To those who believe in hell and/or eternal punishment..?

Question

What type of person deserves to go to hell? According to the Christian faith, you will go to hell for not accepting Jesus as your personal savior.

But what about someone like this: They had a bad experience with a church when they were young and decided to stay away from religion all-together. But as they grew up they led an exemplary life, they were kind to all they saw, they were industrious and hard working, they gave a significant portion of their money to charity throughout their life, and even volunteerd themselves to help the less fortunate. But then they died. They knew all about Jesus and the bible, yet had no desire to believe in it whatsoever.

Is this person going to hell? Do they deserve eternal punishment?

Wow, this is really amazing. I'm seeing a lot of answers that are basically saying that good, maybe even great, people will totally be going to hell.

Why, because they didn't confess their sins? What about a good, penitant Christian who slips a bit, commits a bad sin.. but then dies before he gets a chance to ask God for forgiveness? Hellbound?

Plus, I've yet to see someone who will say the person in the scenario "deserves" hell.

Answer 1

Yeppers. Brimstone fodder.

All that matters to the Christian and Islamic memes is the spread of the meme. This requires belief. Everything else is window dressing.

Answer 2

Biblically, yes, because the point of the Bible is that no man is worthy of heaven, no matter what they do, without the redemptive intercession of Jesus Christ.

In the scenario above, the individual placed his fate in the hands of imperfect people. He (or she) had the incorrect view that being a Christian should initiate a state of perfection, and placed his faith in the behavior of those who encouraged his alienation from the church.

But God said, though the prophet Jeremiah, If with all your heart you truly seek me, you shall surely find me. God will not hide Himself from the honest seeker. This individual should still have done all the good things he did, but he also should have sought God on his own, seeking the truth apart from the filter of human error. God can lead anyone through a bad experience, and this person would have learned not to judge a perfect God on the basis of imperfect, in-process people.

Actually, one could write a whole dissertation on this, but I'll leave it there, hopefully having made my point somewhat clearly :)

Answer 3

Jesus has commanded us to "love the God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength", also "love your neighbour as yourselves". I think the person mentioned has done the second part, but what about the first? I guess a life without God, even if it is charitable, must be very hard. With God's grace and love we could live with joy and the hope of salvation every day, which is so amazing. This person, having no God in his heart, means he has already decided to separate from God. And the eternal punishment is a complete separation from God. A bad church experience is unfortunate for the person, but a bad church does not mean that God is bad.

Answer 4

I am a Christian and according to the Word of God, this person is going to hell, it's not about how good a person is or what charity the gave to or how exemplary they lived their life, its not about religion, its about what you Believe in period. Its not up to me to say whether or not this person Deserves!! eternal punishment ( that's God job), but this person Chose not to Believe because of a bad experience in Church, when he/she could have went to another church, thats just like stereotyping ALLchurchs because of one bad expierience or saying ALL Catholic Churchs are full of pedophiles.there are going to be a lot of so called good people in hell and people that we may consider bad here in the earth will be in heaven because they choose life (Jesus) over death( eternal seperation from God). IT"S A CHOICE....p.s I am Not a Jehovah Witness ( no disrespect intended), the Bible does teach hell..Read it for yourself.

Answer 5

As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I am a Christian, but I do not believe in hell. Not all Christians (or those who profess to be) believe in eternal damnation. In fact, it is not even a Biblical teaching. Hell, or Sheol, in the Bible is used to represent the common grave of mankind. It is commendable that such a person would live a good life. But Jesus said, "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need, since the kingdom of heaven belongs to them." (Matthew 5:3) In essence he was saying that those who knew they had a spiritual need and filled it would be following God's commandments and therefore would be a part of God's kingdom, whether in heaven serving as co-rulers with Christ, or on earth as an earthly subject. Regarding the resurrection, Acts 24:15 says, "There will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous." So people who were "unrighteous" or who never had a proper chance to know God or who were just beginning to know him when their life ended will be resurrected with the righteous, those who knew and loved God and followed his commandments.

Answer 6

This person needs to learn to separate the people of the church and the church itself. To expect the men of the church to determine whether or not you have a faith is an unrealistic proposal.

I will not say what God will do with this man. But he is gravely lost to deny God based on a bad experience. I have had some bad experiences with in my church too. The experiences are not of God but of the people there.

I must say I hope that such a person would receive salvation. But God is the one who understands. Not me. But it seems very close minded to me to say "I don't want anything to do with God or The Bible because I had a bad experience." To me it seems a contradiction in character.

Answer 7

Good works will never get anyone into heaven. The standard is not what we do but who we are. The person who goes to hell is the one who rejects Jesus as Saviour:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
-John 3:16-19

Answer 8

I don't mean to be pessimistic, but in theory, everyone deserves hell, because we all fall short of "God's glorious standard."

No one can get to Heaven on their own merits. So, this hypothetical gentleman, however moral, missed the boat spiritually as the Christian faith follows that Jesus is the "way, the truth, and the life, none get to the Father except through me [Jesus]"

Answer 9

Well if they was saved in that church when they was young then no. We might not always agree that good people will go to hell, but God said they would. Ephesians 2:8-9. Good works will not merit you heaven. It only comes through Jesus. Without the shedding of blood their is no remission of sins. They must be born again.

Answer 10

It isn't our place to determine who deserves Hell. Many people think if you are a good, moral person you should go to Heaven and only "Bad" people should go to hell. That makes sense to us. But that's not how God sees it. When Adam and Eve sinned they separated us from God. We could no longer walk and talk with him on a daily basis like they did in the Garden. They brought spiritual death to the world. Hell was not created for people, it was created for the Angels who rebelled. God expected us to be born and know him, but Adam and Eve messed that up. So God decided to provide a sacrifice so that we could get back into fellowship with him, and that was Jesus. So, to go to Heaven all we have to do is believe in God (Adam/Eve and Satan has made that harder- Satan has tricked people into think God doesn't exist) and accept the sacrifice. We don't belong in Hell... BUT we have the freedom to decide for ourselves. There are two roads, believe in God/Jesus confess your sins and accept the sacrifice and go to Heaven; or deny all of the above and go with Satan. It really isn't about how good/bad you are. It's about getting back to where we were suppose to be, in fellowship with our Creator. If you don't choose to do that, the only option is Hell, b/c God has no where else to put you... you were meant to be with him, but he can't let people in who doesn't believe in him.