Why would a loving God send someone to hell? 

That is a question many have asked. The answer is simple. He doesn’t! God is simply the means by which you get there. Let me explain.

Imagine this…..you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it sank. You and the other people on the boat with you are now looking at certain death by drowning. You have already gone under the water twice, you are losing your strength and are on the verge of going under for the third and final time when all of a sudden a ship comes. The crewmembers began to throw out lifelines and the people with you are grabbing hold of them and are being brought aboard the ship and are saved from certain death. Then the crewmembers throw out the line to you, but you won’t grab hold of it so they can pull you aboard the ship. You go under the water for the third and final time and you drown. Death has come! Did the crewmembers of the ship cause you to die? Is it there fault you didn’t grab hold of the lifeline so you could be saved? The answer is “NO”! It’s your fault for not accepting what was given to save you!

In the same way God sent Jesus to be our lifeline:

John 3:16“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. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

God is a Holy and righteous God and cannot allow sin in his presence so when Adam & Eve sinned against God by eating the fruit in the garden they caused the spiritual death of mankind and since then everyone who is born is born separated from God and spiritually dead:

Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

1 Corinthians 2:14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

For this reason if it were up to us we would all continue in our daily life’s each day separated from God, dead in our sin, and just existing until the day we die only to be judged guilty of our transgressions and sins against God and to be sentenced to eternity in hell. Fortunately, God loves us and that has never been his plan. God’s plan was to save us through his son Jesus Christ. He has spent our entire lives trying to call us to him by his Holy Spirit to repent (turn away) from our sins and receive him as our savior:

John 6:44-45 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

I bet if you really think about it you can remember times in your life when you seriously wondered about the things of God. Is God real? Is there really a Heaven and a hell? Did Jesus really exist? Did he really die on the cross? Maybe you have just felt like something is missing or incomplete in your life. All these things are just examples of the ways God has made attempts to draw you to him so you would seek the answers and hopefully understand the truth of Jesus Christ and receive him as your savior.

Just like the story of the ship, God has made every attempt since the fall of man in the garden to reconcile man back to himself. He has tried to reach man by his Holy Spirit, he has shown signs and wonders, and he even sent his son to die on a cross for YOUR sins….to pay a debt he didn’t owe!

It’s like the story at the beginning. We are drowning in our sin. Certain to die. God has come and thrown us a lifeline in his son Jesus. It is up to us to reach out and grab hold of Jesus and be saved or remain content in our sin and drown! You see it is not God’s fault if you refuse to accept his son Jesus as your savior. God didn’t send you to hell! You sent yourself there when you refused to receive the lifeline he has sent you! When you make no choice, you still have made a choice!

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can do so now!

It is important that you understand Jesus is the son of God. That he came to the earth to live a sinless life which we are not capable of. That in doing so he took our sins upon himself to the cross where he gave his life to pay for and cleanse us of our sins. He was buried and rose from the grave after three days thus defeating sin, death, and the grave and he now sits at the right hand of our Father in Heaven.

All that is required to be saved and have eternal life is to pray and tell Jesus you have come to the realization that you are a sinner in need of him to be your savior. Ask him to forgive you of all your sin, and to come into your heart and change you and make you a new creation in him:

Romans 10::9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ^10:10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

These aren’t just magical words that you pray and you are saved and then you can return to your sinful lifestyle! They must come from your heart and with a desire for repentance! God knows your heart and your true intentions:

Acts 15:8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.

If you prayed this prayer from your heart, then you are saved! God has now sealed his Holy Spirit inside you:

Ephesians 1:13-14And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Remember your salvation comes by the grace of God.

There is nothing you could have done to earn your salvation. It is a gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8-9For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ^2:9Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Romans 3:23-24For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ^3:24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

Now that you’re saved!

It is important that you find a Bible believing church. Make sure they believe that God the Father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit are one (the trinity). Make sure they believe the Bible is the literal living word of God and adhere to its teachings. Next, you want to get connected with other believers:

Proverbs 27:17Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Know that you have an enemy (satan) who seeks to make you a weak and ineffective Christian:

1^st Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

 He will tempt you and bring all he can against you to make you weak, so put on the armor of God and spend time in his word (the Bible) and in prayer daily:

Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. ^6:11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ^6:12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. ^6:13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. ^6:14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; ^6:15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ^6:16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. ^6:17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Most of all…..cling to the lifeline God has given you in Jesus Christ!!!