Wow. There’s a lot of heavy stuff to digest here. So let me break it down as best as I can and hopefully help you see things very differently than the atheist who created and published this meme.
1. As much as followers of Jesus of Nazareth may try, we can’t “save” anyone from spending eternity separated from the creator and master of time, space and the universe. Only God can do that, and thousands of years of history suggests that more often than not, He chooses to do that saving through very imperfect people like me.
2. God has absolutely ZERO desire to “torture” anyone, even people that you and I may think deserve to be tortured. One of men trained by Jesus to tell people about God describes God’s character like this: God is being patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. He wants everyone to change their ways and stop sinning.
In fact, God wants every person on this planet to be in Heaven with Him and Jesus, who many people believe is God’s Son. This can be infuriating to some people, because they want particularly nasty people to “burn in hell”.
I’m so thankful that God’s willingness to forgive everyone, for all the wrong things they’ve done and the right things they’ve failed to do, is so much broader than any forgiveness even the best of us humans can ever offer. (Here’s just one astonishing example of God’s unfathomable forgiveness: https://wp.me/p2wzRb-6K.)
3. Who puts who into hell? Consider the person who created this meme. He or she seems to have pretty good basic knowledge of Jesus. Not only has this person rejected every part of Him, he or she has gone out of their way to make that rejection public.
The only possible conclusion from this is they’ve decided they want to spend eternity separated from their creator. So God will grant that wish, even as He’s patiently hoping they’ll change their minds (see the quote above.)
4. After everything I’ve written, you shouldn’t be surprised to know that I can’t love, respect, worship or believe in the kind of god this atheist created, then rejected. So we’re absolutely in agreement on this.
I can confidently write that the creator of the universe has a gift for YOU. That gift is Jesus — His life and astonishing teachings, His horrible death on a Roman cross (to make up for the “sins” of everyone who believes in Him and follows Him) and His triumphant resurrection.
All you need to do is accept that gift, then watch as Jesus enters into your life and begins to change you for the better, all in preparation for spending eternity with Him. Interested? Yes or no, post your thoughts below and let’s have a conversation.
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