Why does God send GOOD Non-believers to Hell

[Capuano231]

I have always wondered about this. I have a brother, who is a Atheist. I pray and pray for him to accept Jesus but it just wont happen. He is a great person, like a lot of Atheists. Why would God send him to Hell? This isn't just for my brother, this is people in general.

Please give a good answer. I tryed to ask this on another site but all I got was "Jesus is our savior!" etc.. This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

 

[Bible2]

Why does God send GOOD Non-believers to Hell

No one is good but God: "none is good, save one, that is, God" (Luke 18:19). "For all have sinned" (Romans 3:23).

 

[drich0150]

Good is a relative term. When compared to other Death camp Nazi's those who offered a quick death could be considered Good. It is only when you compare you actions to an absolute standard Like God's expressed will do we see that "good" is a sliding scale that we use to justify true sin.

 

[ebia]

I have always wondered about this. I have a brother, who is a Atheist. I pray and pray for him to accept Jesus but it just wont happen. He is a great person, like a lot of Atheists. Why would God send him to Hell? This isn't just for my brother, this is people in general.

Please give a good answer. I tryed to ask this on another site but all I got was "Jesus is our savior!" etc.. This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

I someone doesn't want to be part of the Kingdom of God he won't force them.

 

[talitha]

What you are wanting emotionally is for God to conform to your idea of what is right. And I understand that. Right now I am mourning for a teenager, one of my students who died on Thursday, who - well, I am not sure she had a relationship with Jesus. I want her to be in Heaven, but..... I just don't know. God has offered everyone the same chance to get out of Hell. He doesn't make exceptions. Being "good" is not that chance - Jesus is that chance. We were never promised any alternative to Jesus.

blessings
tal

 

[aiki]

I have always wondered about this. I have a brother, who is a Atheist. I pray and pray for him to accept Jesus but it just wont happen. He is a great person, like a lot of Atheists. Why would God send him to Hell? This isn't just for my brother, this is people in general.

Please give a good answer. I tryed to ask this on another site but all I got was "Jesus is our savior!" etc.. This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

God will send him to hell because he isn't holy as God is holy. How holy is God? Perfectly holy. We tend to use the people around us to judge how good or bad we are. Most of us compared to Mother Theresa aren't doing too well, but we lessen the impact of this fact by reminding ourselves that we aren't anywhere near as bad as, say, Hitler, or Jeffrey Dahmer. As far as God is concerned, though, these are the wrong standards of comparison. Compared to a perfectly holy God, even Mother Theresa looks like a dirty rotter.

God will send your atheist brother to hell because he has rejected the only way God has made for us to overcome the fact that we are all sinners incapable of meeting God's perfectly holy standard: Jesus Christ. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the God the Father, but by me," Jesus said. When we believe in Christ as our Saviour and submit to him as Lord, we are "clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ" and thus made acceptable to God. There is no other way to gain such acceptance from God. Speaking of Jesus the apostle Peter proclaimed,

Acts 4:12
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

God will send your atheist brother to hell because it is the one place where he can be completely and forever separated from the God He denies. No atheist would find heaven, God's home, a happy place to be. Imagine your brother in a Christian worship service. Would he feel at home and joyful among worshipers of a God he thinks is a fantasy? No. How much more uncomfortable would he be in the presence of the One these people worship?

God will send your atheist brother to hell because he suppressed the knowledge of God that all men have revealed to them in Creation and their conscience.

Romans 1:18-20
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

God will send your brother to hell because he has regarded the awesome, sacrificial gift of God's Son on the cross for his sins a trivial, foolish thing.

Hebrews 10:29
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Selah.

 

[Colin]

I have always wondered about this. I have a brother, who is a Atheist. I pray and pray for him to accept Jesus but it just wont happen. He is a great person, like a lot of Atheists. Why would God send him to Hell? This isn't just for my brother, this is people in general.

Please give a good answer. I tryed to ask this on another site but all I got was "Jesus is our savior!" etc.. This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

Does this help?It's from The Catechism of The Catholic Church:

The Church prays that no one should be lost : "Lord , let me never be parted from you."
If it is true that no one can save himself it is also true that God "desires all to be saved" ( 1 Tim 2 :4 ) , and that for him "all things are possible" ( Mt 19:26 ).

 

[aiki]

Just one further word of warning Capuano231:

Anyone who tells you that there is some other way apart from Christ to be welcomed into God's family is telling you a damnable lie. It is damnable because it steers people away from the single avenue of salvation that God has made available to them and because it makes Christ's sacrifice on the cross unnecessary and foolish. The Bible is absolutely crystal clear on this point: Faith in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away this sin of the world is the only way anyone will find him/herself in heaven. There is no other way people may be saved.

John 3:36
36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

1 John 5:10-12
10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Selah.

 

[beforHim]

You'll get three kinds of answers. 1) Academic (Theological, pilosophical), 2)Radicalism (the one you pointed out in your post), and 3)emotional ("Don't worry,they might be tere", or "I know it sounds bad, but God does good", etc.)

1)
a) as scrippure says, "no one is good". So even Mother Teresa, Gahndi, your grandmother, John Wesley, the Apostle Paul, etc. aren't good.
b) From the eternal, final perspective, we're all flawed. There might be "degrees" of sin here on eart, but when we reac eernity, it'll be either "good" or "bad", and since we've all commited bad deeds, we're "bad". Also, God does give sufficient chance for everyone to accept Him.
c) Believing in Jesus does not mean you know factual knowledge about Him, such as He was from nazareth, that He died and rose, or even that He ("He" being the second person of the Trinity) became incarnate. Just like you can know of a guy named "Elvis" and have some facts about Him mixed up, you can know the second person of the Trinity with imperfect concepts of Him and still "believe" in Him- God doesn't give us a theology exam when we get to heaven.

There are many more. I suggest reading, in Lee Strobel's book "The Case for Faith", Ravi Zacharias answer to this question.

2)
Yes, Jesus does love us, He is the only savior, they must turn or burn, etc, etc. But as you said, this doesn't answer the question at all.

3)
The "emotional answers" will often put the "academic answers" in fluffy, feel good terms.

= =

What I suggest is finding as many "academic answers" as possible, and then finding clear and concise, and nonjudgmental/nonfundamental ways of saying them. If you need anymore "academic answers", reply back and I'll point you to some resources.

 

[Joveia]

I have wrestled with this issue because my father was a very good man, and a nonbeliever, and died a couple of years ago. How is it possible for me to say that he is in hell?

The answer I have come to is this: at the end of the day, people will go where they want to go.

Romans 10:13: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

1 Timothy 2:4: "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

2 Timothy 4:8: "And now the prize awaits me--the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing."

So the answer must be that if my Dad does not go to heaven, then it can only be for one reason: he will not call on the name of the Lord (i.e. want to go to heaven), at any point from now to eternity. So it will always be his choice not to go to heaven.

But, you might ask, how does that make sense?

Part of my view of this comes from looking at hell in a different light. Kind of like in the Great Divorce by CS Lewis (a good book I recommend on this subject).

In the Bible it says numerous times that to find true life, you have to 'die to self', and choose the way that seems to be death. Which is, choosing not to pursue your own happiness, but choosing to put God first. But people who choose to put themselves first will not find true life.

So I think part of going to heaven is being saved into a life of service to God and other people, where we will love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and neighbour as ourselves. Clearly, this is very hard for us to accept right now, because no one does it perfectly. So maybe heaven is something hard to choose, for anyone.

And what is hell? It could be that hell is just an eternity of doing whatever you want to do, living like we do now. Maybe hell is like life on earth, forever.

I think people could choose this hell over heaven.

So, I suppose, my Dad will not go to heaven because he will choose this hell rather than heaven.

But this doesn't imply he wasn't a good man. You can be a very good man and fail to follow the two greatest commandments (by a human standard of good). I guess he will never realise that it's not just about being good, you have to be completely perfect to enter eternal life. And you don't get to experience the joys of eternal life until you are perfect, so, I guess, he doesn't realise what he's missing, or doesn't believe God on this point.

[edit] Also I wanted to add this: if you survey nonbelievers and ask them whether they would want to spend an eternity with God and serving God, or want to spend eternity doing something else, I am betting they will 100% answer, "Doing something else." Try it. I have read atheists who, on learning of the view of hell that is separation from God, have said, "If it's separation from God, and not having to serve Him forever, but otherwise doing what we want, what's the big deal? Isn't that actually heaven?" So, I think, people's answers will mirror their religious beliefs on this topic. It's something to test, anyway.

 

[ebia]

Kind of like in the Great Divorce by CS Lewis (a good book I recommend on this subject).

 

[beforHim]

Part of my view of this comes from looking at hell in a different light. Kind of like in the Great Divorce by CS Lewis (a good book I recommend on this subject).

Agree with Joveia and ebia- great read.

But remember, even if Hell is not flames and fire and torture, and it is merely being left to yourself for eternity- this is still just as bad (worse, I'd say) as fire and flames. So we can't "cushion" the answer. In this case, the answer actually turns out to be even more frightening.

 

[wayseer]

This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

This is exactly the sort of stuff on which faith is built.

What you are doing is effectively bargaining with God. You are demanding God save certain people then you will have faith. You are demand proof. Sorry, that's not how it works.

See, God is not in the law enforcement business. Neither is he the grand puppet master. Of course, it would be a lot easier if he was, but that's just speculation.

Neither is God some barracker shouting encouragement from the side lines.

On the other hand, it appears that at times God is conspicuous by his apparent absence.

Such images, I suggest, has more to do with our dualist vision of the universe. This division has been going on since the OT was first recorded.

For some reason God has given up the freedom to make some choices in the matter. We can exercise that freedom by railing against God for the injustice of it all or we can look for ways around dualist thinking.

The problem then is not God but how we cling to limited modes of thinking.

You and I cannot accept responsibility for another's decision. That is a matter for God to work out - and I for one, am very glad to be relieved of that job.

The other thing we can do is to 'live' the message - to live as Christians and not pseudo-Christians playing in the world.

The third thing we have to accept that this process is going to take some time and neither you or I will be around to the see the results - well not on this earthly plane any rate.

But I think the most important thing is to be able to 'live the question' without feeling threatened by not knowing the answers. This is difficult in the age of instant gratification. But we have to recognise that there are other things going on besides just our own immediate desire, however noble they may appear.

Which brings us back to faith. As Paul noted, we live by faith and not by sight. If we had the answers we would have no need of the questions and therefore there would be no requirement for faith. Faith then would become irrelevant.

 

[byronlewis]

Why does God send non believer to Hell. This is a very commonly asked question. There are two probable reactions. First, it could be that those who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ will go to hell. Second, it could be that those who have never heard of Jesus Christ and the gospel will be judged in a different way than those who have heard of Jesus.

 

[Ih8s8n]

Flee God's Wrath!

 

[Regenerated]

romans 3:10 as it is written, "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-19THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE ; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD ; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS ; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." 13 "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-20THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-21THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS "; 14 "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-22WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS "; 15 "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-23THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." 18 "http://www.christianforums.com/t7474930-2/#cr-descriptionAnchor-24THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."

 

[LJSGM]

Maybe you should do a study on what hell is and what it is not...

 

[LJSGM]

Here's a thread that I've been posting on that might help, although there are several.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7478690/

 

[Rao]

How is it possible for me to say that he is in hell?

It is not possible, in fact. You cannot say that someone is in hell for sure. Even the Catholic Church, which instead believes that it can say about someone every now and then that he's certainly in Heaven, it never ever says that someone is certainly in hell, not even for the worst criminals and tyrants of history. We just cannot know if they repented and fully wanted God before their very last breath.

But this doesn't imply he wasn't a good man. You can be a very good man and fail to follow the two greatest commandments (by a human standard of good). I guess he will never realise that it's not just about being good, you have to be completely perfect to enter eternal life.

No, you cannot be a good man and fail to follow the two greatest commandments. If you are a good man, you are indeed following the two greatest commandments. Even someone who says he is an atheist, because the point is that he might think of himself as atheist while deep inside he isn't, and at the last minute of his life he might "give up" and accept he had faith all his life. It might be a rare scenario, it makes all sense to think that the chances are less compared to a devout christian, but still we cannot say anything about where someone really goes. The "good thief" on the cross is the ultimate example about this.

And you don't have to be completely perfect, if this was true then Heaven would be almost empty. Jesus himself has explained that it is infact impossible for men to gain salvation, but it is not impossible for God (to grant it anyway). Maybe what we really need is to want to be perfect, and do our very best with all our mind, heart, and soul.

 

[Key]

Please give a good answer. I tryed to ask this on another site but all I got was "Jesus is our savior!" etc.. This sort of stuff doesn't help my faith.

This is a painful question that we as Christians always end up asking. Why do decent people, people that seem to be made of better moral fiber than some Christians you might know, end up in hell? It truly seems unfair and I fully respect that.

But, here is one thing that I stop at: If it was possible for a human, a person to gain their own salvation by their own actions then Jesus sacrifice had no point.

Now forgive me, but I cannot fathom God offering his son for the salvation of man if there was not an absloute need for it.

So, while your brother might be a very decent person with a good moral compass that does not mean he can earn his own way into Heaven.

However, his salvation is between him and God, it is not my place to say where he will ultimately end up.