How Could a God of Love Send Someone to Hell? | Becoming a Citizen of Heaven

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here.

Let me ask you a question. Are you eager to make a difference in the spiritual lives of others? When you give to Harvest, you become a part of our mission to make God known through unique avenues like television, radio, and large-scale evangelistic events.

Support us today at harvest.org slash donate, and help us to continue to spread the gospel around the world. It seems everyone has an opinion on heaven and hell. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie addresses that directly. People define heaven and hell as follows. Heaven is a place where people who have lived good lives are eternally rewarded, and hell is a place where people who have lived bad lives will die and be eternally punished.

That's wrong. Heaven is for forgiven people, not good people, and that's good news for all of us. Nearly every country has naturalization requirements. To become a citizen of another country, steps need to be followed.

No steps, no deal. What's required to be a citizen of heaven? What does it take to make it through the pearly gates? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us what the Bible says. We'll see it has nothing to do with how much we put in the offering plate last Sunday.

We'll see it has to do with receiving a gift that's already been bought and paid for. I want you to grab your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 20. We're in a new series that we're calling Hot Button Issues.

So I'm sure I'm going to say something in this message that will offend someone, because these are hot button issues. The title of my message is How Could a God of Love Send Someone to Help? So a number of years ago I was preaching. I was standing at the back door meeting people, and some guy comes up to me and shakes my hand and says, that was a hell of a message, Pastor. I'm like, uh, okay.

Is this your first time here? I was kind of hoping it would be more of a heaven of a message, but I think in his way he was trying to compliment me. But there's that word, hell, you know. And sometimes people will say, I don't like these hellfire and brimstone preachers. Now if by that you mean someone standing on a street corner with a sign, with a slogan, you're going to burn in hell with flames added for effect, I would be with you. But frankly, I can't remember the last time I heard a hellfire and brimstone message. And by that I mean, I can't remember the last time I heard someone actually preach on the topic of hell.

So that's what I want to talk about. Now I'm not suggesting we're going to do this every Sunday all hell, all the time at Harvest, right? But I'm not going to run from a subject because it's uncomfortable or because we have a misunderstanding of it. It's worth considering that Jesus Christ, who was the very personification of love, spoke more about hell than all the other preachers in the Bible put together.

Why? Because the last thing God wants is for anyone to go to this place. So I'm going to answer the question, how could a God of love send someone to hell?

And I'm also going to answer the question, how can you say as Christians that Jesus is the only way to God? How can you say that? That's so narrow-minded. That's so intolerant. That's so unloving. And all religions teach the same thing. Okay, we'll address all of those issues together. In fact, the most loving thing I could do is talk about judgment if a person doesn't know God.

Let me illustrate. Let's say I was walking down the street in your neighborhood and your house was on fire and you didn't know it. So I called out and you came to the door and I said, nice flower bed.

Then I just kept walking. No, it might be nice. It might be loving. It might be considerate of actually saying, oh, by the way, your house is on fire, right? So this is the kind of thing we're dealing with here. We need to help people. And this brings me to point number one. When we come to this topic, and really any topic, we need to look at it biblically, not emotionally. For some reason, there are some subjects that we have more of an emotional reaction to than others.

And this probably would be one of them. So we need to think biblically. A poll by the Pew Research Center revealed that people define heaven and hell as follows. Heaven is a place where people who have lived good lives are eternally rewarded. And hell is a place where people who have lived bad lives will die and be eternally punished.

That's wrong. So that means the vast majority of people have a false view of heaven and hell. Heaven is not created for people who've lived good lives. Heaven is for forgiven people, not good people.

And that's good news for all of us, right? And even on our best day, we're nowhere close to being good enough for heaven. It's for forgiven people. And hell is a place where people who have lived bad lives will die. Listen, it's a place that's not even created for people. According to Jesus, hell was created for the devil and his angels.

It's not something that God wants to send any person to, and I'll explain that more in just a few moments. We've made hell a joke when it's no laughing matter. I mean, we punctuate our sentences, as I mentioned earlier, with references to hell. For instance, if something is going wrong, people will say, all hell broke loose.

If you had a great time, we had a hell of a good time, we'll say. If you're mad at someone, you can just go to hell. Then the funny thing is some of the people who tell others to go to hell don't believe hell exists. So what are you really saying? You can just go to a place that doesn't even exist.

Doesn't have quite the impact now, does it? There's actually a place in Michigan named hell. That's the city. Hell, Michigan. And the way that came about is in 1841, George Reeves, an early settler, found this little swampy area, and he bought it. And they were going to build a town there, and they said, what do you want to name the town?

He says, I don't care. Call it hell if you want. And they did. But hell's real, as is heaven. And there is an afterlife.

G.I. Packer, a theologian, said, quote, an endless hell can no more be removed from the New Testament than an endless heaven can. Yes, there is an afterlife. And we need to think about it carefully, because we're all going to enter it maybe sooner than we thought.

And we decide in this life where we will spend the afterlife. Keanu Reeves, very successful actor, the Matrix series, John Wick series, did an interview recently, and he made an interesting statement. He said, I'm 59, so I'm thinking about death all of the time. I think thinking about death is good. Hopefully it's not crippling, but hopefully it sensitized us to an appreciation of the breath we have and the relationships we have the potential to have, end quote. Very true.

He's on the right track. Every thinking person should be thinking about the afterlife. In ancient times there was a phrase, we still see it today, memento mori, which means think of death. They would put it on tombstones. They would sometimes write it over a financial document. So you'd be saying, look how much money I have. But then written over your document was memento mori, which means you're going to leave this money.

This money's going to leave you. So think of death not in a morbid way, but in a way that will bring perspective to your life, because only those who are prepared to die are really prepared to live. So Keanu's thinking about it.

Everyone should think about it. Now there's a lot of misinformation about hell, ranging from hell being a big party being ruled over by a cartoon caricature called Satan. Let me tell you a few things about the devil. He doesn't have red skin. He doesn't have pointed ears. He doesn't have a tail. He doesn't have a pitchfork, and he doesn't have hooves. That's the caricature of Satan. Here's another thing.

Maybe I don't know if you knew this or not. The devil does not live in hell. Hell is created for the devil. Ultimately, Satan is going to be sent to hell, but he doesn't rule from hell from some fiery throne. The Bible calls him the prince of the power of the air. He's just kind of moving around as Peter describes him like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In the book of Job, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan was among them. And the Lord said to Lucifer, what have you been doing?

He said, just walking around, roaming around, watching everything that's going on. In the book of Revelation, we're told he knows his time is short. That's why it seems like the devil is working overtime right now. The Bible says in the last days they'll be satanically energized times, and we can all see it before our very eyes, can't we? So he doesn't rule from hell.

He's going to be sent to hell. Now we hear of demons. Where do demons come from? Well, demons are fallen angels.

Satan, the devil, Lucifer, was once a high-ranking angelic being, but he rebelled against God, and he took one-third of the angels with him who now are fallen angels, also known as demons. These are the principalities and powers that the Bible tells us about. So the devil has limitations. He can only be in one place at one time, in contrast to God, who's omnipresent, who can be everywhere all at once. The devil is not all-powerful. He has certain power, considerable power, but it's limited. God is omnipotent, which means he has unlimited power. The devil has certain knowledge, so he doesn't know everything. He knows some things.

God is omniscient, meaning he knows all things. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. It's a joy to hear when these studies have truly impacted lives. Listen to these comments from one of our listeners. If you have a story to share, why not call us and give us all the details? Here's the number, 1-866-871-1144. It's a special number, 866-871-1144. Well, we're getting some stray talk today from Pastor Greg as he brings us his message, How Could a God of Love Send Someone to Hell?

Let's continue. Hell is not a party. It's a place of outer darkness. It's a place of isolation.

It's a place that nobody wants to end up in. You know, more than half of the 40 parables that Jesus told deal with eternal judgment and hell. So it's something we should pay attention to. Now let's see what the Bible says about it. Revelation 20. Let's look at it together. Some of you are thinking, I should have skipped church today. Well, you're here. I think it's going to be okay.

You'll see. So this is a description of the final judgment for all mankind. I would add only non-believers will be present at the judgment we're going to read about here. Revelation 20 verse 11. John writes, Then I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small and great standing before God and the books were open.

You might underline the word books plural more than one and another book was open. You might underline that which is the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death in Hades delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged each one according to his works. Then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So we start with a great white throne.

It's great because of its awesome power and ultimate purpose and the purpose of that great white throne is judgment and here we stand before God. Now what happens to a non-believer when they die? A non-believer goes to Hades and over in Luke chapter 16 Jesus told an interesting story. It could be perceived as a parable. A parable is an illustration. Not necessarily a true story but just an illustration built on things people were familiar with. Parables were earthly stories with heavenly meanings. But in this particular account he uses a name in his story. He talks about Lazarus and a rich man. Therefore we don't think it's a parable.

In other words this is a behind the scenes peek at what happens on the other side. We have two men dying on the same day. One man is Lazarus. He's impoverished.

He's living off the table scraps of the rich man who is selfish and self-absorbed and is living an evil life. So they both die. So we have the picture of a believer and a non-believer dying. And everyone dies.

Death is no respecter of persons. Believers as well as non-believers get cancer. They have auto accidents. They have heart attacks. They die. We all die. But Lazarus the believer goes straight into the presence of God at death in this story Jesus told. Luke 16 22. So the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.

The rich man died and was buried. So when a believer dies in contrast to a non-believer you are ushered into the presence of God by an angel. I find that comforting don't you? You wonder what happened to my level when the angel escorted them to heaven.

That's an awesome escort. You know angels are very involved in your life. Every single day. But you're probably not even aware of what they're doing. Sometimes people ask do we have guardian angels. I don't know with certainty but I think maybe we do. Maybe we've worn out a few of them.

I don't know. But if we don't have a guardian angel we have angels actively involved. The Bible says the angel of the Lord surrounds those that fear him. Sometimes they guide us. Sometimes they stop us. They protect us. They're involved. They're sort of like navy seals.

You don't know what they did but they just get the job done right. It's angels. They're sort of like God's secret agents. And so they're guiding us through life.

They're protecting us. And then one day they fulfill their final task which is escorting us into God's presence. And so Lazarus dies and goes into the presence of the Lord. But now the non-believer dies on the same day. He also goes to this place called Hades.

Okay so Hades. This is all prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus was where all people went. And it had a comfort section and a torment section. Or another way to put it smoking and non-smoking.

Right. So if you were a believer you went into the comfort section of Hades and Abraham's bosom and the care of Abraham. And if you were a non-believer you went into the torment section. And in this vivid account that Jesus gave in Luke 16 we see the man in the torment section saying I want to cross over.

Send me some water to cool my tongue. It's a really scary scenario laid before us. So once Christ died on the cross he went to heaven. And now that's where every Christian goes.

Remember when Jesus was crucified and the criminal next to him said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said truly truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. So what happens to a Christian when they die? Now we go straight to heaven.

We don't go to the comfort section of Hades. We go straight to heaven into the presence of God as the apostle Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So the moment you take your last breath on earth you take your first breath in heaven. You close your eyes on earth. You open them in heaven and it's just like that.

Just like a flash. And Paul writes also I want to depart and be with Christ which is far better. Far better.

Heaven's way better than earth. And the words that he uses can be translated far far better. Or as they would say in Hawaii mobeta bra. Right?

It's mobeta. Way better. Think of the purest joy on earth. Multiply it a thousand times and you get a fleeting glimpse of heaven's euphoria. Good insight on what's coming in the afterlife. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie has been showing us what the Bible says about both heaven and hell.

And there's more to come in this message. But the obvious question that needs to be asked is are you sure you're going to heaven? Are you sure that's where you'll spend eternity? Pastor Greg what would you say to the person who is just not sure? Maybe they're not sure that they've ever come to the Lord and asked him to be their Savior. Yes I think they need to make this commitment to Christ. Here's what the Bible says.

Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So you need to reach out to God. Not just think about it. Not just say one of these days I would like to. Just do it.

In fact you can do it right now. You say well how do I call out to the name of the Lord? You do it through prayer.

God is just a prayer away. He desires a relationship with you. He wants you to know him.

He wants to reveal himself to you. So you just need to call out and say Lord save me and help me. How about if I lead you in a prayer and you could pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. You can pray it quietly in your heart. But direct this prayer toward God and you could pray it after me right now.

You ready? Pray this after me. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior and I want a relationship with you. So as your word says I'm calling on the name of the Lord. I'm asking you to save me from my sin and I'm asking that we begin a new relationship today.

Thank you for loving me and sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and then raising him from the dead. I now put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Listen if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely let us be the first to welcome you into the family of God and we want to help you get started off right in this new daily walk with the Lord. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible. It's a special edition of God's Word for those who are new to the faith with scores of helps for new believers written by Pastor Greg.

So get in touch and ask for the New Believers Bible. We'll send it to you free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300.

Again that's 1-800-821-3300. Or write to us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.

Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online you'll find us at harvest.org and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now. That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call. Again at 1-800-821-3300. Well next time more insights on what awaits us in the hereafter from Pastor Greg's series, Hot Button Issues. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.