What if I Have Doubts? (continued)

The “What Abouts”

Short Answer Version

The "What Abouts" are the questions some people struggling with doubt would like answered before they make a decision to believe in Jesus.

When you don't know Jesus, many things about life just don't make sense. Sometimes people just feel like screaming "Why doesn't God do something about it?"

Symbolically speaking, when we take our dark glasses of unbelief off, we can start to see that God has already done more than we can imagine about it. Often, it is not an unanswerable question that we face, but an unhealed hurt or sense of anger that is our true hurdle.

It takes a while to catch up with the ramifications of all this. But each person needs to seek the answers most fit to their emotions and sensibilities. These are the source of their struggles.

Long Answer Version

We would all like to know why God allows evil, injustice, pain, injury, early death, and the sea of human suffering. I do not say any of these things lightly.

God made provision to take all the hard questions away. When we are riddled with riddles when looking at all the things that don't make sense, Jesus made a way. He provided tools for us to use, both before and after we believe in Jesus for salvation.

Not all the questions magically disappear when a person receives Jesus into their heart as Lord and Savior. However, those who previously mistrusted Jesus, start trusting Him as they open up to Him. The answers start with understanding the personal aspects of Jesus. They can see His love and faithfulness to them, that they can see unfolding in their lives.

Jesus heals them, comforts them, delivers them, provides for them, and rescues them. Do you want all your "What Abouts" gone? Then, decide now to follow Jesus. Watch how things get better. See God do many expressions of love to and through you. It will show how involved He is in making things better for you and the world.

Why do you think I can say these things? Because God has come through for me thousands of times to fix the things that were my "What About" issues. He fixed my emotional pain by His healing and transformation emotionally, spiritually, and personally.

He fixed my money problems by providing for me and my family every day of my life. He healed us physically on numerous occasions. We never ran out of abundance. However, we did spend too many years worrying about it. "As if" God would forget to supply our true needs and wants.

I could write about His answering the "What Abouts" in my life and those of my loved ones with story after story of personal blessings, all true.

Rarely was my life "perfect", but since I met Jesus, it has come very close on more occasions than I could have ever hoped for before I knew Him. I can look at the "large bank account" of memories in which God proved to me repeatedly that He was working on my behalf. When I do, my perspective is very bright about what He will continue to do.

None of the blessings have to do with the fact that I am me. It is all because He is He. Believe and hang on. It will all fall into place.

Questions like "Why does God allow" (fill in the blank) have bounced around in the minds of people since civilization began. "What About" questions are even asked in the Bible. Some of the writers ask things like "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" and "Why does God remain silent when the wicked man devours one more righteous than he?"

So far, nobody has come up with answers that fully satisfy the general populace. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there pain and suffering? Why is "man's inhumanity to man" so common?

One Sunday my wife and I along with a few others had lunch once with a famous radio personality who addressed this topic to us in a light-hearted way. I found it both profound and amusing. He said, “When I get to Heaven, I’m going to ask God the hard questions that begin with ‘Why’. I don’t know what His answer will be. But I know what my response to His answer will be. It will be ‘Oohh!’.”

What About All the Injustice in the World?

Regarding justice and injustice, let’s remember that it was God’s intention from the beginning that people would let Him be the highest judge. He knows how to undo injustice better than anyone. Because of that, we cannot look at even the most horrific injustice that happens on earth, and assume God is not doing something about it.

God created justice. If we can’t see what He is doing, it doesn’t mean He is doing nothing. Appearances can be misinterpreted.

When God said, “vengeance is mine, I will repay”, I think He meant “I, the Lord, will avenge injustice. It is not your job, and it is not your right to criticize how I do it or when I do it.” Like many things that God wants to do on earth, He can use people to carry out justice. If you are for justice and against injustice, then play your part by letting Him use you to do it.

Don’t think that God has refused to thoroughly obliterate injustice. He is doing it His way and His timing, which is much better than ours.

Jesus explained privately to his inner circle the parable of the wheat and tares (weeds) we read in Matthew 13:36-42. While telling them why the wicked go to Hell, He led with this. He said the angels gather “all things that offend” (sometimes translated “all stumbling blocks”), and cast them into the fire.

In my mind, one of the "things" that offend would include injustice itself. The injustice in the world both offends and is a stumbling block to those wanting to believe in Jesus.

Blaming God for injustice is sometimes a smokescreen. Most likely the injustices were caused by selfish humans disobeying God's repeated injuctions to practice justice.

It may seem like a handy come-back to blame God for allowing injustice, as if we humans have superior ethics and logic to stand in judgment over God.

In the end, God does not allow injustice at all. Humans are short-sighted, thinking about today and tomorrow. They often think that if they see bad things happen, that means God allowed it.

God has perfect vision. He operates in the big, long picture. When God said, "You shall not steal", it meant he was not allowing stealing. People still steal. But God is not allowing it.

Ironically, those who reject Jesus based on allowing injustice are doing injustice to themselves and to God. They are doing what God does not allow. They are also fabricating a lie about what it means for God to allow something.

I don't know why people think He is obligated to prevent injustice at every turn, rather than do so in His appointed time.

Some people have not yet heard that Isaiah attributed this statement to God: "For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done"

What About All the People Who Died Without Having the Chance to Hear the Good News about Believing in Jesus?

This question has come up dozens of times for me in conversations by people hesitant to believe in Jesus for their own salvation because they are not sure what happens to those who die without hearing the message of Jesus first.

In my opinion, it does not make sense for you to hesitate at the offer of salvation because some people might not have a chance to hear about it. You are having the chance right now!

This question about what happens to people who never hear the good news, is one that people ask as a rhetorical question, as if not knowing or understanding the answer proves there is no answer. That kind of logic fallacy and a similar one, called "begging the question" are well known for having no power to convince.

People think asking a question that is not easy to answer assumes that the inability of a person to rise to the challenge proves the question can't be answered. This method can be used as an underhanded tool to back the listener into a corner and make them feel as if they had lost, or at least to instill doubt in them. But it is only a question and can imply nothing. Such a question has no strength of argument, and no power to justify rejecting the love of Jesus and salvation. Many of the questions people ask thinking it justifies their right to reject Jesus are of this type.

Referring to Jesus, the Bible says things like “there is no other name given under heaven by which people must be saved.”

The word “name” in this passage should not be interpreted as meaning merely a specific word, spelling, pronunciation, or identification. This is because in the tradition of the Jewish culture, the word “name” stated in this way connoted the very essence of the person to which it referred.

The statement is about the person that we speak of in English as “Jesus”, the person Jesus, not just His word name. It is illogical that it would be a literal word name because there are so many spellings and pronunciations of Jesus around the world - the original probably being pronounced Yeshua in the time of Jesus.

Similarly, another passage commonly quoted was spoken by Jesus about Himself. “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no person comes to the Father but by me.” Both these verses speak of the exclusivity of Jesus as our Savior, not the exclusivity of certain people to be saved.

Jesus is the most inclusive person ever to exist. He loves and includes sinners in His ultimate solution to their sin, offered freely to them if they only believe.

The above passages are conveying that there is no other Savior. These passages neither say nor imply anything about people who did not hear the good news before they died.

People erroneously assume the passages imply something that they do not. There are other verses that might explain God’s intention for people who did not get a chance to hear about Jesus.

One passage indicates God designed the earth so the people could find Him who are outside the time frame or geography where they could hear the message. He created nature to be beautiful and fascinating so it would point people toward Him, prompting them to “feel after Him and find Him” as it is translated in Acts 17 of the New American Standard Version.

Who is the “Him” that they would find? The “Him” is Jesus. When anyone on earth “finds” Jesus, they find the Savior.

My point is not that the Bible says it is OK to avoid calling Him Jesus, but instead feel after Him and find Him on our own. Read the whole chapter of Acts 17 and this will be clear.

None of us fully knows the dynamics involved in identifying one person as saved and another as not saved. Only God knows, even among those who look, act, and talk like they are saved.

The same is true about people we assume are not saved. There is balance in the Bible saying "by their fruits you shall know them" and it also saying "judge not that you be not judged."

A person who behaves like a Christian, but does no good to others, shows no good fruit. You can notice that, but not judge their salvation by it.

I’d like to reiterate my point in a different way, ONLY GOD KNOWS WHO GETS INTO HEAVEN AND WHO DOESN’T.

We were told by Jesus not to judge each other. Because of that, what point is there to presuming who is saved and who isn’t? That is God's job.

Our job is to spread the good message, lead people to Jesus, and help them grow in their faith. If we do that, we can’t go wrong

There is a lot we don’t know. But there is one thing we should all know. That is how to give God “the benefit of the doubt”. This phrase means to trust that He has a good explanation for everything. It means that when we read scripture, we should be assuming God is to be praised, not criticized even when we see something we don’t understand or seems to rub us the wrong way. There is probably a good explanation in God’s mind. We should all know that God is just, right, true, and loving. We know He wills that no one would perish. We also know that people have the power not to follow God’s will, therefore some might not come to salvation. God, and only God, knows the final state of those who did not hear the good news before they died.

It would be unwise to presume we can usurp from Him the right to make determinations in that regard. This is particularly true if we appeal to our own lack of clarity as an excuse to reject the free gift of salvation. Give God the benefit of the doubt, and fully receive Jesus into your life as your personal Lord and Savior. You’ll be eternally grateful for your choice. In due time He will give you the clarity you now lack. Everyone can relate to feeling a strong pull within when we encounter something we can’t explain.

The strong desire to have our questions answered, should really be relinquished into God’s hands. When we do that, it actually frees us to grow in His image and become capable of understanding more. He answers our questions a bit at a time, as we are becoming mature enough to see the answers through His wisdom. A desire to have our questions answered should not become our reason for putting off believing in Jesus. It should be a positive force to get to know Him better.

What About the Issue of Pain?

C.S. Lewis did a good job of examining this issue in his book, "The Problem of Pain". He capsulized the skeptic's argument by saying, "If God were good, He would make His creatures perfectly happy, and if He were almighty He would be able to do what he wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore, God lacks either goodness, or power, or both."

Lewis cites the following Bible verse as the center of his answer: "the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18). Of course, that only applies to believers. As I like to say, "This lifetime, with all its potential pain, is only a split second compared to the rest of eternity". The answer to the problem of pain from a human perspective is therefore to believe in Jesus as your Savior. From that perspective we can reason that God is shortening the time of pain. Certain kinds of suffering can be seen as vital to His loving desire to prepare us to spend eternity with Him. Many scriptures attest to the value of suffering to mature and perfect us as God forms us into His likeness. At the same time, we can all see unexplainable pain that seems to have no relationship to our development into spiritual maturity. But we can't see behind the curtain where God is "working all things together for good" for us individually. It was by suffering that Jesus substituted Himself for us to earn our entry to Heaven, so we would never have to suffer again after this short lifetime. His pain and death on the cross were indeed the solution to suffering. Above, we talked about issues pertaining to Hell. I pointed out that God desires that no one should go there, a place that appears to be full of pain. I believe it was in the heart of Jesus to solve the problem of pain by dying to save people from that avoidable pain. Pain was created by God primarily for the purpose of keeping organisms, like you, me, and our animals, alive and healthy longer. Pain tells us to stop doing something that would cause even more pain or irreparable damage. We appreciate pain in the world when it takes the form of training for the Olympics, sports, body building, athletics, and boxing. We put ourselves through pain when we exercise, knowing that the soreness the next day is a good kind of pain. We all have an appreciation for pain in ourselves and others within certain boundaries.

We all understand the good reason for pain because it has helped us many times in our lives. What we find difficult to understand is when pain appears to go haywire from its primary intended purpose. It is that kind of pain we call an affliction. Many people consider an affliction a form of evil. Sometimes it is just that, and when it is, we need to ascertain who did the afflicting before we go blaming God. Sometimes people bring afflictions on themselves by their wrong decisions, their unhealthy lifestyles, or their daredevil behaviors. I used the word "daredevil" purposefully because it shows the underlying belief in our society that the devil wants to afflict people. Sometimes we dare him to do that, and he does. Sometimes he does it without being dared. He is an afflicter. He loves to see us in pain. I am saying this to whittle away the blame people place on God for afflicting pain. If we cannot trace the cause of someone's pain to an identifiable responsible party, we sometimes irrationally point to God as the afflicter. It is wiser to point our fingers at God's enemy, rather than God Himself. The Bible indicates satan to be the one who initiated much of the potential for human suffering in the world. It was contrary to God's will and nature. But because of the entry of sin into the world, a fall of humanity and a cursed world resulted, according to the book of Genesis. People might think I am pointing fingers away from God when "the buck stops" at Him. Let's keep unraveling the truly serious issue of why God allows painful affliction and we will find where the "buck" truly stops. A book in the Bible called the book of Job, presents a long story about a prominent man named Job who loved and served God. God was pleased with how upright he was, so He blessed him with success and a large loving family. Then satan bragged to God that he could get Job to renounce God. God gave him temporary permission yet required that Job must not die. From that point, Job endured the most horrendous suffering imaginable and never renounced God. Job never asked, "Why would a good God allow this pain?" Even though his "friends", who were really his accusers, kept taunting him, putting the blame on him, and trying to make him quit believing, he stood his ground. Job did not curse God as his accusers recommended. Instead he blessed God and kept an attitude of worship and praise to God. Readers of Job often miss this as the main point - Blessing, Worshipping, and Praising God. Eventually God spoke powerfully to Job. God's main point was that because He was more wise and powerful than any other being, He has the right to allow suffering or to remove it. God restored Job to health, happiness, and wealth - all far beyond any he had ever known. What did God do for Job's accusers? He did nothing. This story has a moral. Do you think that moral is that we should refuse to believe because we can't fathom the answer to why He allows pain? Obviously not; it is the opposite. We should choose to believe even in the direst of circumstances, in the most extreme pain, in the deepest loss. In fact, we should bless, praise, and worship God for who He is. The New Testament says we should thank God for all things and in all things. Of course, this is humanly impossible in the old nature. But with the new nature that God builds within us, we are more than conquerors. The Bible says, "weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning." The right attitude toward pain is not a "stiff upper lip", even though many consider it a good attitude toward the problem of pain. The right attitude is trust in God through the good times and bad, through pleasure and pain. Be with your pain when it is there. Weep over it or mourn the loss of a pain free body. Joy is coming. Nonbelievers also have role models for explaining how to overcome the problem of pain. A soldier who puts himself on the battlefield to serve and protect his country, endures pain for the sake of his mission. His attitude is stellar when wounded, and he puts the safety of others ahead of his own. A president who gets shot and survives to fulfill the rest of his term, or one who serves three terms, most of which from a wheelchair - these attitudes are addressing the problem of pain by the presidents to their countries. People are inspired to be heroic in their own lives. They do much good for the world with that attitude toward pain. In a movie preview, I saw a character telling another who was in pain, "Pain is your rocket fuel." I might not endorse the movie, but you can be a believer or a nonbeliever and face the problem of pain with an answer of attitude.

Even with the best attitude toward personal physical pain, it is a very good thing to devote action toward recovering from it. I recently sprained my ankle less than a week into a 15 day vacation. My wife and I were taking a road trip through beautiful Croatia. Even though I "soldiered through" the rest of the trip, with all its walking and climbing, I still babied the ankle when I walked using a walking stick. I put ice on my ankle to reduce the swelling. Now that I am home, I am staying off my ankle, alternating heat and ice, and performing my due dilligence to foster healing. I asked a friend known to be gifted in praying for miraculous healing, who kindly prayed for my ankle. I pray myself for healing each day as well. I give the credit to God for healing me. I am becoming pain free. I am trying to be an answer to my pain, with God's strength and power.

Be the answer to the problem of pain to those around you, and your attitude will convey God's compassion toward the pain of this world. You don't need any special training or credentials to do so. Just love, listen, pray for, help, and serve those in pain.

If you are an emergency room surgeon, realize that you are doing something to stop the pain in the world. You are either knowingly or unknowingly an instrument in God's hands to fulfill that very purpose. If you are a humanitarian worker, consider that you might be God's answer to the problem of pain.

If you simply feed the poor or help those in need, you are being God's answer to the problem of pain. Even when you comfort your child who hurt themselves, you are God's answer.

I applaud the many people used by God in this way, like scientists who developed safe pain relievers, physical therapists, psychological therapists, doctors, nurses, and veterinarians. I would be remiss if I didn't mention believers who pray for those sick or in pain and sometimes see God heal them.

In my opinion everyone still bears in their identity the fact that mankind was created in the image of God. When we love from the heart, we are expressing that image. When we believe for better things, we are mirroring God's image. On the other hand, if someone just wants to criticize God for doing things on His own terms and not theirs, they are likely part of the problem of pain, not its answer.

I read in a Psychology Today article that physical pain gets much worse when our minds create stress and worry about it. This school of thought is on the leading edge of tackling the problem of pain. I found the article at this link. The article is titled "Embracing Pain" and is worth reading when you get a chance. This kind of work is another example of God using people to fight the problem of pain in the world. People who were once heartless and are now in tune with the presence of Jesus find their hearts growing large and compassionate toward the plight of pain and suffering. That is why most non-governmental aid programs were begun by believers. Most hospitals were started by believers. My hat goes off to you, as well as to the red cross, the peace corps, habitat for humanity, and many other organizations not necessarily Christ-focused. I applaud governments who effectively send aid to hurting people all over the world. Whether they know it or not, they are doing the work of Jesus to be His solution to the problem of pain. Wouldn't it be ironic if someone refused to accept Jesus as Savior because of their indignances toward the problem of pain, when His entire mission was to solve it, and He did? I have heard it said, "Jesus loves you so much that if you were the only person on earth who needed a Savior, He would have died just for you." Jesus didn't die so we could have lives of suffering. He took our suffering on Himself, so we could have eternal life. After we part this life, and enter heaven, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, according to the Bible. It will be a life of joy inexpressible and full of glory.

After all the wisdom and profoundness written about the problem of pain, we must all admit pain can be unbearable. When it is happening, it cannot be soothed by the most eloquent words. If you are a person suffering great pain, such as I have been at various times of my life, know that pain is not a shameful thing. If you have received prayer for healing and it has not worked, it is not a reason to doubt God. The Bible does not promise that we will all be miraculously healed in this life. If we feel outraged about pain, that is not necessarily a sin. Pain and weeping may endure for the night. When joy comes in the morning, it can become easier to understand that the pain was never a valid reason to doubt God's goodness. When our minds turn to dark places, such as erroneously blaming God or even ourselves for the pain, that never helps solve the problem. It only exacerbates it, causing our own emotional pain. We need to remind ourselves that God is omniscient. He can see and feel all the pain happening throughout the world every second. Jesus felt the ultimate pain on the cross to set us free. God bears no resemblance to the character that bitter people envision He is. God is love. Let us "love not in word, but in deed and in truth", as the apostle John says. That is key to addressing the problem of pain.

What About the ''Contradictions'' in the Bible?

This excuse seems to be a perennial favorite: ''How can I believe the Bible, when there are so many contradictions?''

I have personally spent too much time trying to explain one-by-one why most of the scriptures people cite are not contradictions if they really understand the points being made in context to the rest of the Bible.

Throughout the Bible, we are told that God blesses people who love Him and live righteous lives. Since the Bible says that same thing hundreds of times in various ways, what scripture invalidates or contradicts that message? Even if you could find one, I would still choose to interpret the prevailing message as a teaching to follow God and pursue righteousness.

The same goes for the central issues about Jesus. He brought good news of eternal life to those who believe in Him. Show me a scripture in the New Testament that would contradict that fact. Where does it say He did not die for our sins or He did not resurrect?

We should focus on the main points. When we do, the arguments about scriptural contradictions looses their power.

But why do so many say there are a lot of contradictions? There is a story about the great comic actor of the 1900s W.C. Fields. When he was near death in the hospital, a younger friend visited Fields’ hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. When he asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, ''I’m looking for loopholes, my boy, loopholes.''

People who do not want to face change or give up their favorite sins might look for any loopholes or excuses to dismiss the central messages of scripture. These messages lead a person away from sin and death and toward righteousness and life in Jesus.

I have not been immune to pondering the passages that appear to many unbelievers to be contradictions in the Bible. Once a person is saved, and learns the good things about the Bible, and sees their immense value, that person can recognize and appreciate the pervasive divine truth in the Bible.

Things appearing to be contradictions are of minor significance in the whole picture.

In addition, many of these apparent contradictions have potentially reasonable explanations. They can be considered resolvable paradoxes, rather than mistakes.

I have probably said elsewhere in this site that we should focus on the central issues, not the peripheral issues. The issues less crucial to salvation, to the good news and God's greatness are peripheral. These minor issues cause the major divisions, arguments, and distractions away from the central truths.

In this section on Doubts, we will see many false conceptions offered by detractors of the Bible. One is that if they can prove that a contradiction in scripture exists, it breaks the ''rule'' that the Bible is infallible, and therefore all its concepts should crumble into invalidity. The Bible never actually calls itself infallible. Many centuries after it was written, Bible teachers determined to use the word in a list of descriptive qualities about the Bible. They did not realize that the word would be subject to other definitions and interpretations than theirs. They used other words, like ''inerrant'', which held similar dangers. But these words are not rules. They are descriptions. The popularity of ''infallible'' and ''inerrant'' became strong around the beginning of the 20th century. Descriptions made centuries after the Bible was written can themselves be open to fallibility and errancy.'

My opinion is that the Bible contains its own credentials, perceivable in its power to change hearts and lives for the better, bring miracles, and feed us spiritually. It does not need fallible labels or ''rules'' by humans. It always supercedes them. The Bible always points to God, who is to be worshipped. He alone is infallible. The Bible is to be appreciated, not worshipped. God is expressed in and through the Bible. Any infallibility shining through the Bible is simply the infallibility of God. It is not merely the literary coherence of its pages. At the same time, an insightful knowledge of the Bible indicates it has greater thematic unity, coherence, and value than any other book in history.

What About the Issue of Hell?

One thing is sure, God does not SEND people to Hell. He sends people to Heaven. He rescues people from the paths to Hell, and grants them entrance to Heaven.

He doesn't will that anyone would go to Hell, and He does more than anyone else to warn people and teach them to avoid Hell.

Here is a little story regarding Hell: I used to have a phone number that was one digit off from a number that was called by many people each day. I kept getting calls from people who misdialed that number.

I came up with the idea to record an outgoing message on my answering machine that presented the good message of Jesus to all the people who misdialed. In that message I stated that receiving Jesus as their Savior would mean they could go to Heaven and not Hell.

One time I was listening to the incoming messages, and I heard someone say to another person in the room as he was about to end the call, “Hey. This guy on the answering machine is telling me I’m going to Hell”. It totally shocked me that he took it that way. My entire motivation was to help him go to Heaven and avoid Hell.

We have faith in Jesus to receive all the good things that God offers. Faith in Jesus does not need to flow out of the desire to avoid Hell. Instead, focus on the kingdom of God and your bright future.

It is not a requirement for salvation that you believe Hell exists. However, if you want your "what about" questions concerning Hell answered, it would be good for you to know about the issue before taking a stance.

I can recite many doctrines, scriptures, and theological premises for why people end up in Hell - - But let’s face it. If there is a Hell, it is someplace you don’t want to go.

Think about this: How sad would it be for a person to reject the offer to go to heaven because he thinks it is unfair that there is a Hell, and by so doing sends himself there?

People end up in Hell for reasons you and I probably don’t yet perfectly understand, but we can try to understand more.

The concept that we think about as Hell started out meaning something totally different in the Old Testament.

When fire was mentioned as associated with Sheol, it was not what Jesus described as Hell. For example, Deuteronomy 32:22, referred to the place called "Sheol". The fire was God's anger against living people who forsook Him, neglected Him, were unfaithful to Him, and sacrificed to demons and strange gods.

Sheol is the word for the place where souls reside after death. It is used in varying ways. Many uses of Sheol were to describe how God rescued people from a cruel death.

When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the word "Sheol" was replaced by "Hades", which is why the New Testament uses that word and differentiates it from eternal punishment.

For example, neither Sheol nor Hades could possibly be the lake of fire in the book of Revelation. This is because they are differentiated from the lake of fire when it says death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire - Revelation 20:14.

It appears likely that the Lake of Fire is one of the New Testament's word pictures for what we currently think of as Hell.

Daniel 12:1-3 includes the phrase: "And multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel likened Sheol to people sleeping in the dust of the earth, but later becoming conscious and facing their place in eternity.

When thinking of Hell on a timeline, the above passages seem to put the role of Hell for containing people far into the future. The Bible doesn't specifically say Hell is where people go right when they die. It is where they go "after" they die physically. How long after, we do not know.

The word that eventually surfaced as “Hell” started around 1380 A.D. It first appeared as Helle in the Wycliffe translation. Search engines will tell you the word appeared around 300 years later than history records the Wycliffe Bible. Either way, Hell was not used as a word to mean Gehenna until 1380 to 1700 A.D.

It was certainly not used to describe the biblical word "Gehenna" prior to that as far as we know.

Words pronounced "hell" were first used in Norse mythology. The female named Hel presided over a realm of the underworld also named Hel. She was apparently mentioned in poems from the 800s and 1,000s A.D. Mythologically she was a daughter of Loki.

"Hel" as a place was similar to the Hebrew Sheol. The word Hel made its way into old languages of Norway, Germany, Holland, and England. One verb meaning was "to cover or hide".

The word Jesus used was was much different than Sheol or the Norse hel. “Gehenna” was a literal place well known in Israel at the time of Jesus where trash was burned, and the flames apparently stayed lit for that purpose.

Gehenna was associated with great disgust and shame by the Jewish people of the time. It means the valley of Hinnom. In this valley more than 1,300 years before the time of Jesus, Canaanites sacrificed their children in the fire to the god Moloch.

When I was in Israel last year my daughter picked my wife and me up from the airport in Tel Aviv and drove to her home in Jerusalem. On the way, she calmly pointed out the window toward what looked to me as a suburb, and calmly told me, “That area is the valley of Hinnom.”

In His preaching Jesus was using this infamous fiery place as a word picture. We all know the literal valley of Hinnom is not Hell. Jesus was trying to express something else, something equally real.

In other passages He used different word pictures, some including the concept of fire, others not.

Jesus spoke figuratively to help people get the idea of something real and truly abhorrent. But it was indescribable humanly speaking by anything but figures of speech.

The Bible has many figurative statements to describe real things that the human mind is too limited to grasp, by translating them into familiar word pictures.

The clear intention behind scriptures about Hell is that it is the place Jesus does not want us to end up in.

According to the clear teaching of the Bible, it is not God’s will that anybody goes to Hell. Therefore, if people go to Hell, it is against His will.

Jesus was more than forthright about Hell. But He didn’t say the things that many people think He said. And He didn’t mention Hell as many times as people might imagine.

Below is one of only four statements Jesus gave about Hell in scripture using the word “Gehenna”. When you look closely at each one, you will see they are all saying basically the same thing in the end.

There is a Bible passage in which Jesus says in a nutshell, don’t fear those who can kill your body. Instead fear Him who has power to cast into Hell (Luke 12:4-5). The intent is to give God awesome respect and understand His great power, justice, and wisdom.

It is logical to fear that He is capable of doing what an almighty and righteous God could obviously do. Hell is real, according to Jesus, the final authority on the subject.

Jesus does not wish for anyone to go to Hell and He wants us to know it in serious terms to protect and rescue us. Out of love, Jesus wants people to avoid Hell at all costs.

The second use of the word “Hell” by Jesus was in saying that it was better to cut off parts of the body that cause a person to sin than to be cast into Hell with the parts intact. Jesus sometimes liked to say things in shocking or absurdly metaphorical ways to stress His points. That was His style of speaking.

We all know that body parts do not cause us to sin. Our minds make that decision (our body parts might persuade our brains at times, but that is a different story).

What was Jesus’ intent? I think it was to get listeners to stop allowing thoughts that could influence people to sin their way into Hell.

Again, the motivation is that Jesus does not want anyone to go to Hell, so we should do whatever it takes to avoid it.

The third thing Jesus said specifically using the word “Gehenna”, was when He told specific Pharisees that they go to great lengths to convert people, but then make them twice the sons of Hell as themselves.

That was strong language, but the intent was that He did not want either those Pharisees or their converts to go to Hell.

The fourth statement Jesus made in scripture was the question He asked of certain Scribes and Pharisees: How can they who have murder in their hearts escape Hell?

As history implies, those Pharisees were the ones Jesus referred to as having murder in their hearts. Note that Jesus put this in the form of a probing question, not a doctrine.

A similar statement to this is when Jesus said that it is better for a person to have a millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea than to cause one person to stumble. Both these statements are to motivate listeners to go to heaven, and not to do things that would lead others away from it and toward Hell.

Jesus was emotionally charged to warn people He saw were on the path that led to Hell. He used intense language to shock them into repenting so they would not end up in Hell.

Jesus particularly pointed to arrogance, pride, judgmental attitudes, and ethnic or class discrimination as traps to avoid. He was telling the clueless people that there was danger in the path they were on.

Some people today misinterpret the many indictments Jesus proclaimed toward a group of people from the sect of the Pharisees. His heart toward those specific Pharisees was to prevent them from seeing Hell. He did not hold a grudge against them. He was not competing with them.

When He told them they were “sons of Hell” He was not retaliating for their unkindness to Him. He was trying to save their lives and the lives of those they influenced. It was out of love.

He knew something they didn’t know. They were sending themselves to Hell by their decisions to justify their own sin.

Something most people don’t “get”, is that Jesus and his whole family were most likely from the sect of the Pharisees. He was not criticizing the beliefs or teachings. He was criticizing the things He saw in the hearts of specific people - things that would be very dangerous to them and others.

On the cross, Jesus asked the Father to forgive the people who were among those responsible for His execution and not hold it to their account. It shows that, even then, His love was strong for the people who hurt and harassed Him during His ministry years.

He did not want to see them, or anyone else, punished. If you are wondering why I would say Jesus was probably raised a Pharisee it is this. It is likely that only three sects of Judaism existed at the time of Christ: The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. The Sadduccees did not believe in life after death. Jesus and his relatives did, according to the New Testament. So he was not a Sadducee. The Essenes lived communally mostly in and around the Dead Sea in New Testament times.

Jesus was well known in the synagogue at Nazareth, which was unlikely made up of Essenes. So he was not an Essene.

The Pharisees taught that people will keep living after physical death. His hearers were already familiar with the concept of Sheol because the Pharisees taught about it. John the Baptist used language similar to Jesus for Hell, in Matthew Chapter 3.

There are many other passages in the New Testament that people interpret as referring to Hell. For example, perhaps the most famous verse of the Bible, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only born son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Words, like “perish”, and “condemnation” are often associated with Hell by readers of the New Testament. But for John 3:16, people rarely notice that the statement goes on to explain that God sent His son, not to condemn, but to save.

John wrote that a state of condemnation was already present among people, and not by God's doing. Jesus came to deliver them from it. Obviously, that does not mean He takes any pleasure from it.

The point of the passage is “Then, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” If we can get our minds onto that message, and picture ourselves in Heaven shining forth, we can avoid getting hung up on the statements about Hell.

Jesus is the Savior who saves people from going to Hell, not the instigator of sending them to Hell. Believers shall NOT perish but shall experience everlasting life.

One term people associate with Hell in scripture is the “lake of fire”. The Bible says it was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels.

Is it possible that those evil characters, rather than God, are responsible for deceiving and sending people to Hell?

If you have an adamant desire to reject salvation based on the issue of Hell, is it possible that you are one of those people being deceived?

Ezekiel wrote, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.

What about the wicked, will Jesus ever send them to Hell? I would say “Yes by a technicality”. The reason is that they already lived a life devoid of Jesus by their decisions.

One scripture passage says all judgment has been put in the hands of Jesus. Another tells us in a parable that He will send out His angels to gather the wicked and cast them into the furnace of fire.

Because of these statements, we must conclude that Jesus follows through in sending the wicked to their doom.

The point of the latter passage is “Then, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” If we can get our minds onto that message, and picture ourselves in Heaven shining forth, we can avoid getting hung up on the statements about Hell.

The separation of the wicked from the righteous is a two-sided coin. The wicked will be removed and the righteous will shine in Heaven.

You might ask, “Will I be among the wicked or the righteous? The answer is that if you have faith in Jesus as your Savior, that faith makes you righteous in God’s eyes.

When Jesus substituted Himself for you on the cross, He not only took on your unrighteousness, but also substituted His righteousness onto you, so you would be counted among the righteous people who will shine like the sun on the day depicted in Jesus’ parable.

It is clear that the wicked go into the “fiery furnace”, which is a word picture, not a literal furnace. Hitler goes into the fire. Jozef Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin Dada, Leopold II, Mao Dze Dong and others responsible for mass genocide go into the furnace.

Most people would probably not fault God for putting into Hell these people obviously deserving it. Many other wicked people will be thrown in, which is not hard to understand.

Sometimes the real objection people hold about Hell is “how can God do something that I don’t like and that I can’t figure out?” That question itself displays an attitude that Jesus was particularly concerned could send people to Hell.

It is arrogance and self-exaltation. God does not report to, or answer to, any of us. We all ultimately answer to Him. None of us has the credentials, intelligence, or track record to judge Him.

We all need a wake-up call from time to time. We all need to be told the truth in love. Some of us have lost dear ones who, to our knowledge, did not believe in Jesus as their Savior. That is not a good reason to reject the idea of Hell. My own father died without any outward indication He believed in Jesus. It pains me to think of Him going to Hell. But it does not hinder me from following Jesus on my way to Heaven.

We, in our individualism, will not be able to stop God from doing what He, in His infinite wisdom, feels is best. And there is no reason to assume a wrongful intent on His part, ever.

God made right and wrong, good and bad. God does not owe us an explanation that will fit in our human brains. But that doesn’t bother me because Jesus is my salvation. That does fit in my brain.

After all the statements Jesus made indicating He does not want people to go to Hell, there is one question some skeptics still ask. That is, “If Jesus doesn’t want people to go to Hell, then why does He allow them to do so?”

That question is asked out of a wrong assumption. They assume that since God is all powerful and does not want anyone to go to Hell, He is obligated to send everyone to Heaven and keep them all out of Hell. That has some sense of human logic to it. But my answer is that because He IS all powerful, He can do whatever He determines is best for His eternal kingdom, including to deny certain people the right to enter it.

Few of us would reject our society as being real or loving because they don’t let all the hardened criminals out of prison. It is illogical to criticize God for similar sound judgment.

Peter emphasized God’s patient love and His desire that no one would perish but that all would come to repentance. Search the scriptures yourself. Read all about it. Then make your own decision. Those writers were far more authoritative than me on the subject. They were the messengers.

True love hopes the best for others. It wishes that people would listen, believe, and make it to Heaven. When a believer tells a nonbeliever about Jesus, it is an act of love, not a statement that the nonbeliever is going to Hell.

The heart of the message is like "a hurricane is coming, so here is how to avoid disaster". It is not "you're going to be destroyed by a hurricane." When people react negatively to the good news of how to rescued by Jesus, the phrase "don't shoot the messenger" applies.

What About Hypocrisy and Evil Deeds Among Christians?

Let's talk about hypocrisy first. I say this kindly: hypocrisy has always been a rampant non-virtue in many parts of the earth. Those who accuse Christians of hypocrisy need to be aware that the only person in history immune from all kinds of hypocrisy was Jesus.

Why is our culture so quick to use the word "hypocrit" as a flaming accusation against those practicing it, but only when they are Christians? I suspect it is because Jesus was so outspoken and prolific in accusing certain groups of religious people of hypocrisy.

Jesus was so vehement, it would sound to our generation, as if He thought hypocrisy was an uncommon thing. But, His reason ran very deep in the culture's history. Countless times the same attitudes brought Israel into ruin.

Jesus could see it all coming. He prophesied as much, predicting that the Jerusalem temple would be so ravaged that one stone would not lay upon another. Thirty-six years later, in 70 AD, the Romans attacked the land and destroyed the temple.

When Jesus accused the leaders of hypocrisy, He was speaking the words of Almighty God, who had spent 4,000 years bearing with the sin and hypocrisy among generations of people. He had called them to be a holy and chosen people who follow truth.

It is logical to understand why Jesus was so adamant, when you understand His primary mission and heart was toward the people of Israel. The hypocritical religious leaders and their adherents had turned away from their purpose. It was to lead people into loving prudent relationships with God and others. Jesus was trying to turn people back to God by calling out their hypocrisy, and showing their spiritual blindness. We would have no excuse for accusations of hypocrisy in this manner, when we are actually practicing hypocrisy.

When it comes to all the perceived sin in Christians, and especially among their fallen leaders. Nobody could argue that the sin does not exist in people. However, this is no reason to oppose the offer of salvation. To do so is a case of this old saying: "throwing out the baby with the bath water". Yes, there is dirt in the bathtub of Christianity. But the purpose of the bath is to clean the dirt away. God is busy doing that all over the world, every day. That is why Jesus died on the cross - not only to forgive sins, but to provide power to combat sin miraculously and supernaturally in the lives of those who turn from it and turn to Him.

We should not expect Christians to have no sin in their lives. That doesn't mean we condone sin, especially in ourselves. If a non-Christian is livid about all the sin in Christians, they should turn their focus on all the sin in themselves that needs to be cleansed and removed. As Jesus said, "He that is without sin, cast the first stone".

What is the right attitude to take toward all the child molesting priests, the TV evangelists trying to get rich, those who blatantly practice infidelity, the church leaders who mismanage money, the murderers who kill in the name of Christ, and the committers of all the other sins perpetrated in Jesus' name? Is it to turn the other cheek? Maybe. Jesus did not appear to be turning the other cheek when He blasted the leaders of His culture. But we must see the bigger picture. Jesus did not sin in the process. He took vocal action. It was not out of His own anger, but out of compassion for the people in Israel who had been led away from the truth. To people who get angrily easily, that looks like Jesus getting angry and wanting to pick a fight. But nothing could be further from the truth. If any person ever had the right to point out the hypcrisy and sin of the corrupt leaders, it was the Jesus, the second person of the Trinity. He had stood on a mountain overlooking Jerusalem and wept for them because He knew what was coming.

Jesus did turn the other cheek when later the same leaders beat, whipped, and crucified Him. He even had compassion on them when He spoke during His torturous punishment, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

The hypocrits in the church today "know not what they do". Neither do the vocal detractors who turn people away from Jesus on the basis of sin among His followers. Those who condemn Christianity for it's members' hypocrisy are blind to their own sin in doing so.

Jesus taught humility in love. That should be our right attitude. It is the correct answer to the heartbreaking sins we see in too many Christians. It is also the right answer to the sins we see in ourselves when our blindness is removed.