A common misunderstanding of the bible - Satan, Hell, Sin
Lately, I have been seeing posts from people who obviously haven't read the bible, only a range of media like tumblr and Facebook about Hell. Posts where people say things like "If Satan punishes bad people in hell, doesn't that make Satan a good person?" "If God loves every human, why does he send them to hell?" "What's the point of being a good person when you can just break all the laws, commit sins and then just ask for forgiveness at the end of the day?" etc etc. The people who write these posts, have more written in it and make it sound like they have it all figured out and I don't want to attack any of them but what I want to say is that, this is a very misunderstood concept and for anyone, the truth is in the bible.
God, honestly doesn't want to send anyone to hell and he wants us to have an amazing life and wants to give that to us but there is something in the way of that, and that is sin. Sin is the reason we became separated from God. We sinned against God in the beginning and we became separated from God. In order to understand, I will explain some very common and essential factors in the bible.
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Sin became like a wall between us and God and because of sin, we became children of the world ruled by Satan.
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Because God isn't our father, he can't truly help us, we are spiritually orphans and we wander around this world, spiritually lost. God made us humans in his image because God loved us so much.
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God is a spirit, we can't see him but like the air and gravity in this world, we can feel his presence. By creating us in his image, God gave us a spirit so that he may communicate with us. Animals and plants were also created by God but they do not have a spirit and they cannot communicate with God.
As spiritual orphans, we seek our spiritual father but Satan gets in the way of that and will, at any cost, stop us from meeting our Father but God still loved us so much, that he came down to Earth in the form of a human but with his spirit and performed many miracles and he was Jesus. God came down as a human so that he could suffer the way we humans suffered, faced temptation like we did, and ultimately faced death like we did. Not only did Jesus face all these things, he overcame them. He overcame death and crushed the work of Satan so that through his son Jesus, we may be free from sin and Satan's power.
Although, to be able to receive this freedom that is promised by God, we must sincerely accept Jesus in our heart and that is how we will achieve salvation.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
This is where one of the assumptions about Hell is misunderstood. God only has one criteria for entering Heaven and that is, life. Those who have life in them, have secured themselves a place in Heaven but how do we know if we have life in us? The answer is simple.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Therefore, once you sincerely and truthfully accept Jesus in your heart, you have not only been given a new life in Christ and forgiven of your sins but you become a citizen of Heaven which means you will have eternal life and what could be greater than that?
So does that mean, now I can sin and do anything I want since I'll go to Heaven anyway?
Well no, for quite a few reasons.
One reason I would like talk about is judgement. Being judged according to whether or not we have life in us, we call that the first judgement but after that, there is a second judgement.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
This says that we will all face this second judgement and it will be according to the deeds we commit in our life on Earth. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because as followers of Christ, we can receive our Heavenly rewards which are eternal, unlike the Earthly rewards. Committing good deeds, devoting your life to following Christ, evangelising and helping others to do the same, is a way of storing up eternal blessings in Heaven but be careful for this must be done with a heart of love and not a greedy heart seeking personal blessings.
Another reason is that God sent his only son down to die on our behalf so that we may be with him again. There is seriously no amount of money that could repay God for what he has done for us. He has given us eternal life and eternal joy. You can't put a price on that. Why do we still need sin in our life? Do we really need drugs, alcohol, and sexual immoral things to find happiness? What God has given us, is true happiness, the type of happiness that cannot be found in anything in this world.
God hates sins and just like our Father, so should we. God made us clean, not for us to get dirty again.
If your mom cleaned all the filthy stains out of your white clothes, you wouldn't put it back on and go roll around in the mud with the mentality that it's okay because she can just clean it again. You would be much more careful than the last time not to get any stains on it again and try really hard and if it happens again, you will come back to your mom with a sorry heart and apologise to her for it because you know she loves you and will clean it again but you don't want her to because she worked so hard the first time but that is only because you are her child and she can see that you have a good heart and didn't mean to do that to her. If you kept doing it on purpose, how would she feel? She would feel so hurt, tired and forsaken by her own child. What kind of child would want to do that to a loving parent?
Like this, we must treat God like our parent and honour Him and love Him for everything he has and will do for us. We're all humans, we not perfect, so it's okay if sometimes you slip and make a mistake. That's why he sent us Jesus. Jesus will be there for us, even when we make mistakes but when we make these mistakes, we should be aware of what we have done and come back to God with sincerity and repentance.
Satan is not a good person, he is the source of evil in this world.
You don't go to Hell for being a bad person, you go to Hell for not having life in you.
We shouldn't pursue sin after receiving salvation for many reasons.
These include, we will be judged again based on our deeds on Earth, both Good and bad.
There is no reason to continue pursuing that when we have something so much better that gives us much fuller joy and happiness.
And while we have all these amazing blessings given to us by our amazing God, shouldn't we be sharing the message of love God has given us so that everyone may receive God's blessings and live happily and more fully.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
