big enough to help out those who earnestly seek Him. Depending on the answer, the "what if" question here could prevent people from spreading the gospel message, or it could block people's spiritual growth because its a tough one to get past. Let's not let it do either for us personally, and leave these really difficult answers in God's hands.

You'd think that this eternal punishment thing would be a good deterrent, wouldn't you? Many don't believe it, so the idea is completely rejected or watered down. People can't really do that and still line up with what the Bible says. People can try, but then they're ignoring scripture and just picking and choosing what they like -- with no basis for it other than their own rationalization.

So in the end, don't reject the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ, and don't water down the reality of hell or God's complete hatred for sin because its distasteful.