28 “Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me,
29 since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD.
30 Since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,
31 they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
I find it interesting that people blame God for everything that goes wrong, when in reality, he gives us what we ask for. Maybe it's because we know that he is all powerful and he alone is able to keep those things from happening so we think it is his fault for letting us suffer; but it seems to me that the disconnect is a lack of understanding that all good things come from God. People think that they can go their own way and do their own things in order to have the most fulfilling life, but as soon as something goes wrong, they blame God. So here comes the heavy question.. How can a loving God send people to hell?
I'm sure there are many answers to this question, but you may want to brace yourself for this one. He does it out of love. What?! how can that be?! Like it says in Proverbs 1:31, "they will eat of the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes." He gives them what they have chosen. To get a better grasp of the question, we need to understand what hell is. Put simply, hell is eternal separation from God. Yes, it's horrible, but as we've already established, all that is good comes from God; if God's not there, neither are those things. It is not God's will to send anyone to hell, but he gives us what we have chosen. If we choose to live by our own ways because we don't want to surrender to God's plan, then he's not going to force himself on us; he will remove himself from us in spite of his desire to be with us, for love without freewill is not love at all. People don't seem to understand that without God, there is no peace, there is no love and there is nothing desirable. We can't fathom the love that God has for us, nor are we capable of bearing the pain he feels when one of his children chooses to separate from him.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 Corinthians 2:9
"'What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived'
the things God has prepared for those who love him"
James 1:17
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
This reminds me of a section in the book "Safely Home" These quotes were made after a man was killed and sent to hell.
ReplyDelete"He had said, ' I want there to be no God; I want nothing to do with him.' His atheist's prayer had been answered. The everywhere-present God had chosen to withdraw his presence from this single place, turning into a cosmic desert…His life, with all his supposed accomplishments, was but a puff of smoke, dissipating into nothingness." pg 329
"It was excruciatingly clear now that God was the author of good. Therefore the absence of God meant the absence of good. he could not have it both ways, not here. No God, no good. Forever." pg 330
It certainly makes you think
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