how can god say we are all unworthy of heaven and deserve hell?

Question

the bible and christian theology basically say that all humans are sinful and deserve hell depite our best efforts, and it is only by the grace of god that we get to go to heaven.
I must severely take issue with that idea.
I know i'm not a perfect person, but i know i'm a notably moral person and that i have done nothing truelly horrible and hateful in my life. it just don't make sense to say so broadly that humans deserve nothing but hell no matter what. how can people be so reassured in citing the notion of original sin? Because my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother ate an apple that god told her not to, i am in eternal debt to god so much that i deserve hellfire?

answer the dang question, quit dancing around it.

Answer 1

hi, i just want to thank you for asking this question. it is on my mind, too. i don't think any of the people who have answered it have really answered it, yet.

i guess i don't have a problem with "missing the mark" meaning that i can't go to a perfect holy heaven. that's ok if God's standards are so high and i'm grateful that Jesus' righteousness gets me in those pearly gates. i'm ok knowing that i couldn't go there without Him.

but the part that i don't understand is why i, or anyone i know, would deserve eternity in a torturous hell. it seems to me in my finite limited brain that that would be cruel and unusual punishment not fitting the crime.

to be honest, i'm starting to question the fundamental idea of hell. i just don't think our loving God, demonstrated by loving servant-hearted Jesus, would send people to eternal torture for just "missing the mark" (whether that is adam/eve's fault or my own doesn't make a diff - i've done plenty of wrong things).

other people think that my understanding of God is messed up when i question hell, but i think that our understanding of hell is messed up and i'm pursuing that in my own reading and prayer.

let's face it - until martin luther, people thought you could pay your way (pay the church) out of hell! he took a stand based on Scripture that said that wasn't true.. he went against the popular, oppressive, flow and it turned out he was right.

i'm tired of believing stuff that people tell me to believe when it doesn't make sense and i'm going to try to just keep reading and keep asking and hope that God explains it to me.

does that make sense?

i'm also looking into the "emergent church" movement. read some of brian d. mclaren and maybe that will help you understand that not all of us Bible-reading-believing christians are oppressive fundamentalists!

dear Lord You are so awesome and loving and holy too. please help me/us understand the truths. really, whatever it is, beyond our finite stuff into your infinite stuff, cuz the truth will set us free.

Answer 2

I have yet to see a verse where it says we do not deserve God's grace upon repentance and baptism.

Pew Tater quotes Paul talking of the Jewish Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes. Jesus too spoke against these people. This may apply to unbelievers but not the Christian that has repented and been baptized.

Weft Master quotes God speaking to the wicked Not the righteous follower. To the Wicked, God says; Turn away from this thinking - it is not my thinking.

One thing that may be gleaned from this is a person that is a true follower has a higher plane of thinking as a result of following God.

Religions have got people so mixed up about hell (the grave), sin (error/rebellion), and Grace (gift of forgiveness and life) That I am not surprised that so many people turn away from God.

Yes, all human kind is offered this, not all take the gift.

We are human and make human mistakes. From these we learn and change. Learning and Changing is repentance.

Peace -C

You asked about original sin -
This is between Adam, Eve and God though we see from the nature of the "sin" that if we are instructed by God (not man) to do or not do something we should obey. God is the boss. This is shown more than once in the bible.
This also represents our separation from God that is that we are separate and apart or not one with God. To be one with God is what a Christian strives for but we are human and it is a lifetime of practice.
We all error and and fall short of perfection.

Answer 3

at least in the Latter Day Saint (aka Mormons) we believe that Christ sacrifice overcame two things.
1. It enable us to be resurrected, since because of the fall of Adam death came into the world.
This was a gift of God requiring nothing in return, according to Paul in Acts 24:15 that the just (good) and the unjust (evil) will both be resurrected.
2. It gave us a chance to overcome sin through him by repenting.
A good analogy that is used in the Church is that:
We have taken out a loan from God, the terms being that we pay the loan back in full.
Since God cannot go back on his word he is bound to follow the terms of the contract.
Now since we all sin, NOT ORIGNAL sin but our own sins. We cannot pay the loan back in full.
So we cannot abide the terms and must be punished.
But Christ has stepped in and payed the loan that we made with God and has made a loan to us, but has given us the terms that,
if we try are hardest to repay the loan to him that it will be enough.
We pay the loan to Christ back by following his teachings and repenting.

Answer 4

I think that we all would like to believe that we are good moral people. It is really hard to understand something that we really can't comprehend in the first place. The idea of deserving hell seems so bad, because no turely honest person would want that for thier life, or after life that is. We need to also that into consideration what the "mark" is. It isn't that we think we are good people, but do we stand up to the standards of a perfect God, or Christ. No, so a way was made for us so that we don't have to settle on hell. The question should be, "do we deserve heaven or hell?" It should be do i hit the "mark" if no, be glad that there is a way that we can, throught what God has given us, a gift, and will you accept it?

Answer 5

Well but you are a byproduct of your genetics too from your ancestors, yes and theirs too up to Adam and Eve, the first father and mother of the human race. It is inescapable and that is a cumulative affect. As you know there are recessive and dominant genes that govern your physical characteristics and your behavior and mannerisms also.

I used that physical analogy to show you that the Bible talks about another condition that is a spiritual in nature that came from Adam and Eve. God created them genetically holy and perfect. But they disobeyed God's command. And a spiritual defect occurred that is called sin. And this sin nature also corrupted the genetic material of man to bring in blindness and deafness etc. This has been passed on from all mankind.

The physical condition will remain in man kind. God remedied all mankind of spiritual corruption by sending his only begotten son Jesus Christ to take your place of God's judgment for sin. All mankind can be spiritually cleaned.

Man cannot save himself since he is born under sin. Only God can remedy the separation between God and man that sin caused. Once you have faith in Jesus Christ you will be clean.

It's like the designer of a computer programmer can fix the program. You inherited a problem that can only be fixed by him.

Answer 6

We are responsible only for our own sins...

"This righteousness from God comes through faith
in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no
difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

~ Romans 3:22-24

Answer 7

God sends His Son to die on a cross for your sins,
your response is "thanks, but I don't need Your help"
And yet you think you are a pretty good guy?
You are in great darkness.

Answer 8

Romans 3:9-18 (HCSB)
What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away, together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, there is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Answer 9

The eating of forbidden fruit is only what brought a sin nature upon humanity, we are however all responsible for our own sins.

Apply this hypothetical to God then answer your own question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Au98U7Ewk0fzhF_YvJ7NLbHsy6IX?qid=20070602185141AAFHjwn

Answer 10

Gods do not punish humankind, because they do not exist. Only people show this kind of cruelty to others.