30 Sep Does God Force People to Hell
God gets accused of many things. One of them is the idea that he forces people to either do what he wants, OR he sends them to Hell as punishment for not obeying.
It’s not a fair accusation, and comes when people don’t understand what is actually happening.
In the 1971 movie Million Dollar Duck the little boy mistakenly thinks his father is going to take his pet duck away from him, and runs away. Trying to get away from his dad, he crosses a ladder between two buildings. It is about a six storey drop to the ground below, and falling would mean certain death. The dad however loves this boy and wants to save him, but it requires the boy to trust his Dad and reach out his hand. In the movie, he does so in the nick of time before the ladder breaks.
Could we say, ‘the Dad is forcing the son to fall to his death unless he does what the Dad wants.’
Or could we say that the Dad doesn’t want the son to die, and is doing everything he can to save the son, but he needs the son to trust him.
That’s more like it.
It’s obvious in the movie that this is the case, but in real life its not as simple to see it for many people. For them they equate Jesus with religion, and with rules, and with the loss of freedom. It feels to them as if God wants to force them into a legalistic way of life, and would punish them if they don’t comply.
Along with that is the feeling that if God is so almighty and powerful, he wouldn’t have to punish anyone, and that Hell as an idea is something God has full control over and thus if anyone is in Hell is it entirely because of God.
In the movie, the Dad had no control over the ladder, or the situation, except to try to save. But many people feel like God does have control over all the circumstances and therefor he is fully to blame.
That too is not a fair accusation, and here is why.
JESUS
Jesus is the visual of God. We understand God by coming to understand Jesus, and in seeing and learning who Jesus is, we learn who God is and what God is like.
If Jesus came to earth, and personally went through suffering, pain, torment, rejection, and ultimately went through a humiliating public and naked execution (ie dying by crucifixion) we must ask why. Why did God have to send Jesus to do that? It wouldn’t make sense unless there was a need for it? Why did God go to such great lengths?
The answer is that we don’t understand everything that is going on, but like the boy in the Million Dollar Duck movie, our father in Heaven is reaching out a hand to us and calling us saying “trust me.”
If the boy had fallen to his death in the movie it would have been a very great and preventable tragedy. And if anyone does end up in Hell, it too is a terrible and preventable tragedy.
‘For God so loved the world, he sent his only son, that whoever trusts in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3:16
Image Used with Permission: Copyright MCMLXX Walt Disney Productions.
No Comments