Jesus' sacrifice & hell?

Question

I'm sorry if I sound stupid asking this, I am not a Christian but always interested in finding out about other religions.
Something that has always confused me about Christianity is that they teach that if you sin you go to hell - but from what I understand, Jesus died to repent for our sins and so you won't go to hell anyway. I'm probably being daft but I don't understand that part.

capitalctu - so do you mean the belief is you have to be a Christian in order to avoid 'hell'? What about an athiest who doesn't sin? Or a Christian who does?

Just want to say thank you for all the answers so far, I already want to pick about 5 best answers lol. I had a wonderful RE teacher when I was at school, and she gave me an interest in all religions. Slayer - I loved the enthusiasm of your answer, though I do not believe in God, I sometimes wish I did just so I could feel that way!

Answer 1

Dear Sally,

You are not daft, or stupid, simply asking an honest question!
A lot of things about Christianity can be confusing, especially if all that someone knows is what is written in The Bible. It is only through a personal relationship with Jesus that understanding comes.

I can only talk about Christianity from my own walk with Jesus (twenty-three years so far!), which is what keeps me in love with Him!

I don't understand a lot of what happens in this life, or the world, but I know that He Knows the answers to all things, so I keep my faith in Him!

He burst into my life at a critical time, when choices had led me far from God and deep into the mire that embroils so many of us! He turned my life upside down and back to front and inside out - but I wouldn't have it any other way! My life is the richer for Him in it and I wouldn't want to be without Him to have an easy life!

When He went to The Cross for each and everyone of us, He Paid once for all for all of humanity's sins! This means that when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we start again completely with a clean slate!

However, God Knows that humanity is frail and that we will ALL continue to make bad choices sometimes - no matter how much we love Jesus! So He made The Provision through Jesus, that if we make a wrong choice, we can come to Him in The Throne Room of Heaven, with Jesus Holding onto our hand and say we are sorry! He Sees only The Radiance and Beauty of Jesus covering whatever we have come to Him to say sorry for - and casts it away as far as the north is from the south and the east from the west! Our Heavenly Father does not 'go fishing', with a roll call to drag up past wrongdoings (sins - a word that frightens/excites so many!).

The thing is that once someone like myself has Jesus in their lives, they really do NOT want to cause Him anymore pain and distress than He Suffered on The Cross for us! However, NONE of humanity is perfect - no matter how much some Christians may like to kid themselves and others - so sometimes we still fall short of God's Glory and Best Plans for us! Whether or not we pretend it hasn't happened and soldier on, or whether we are honest and open and place our trust and faith in Jesus to be Who He Says He Is, makes the difference!

He has turned me from a scared, frightened camelion (who could go into a room with hundreds of different people and agree with all and offend none!), someone with no opinion of her own,into an 'Overcomer' through His Grace! He Enables me to live my life as is pleasing to Him, without worrying about what others may think - and if and when I mess up, I ask Him to Forgive me, accept His Forgiveness and continue my walk of Grace with Him!

The Bible Teaches that only one sin cannot and will not be forgiven by God, it is the one sin which Grieves The Holy Spirit deeply! Throughout everyone's life, since Jesus went to The Cross, God makes provision for people to continually come to know Jesus as their Saviour! If they continually choose unbelief in Him as The Son of God, then they cannot enter Heaven and must enter hell - which is eternal seperation from God!

Sorry this has been rather a long answer, but I pray that it will help you a little! Jesus IS The Best Friend I have ever had as well as my Saviour, He has kept His Promise to me to be with me in ALL circumstances and HE IS WONDERFUL!!!

Margi

Answer 2

Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for sure. But still for you to be on your way to heaven then you must believe with your entire heart that this was so and that He was God and man. Those who won't open their hearts to this concept are not going to heaven. But there has to be someplace to stash these souls. That was created when God tossed Satan the beloved angel and his minions out of heaven. This was when hell was created. This is where those who don't believe end up for eternity. As far as it being a place of fire and brimstone that is the part that is probably not true. The agony of hell is the fact that you will be denied the presence of God and he no longer will hear your pleas. I would suggest that you read the new testament because it is all spelled out for you there. In Christ's own words even.

Answer 3

I'm not religious either but I do believe in God. This kind of question always gets me thinking too. Religion is a HUGE subject that could be broached from so many angles it would take an eternity to figure it all out.
The way I see it Jesus died so that we could all live our lives - including the odd sin or two - and so long as we try our best to do the right thing then we'll go to heaven. BUT, the thing that annoys me the most is that if someone commits a crime, no matter how heinous, and they repent then God will open the gates and let them in. I'm sure when God decided that Jesus had to die, he never truly realised just what kind of a can of worms he was opening. I bet even Jesus would be a little ticked off that the human race was abusing his act of selflessness. Maybe we could ask them that we get up there?

Answer 4

i`m not exactly a Christian either although i believe in God and the Bible what your asking about, is an American View of Christianity ,not something that applies to Christianity World wide .The Generally held view and whats written in the Bible is that a person who carries on wilfully sinning and not living by Gods Commandments has not accepted Jesus into their heart and is in no way saved Accepting is the key word here and to Accept Jesus means to live by the rules as far as is humanly possible

2 Peter 2

20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

John 3
6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Answer 5

Where or what is `hell?`
We are told about the fires of `hell` but where are they?
And why, when we have no earthly body should we be frightened of fire?
It does not make sense, but, there again, neither does 99% of the bible which was partly history, written by people with massive ego`s and what they did not know they made up and credited unexplainable happenings as the work of a super being, believe this or not, religious people actually believed all the fairy and mythical stories.
Why? Simple, because it was easier to believe them than find proof that the stories were true.
And so religion was born and caused more trouble on the earth than any other single thing.
Only the wise were not taken in.

Answer 6

Jesus took the WHOLE punishment of Sin, that means he descended into hell and then when he rose he conquered the grave and death, have you heard "the wages of sin is death"? Jesus took sin on himself, meaning he became sin on the cross so that he could atone for all the sins of the world, by the way there is no such thing as a sinless atheist or any other for that matter, we are born with a sin nature that was handed down from Adam, but was taken away the minute you receive Christ. Peace.

Answer 7

I think all religions contradict themselves in some way.
God is forgiving etc but their is a hell, why if he is all forgiving? you then have the be kind to your neighbours and then holy wars!
I believe hell is just something the church cooked up to keep people going to church and being "well behaved" right at the begining when the church were trying to wipe out the pagens
im not religious in anyway so this is just my perception of religion.

and the whole non-sinners thing..the one thing i remember from RE in school - let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.
so are we saying your a christian so you have not sinned in your intire life? - no sloth? no lust?? no gluttony?.......hmmmm i think not. people are both light and dark good and evil for without one the other can not exist. think about that one.

Answer 8

If you truely are interested in learning about Christianity (it would be more beneficial to you to learn about the Word of God and the teachings of Christ, than the modernly practiced "religon") then I would suggest that you get a King James version of the Bible and a Strong's exhaustive concordance. This will allow you to read the Bible and look up meanings of things that you don't know. The concordace lists all of the words in the Bible and their locations in the text, as well as the meanings of the words in their original language (hebrew or greek). The only way to know about Christians and our so called religon is to read the Bible. You can ask anyone on this site, and you will get 100 different answers, but how can you discern truth from lies? Particularly relevant is Proverbs 12:23; "A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. " If you want to know about Christianity, read Psalms and Proverbs. Both books will tell you the way it is, according to God. Some of it will not make sense to you, especially in Psalms, but there is a lot of wisdom to be gained here. And as a final note, to Wings, in the Bible it says that God created the nations (literally translated in Hebrew, races, peoples, ethnicities, whatever you want to call them) on the sixth day, prior to the creation of Adam and Eve. So, Christians do not teach that we are all inbred, and if they do, they are ignorant of Biblical facts.
Wow, I got a thumbs down already. You guys will love this one then. Proverbs 9:8; Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Answer 9

Its a ridiculous theory anyway, so don'tworry about trying to understand. Its not even worth learning about. Its all been made up to control the masses any how.

Even if it was true, its a sick cult, that thinks its ok to worship a "god" who sacrifices his own son. Sounds like a sick ba$tard to me.

As for the nut jobs, such as "Soldier of God" - someone who thinks by being a christian he never sins and all atheists do. You see the lack of reason and logic. He comes from an organisation who take great pleasure in spreading hate, bigotry, homophobia, misogyny, abuse, incest, intolerance, etc. Are these not sinful?

Embrace being a freethinker, but please (for your own sanity) don't get sucked into any of these cults!

Answer 10

God gave us two priceless gifts to guide us to the truth we seek. Jesus and The Holy Spirit. When you realise that christianity does not make sense and contradicts itself numerous times, focus on what Jesus meant when He told us that the kingdom of heaven is within us. If you pay very close attention, The Holy Spirit will guide you to the correct answer.