I know Ive been posting a lot of questions on here lately but I am really gaining a lot from asking these questions so bare with me because I promise Ill try to hold off for a while after this.
In the 9th grade one of my best friends shot and killed herself. She grew up with a rough home life and I know for a fact she wasn't religious. So I guess she is in Hell if Christianity is true. Is hell the same for everyone? Will my friend and Hitler share the same fate in the afterlife. I cry about her all the time lately upon coming to this site, and if this could give me some kind of closure about it I would be greatly appreciative. I know this is selfish for me to want to find some sort of escape but it hurts really bad thinking about it. Before I never second guessed that she was just peacefully non existent, I know she will always live on as a memory in my heart and I will always love her like a sister.
Hello again Awesomegirl.
Nice to see you still here and I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
I agree with Tapero, in that first and foremost
no one can claim to know the fate of those who have passed away. It is not in our domain to know this, and the Bible specifically tells us that only God knows the hearts of man, and He alone decides on their fate. In addition, something else I've found helpful is that there is passage which says that God's ways are higher than our own, and His thoughts are higher than ours. Even though this next section is out of context, I think the two go nicely together, and afterall this is why reading the Bible is quite rewarding, as we often find these links which speak to us on a personal level. The other bit I was talking about is that the Bible says that our conscience is not the judge of sin. This is (I believe) both in reference to us not trying to justify our sin, like "That was ok because..." or "I only did it this one time...". etc But also I think it speaks to us not being able to understand how God decides these things, what the nature of our judgement is and where our unsaved relatives and friends are.
It's a common tactic of the militant anti-Christian, to bring up the seemingly obvious conflict between a loving God, and the horror of Hell - and it's played on by comics and movies like Constantine, and media like Dante's Inferno and so forth. Note that these are not Biblically grounded, yet they have really impacted our lives, to the point where even the barest mention of eternal fire in the Bible, makes us join the dots to eternal torment and suddenly we think we have it all figured out.
I'm probably loosing mileage with this, but
Hebrews 11 talks of faith and it helped me to understand that some things are beyond us. We can worry, fret, stress and so forth, but this gains us nothing.
Philippians 4:6
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."
In the verse following that it says,
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Which speaks to me that although we can worry, we will gain nothing from it, and yet if we surrender our worries and fears to God, He will guard us in His name and give us peace.
So, I cannot answer your question as to where your friend is, but instead just encourage you to seek peace on her death and have faith in God. It's a tough thing to do, hand something over to Him, as we are taught throughout life that independance is the way, being self-sufficient is good, it's all we need and as long as we have the ability we can do anything. Yet that contradicts how we were designed, we were designed to be in a dependant relationship with someone.
Oh and don't worry about posting questions, that's what this area is for and why we are here.
Cheers!
Digit
