Jesus to Sinners: Love Me or Burn in Hell

 Posted by on 24 November 2009 at 5:00 am  Ethics, Religion
Nov 242009
 

I must admit, I’m often just a bit intrigued by religious spam. My favorite form is the attempt to turn me away from that pretender Jesus to the one true God, Allah. (If only the writer knew the depths of my evil!) The following gem appeared in my inbox a few months ago. As you’ll see, it’s fairly standard Christian proselytizing: you’re a bad, bad sinner, but God will forgive all if you repent and accept Jesus.

If I were to seriously consider this attempt to convert me, I could only be offended. I’m not some lowly depraved sinner! Yet some people are deeply attracted to this kind of message. My question is… why?

Here’s my supposition — just one possible explanation. A person without clearly defined principles but some sense of the importance of morality is likely to feel vague pangs of guilt pretty routinely. Such a person might not want to consider what he’s doing too closely, because that would require forsaking certain cherished desires. He might be caught in the crossfire of conflicting principles. He might often feel uncertain about whether he’s acting rightly, yet not know how to determine the right course. He might not differentiate between his own honest errors and his willful evasions. He might indulge certain desires, knowing them to be wrong.

Over time, such actions would take their toll on the person’s psyche. Periodic pangs of guilt would accumulate into a vague sense of being guilty as a person, but for not-too-clear reasons. That would be a deeply, deeply uncomfortable feeling. For such a person, the Christian claim that we’re all guilty would be a comfort. Christianity tells him that he’s not uniquely bad, that all people face the same problem of guilt, whether they acknowledge it or not. Then Christianity offers an easy way out: repent and accept the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins. Heck, if he sins again, he can just repent again… and again… and again. The flesh is weak, after all.

Does that seem right? What other reasons might a person have for embracing an image of himself as a depraved sinner?

Oh, and here’s the e-mail:

Hello,

Thank you for not deleting this email right away. While you and I may not know each other, what I want to tell you is important enough for me to want to contact you. But don’t worry, I obtained your email address off of the internet and will not contact you again unless you reply.

I assure you that this is not a solicitation or a scam of any kind. I do not want to sell you anything or sign you up for anything. My hope is that you will continue to read the email. My hope is that, in the end, you will see this letter as so much more than “spam.”

The reason for the email is so that you can hear about the good news of the Gospel. Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I already know Jesus Christ and am sure of my salvation”. I THOUGHT I WAS SURE TOO. It can’t hurt to examine your faith and see where you stand. The cost of being wrong is too great.

The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that “it’s appointed for every man once to die, and then judgment.” What that means is that everyone dies once and is then judged before Almighty God. So, if you are standing before God on Judgment Day, are you going to heaven or hell? Have you been a good person? You might think so but, unfortunately though, we aren’t going to be judged by any human standard of goodness. There is only one standard by which we can all be judged and that standard is God’s Law, also known as the Ten Commandments. The Bible says in Romans 2:15 that God “has written the law upon the heart of every man in the form of our conscience” so that when we die and face him, we will have no excuse.

So let’s go through them real quick. Have you ever broken the 9th commandment by lying? Of course you have. A person who does that is called a liar. Have you ever broken the 8th commandment and stolen anything (regardless of value)? A person who does that is called a thief. Let’s look at the 7th commandment against adultery: Jesus says that whoever looks upon another person with lust has committed adultery in their heart. Have you ever looked with lust? Yes. What about the 6th commandment against murder? Jesus also says that whoever hates a person, without cause, has committed murder in his heart. Have you ever hated anyone? If you’re like most people, at this point you are a lying, thieving, murdering adulterer at heart standing before a just and holy God.

At this point, you might be saying to yourself, I don’t believe in God, Heaven, or Hell. I say that it doesn’t matter what you believe. Let’s say that someone held you up at gunpoint, would you laugh at him and say “I don’t believe in guns!”? Of course not! That’s because your disbelief doesn’t negate reality and believe me, GOD IS REAL. Or are you willing to bet your eternal life on it?

Or, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t believe that God would judge us so harshly. My god is a god of love and forgiveness and would never send anyone to Hell”. You are right. Your god would not send anyone to Hell because he doesn’t exist! What you’ve just done is broken the 2nd commandment against idolatry. When you create a god in your mind to suit yourself, you are turning your back on the real God. Have you ever broken the 3rd commandment by using our Creator’s name in vain as a four-letter cuss word? That’s called blasphemy and is very serious in God’s eyes.

So, if you are still reading this then you’ve probably said, “That’s impossible! No one can live up to the standard of the Ten Commandments.” You are right. No one can. Man is not perfect. We were born into sin and have a sinful nature. God is so holy and so perfect that his standard is unattainable to mortal men. You might say, but that’s not fair! What about forgiveness? God is supposed to forgive us of our sins. What about all of the good things that I’ve done in my life?

Well, let’s look at an example. What if you were in a courtroom standing before a judge and you had just been convicted of murder. You did it. You’re guilty and all that’s left is for the judge to render his sentence: $500,000 or death. You can’t just say to the judge “Your honor. I just wanted to say that you are a good man and that I know you will forgive me of my crime. Besides, what about all the other good things I’ve done in my life?” What’s the judge going to say? If he is a good judge then he’s going to send you to the electric chair. He might want to be merciful, but he can’t just set you free, the law demands a penalty. Since God is a good judge and because he is so good and so holy, he has no choice but to send you to Hell. The law demands a penalty and the Bible says in Romans 6:23 that “the wages of sin is DEATH”.

But, here’s where your story takes a turn for the good. You are about to be lead away in shackles when all of a sudden, someone comes into the courtroom and pays your $500,000 fine. The judge then sees that the requirement of the law has been fulfilled. And since you’ve met the requirements, you are now free to go! That’s what Jesus Christ did for all of us when he died on the cross 2000 years ago. Jesus Christ came to earth, God in human form, born of a virgin, lived a perfect and blameless life, was crucified on the cross, and then rose from the dead three days later as a payment for our sins. All we have to do is accept the payment and we are free from eternal damnation!

How do we accept the payment? All that is required from us is to ask God for forgiveness, repent (turn away) from our sins, and then trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all of our hearts (Romans 10:9). When we do that, Jesus Christ washes away all of our sins and we can now stand before God blameless on Judgment Day. Then read your Bible and obey it, join a local church and be baptized. God will make you into a new person with new wants and desires. He doesn’t want to send you to Hell, He loves you. You’ve probably heard John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life.”

Well, that’s it. Thank you for reading all the way through. I thank you for your time and my prayer is that you will consider all that you’ve read and seek Jesus Christ for eternal life today. Don’t wait for tomorrow because we never know when we will be taken from this earth and now that you’ve read this email you are without excuse when you stand before God.

To Him be the glory,
Mel Kizadeck

Oh dear. I’ve read the e-mail in full, so now I’m definitely going straight to hell when I die. That’s okay… because I’ll be dead.

   
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