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So I'm guilty. Now what?
On the Day of Judgment you're
going to be guilty of breaking the Ten Commandments. So what should
you do about it? Try and live a good life from now on? Believe it or not, this won't
do you any good. Even if you keep the Commandments from this point
on, do good works, always think pure thoughts and say the right
things, this still won't change the fact that you're guilty. No
amount of righteous living can erase the stain of your sins. Perhaps
you think that God is good and will overlook your sins and forgive
you as long as you confess them and are truly sorry with all of your
heart. You may think that God is your friend and will understand
why you've sinned against Him and simply pardon you because He
loves you.
Consider the following scenario:
A man has brutally murdered and
raped an innocent woman.The police have apprehended him
and established irrefutable evidence of his guilt. Before the judge passes
sentence, he asks the man if he has anything to say for himself. The man says: "Yes, your
Honor, I do. I just want to let you know that I confess my crime,
from the bottom of my heart I'm truly sorry for what I've done, and
I promise to never do it again. Besides, I've done many good deeds
and 99.9% of the time I wasn't murdering or raping anyone. Anyway, I know you're a good judge so I'd
like to ask you to just let me go free."
Would a good judge let a murderer go
free just because he says that he is sorry? Would the judge even take
into consideration the fact that the man had done many good deeds
throughout his life? No way! He's in debt to
justice and therefore must be punished. Whether or not the man has
led a good life or shows remorse for his crime is completely
irrelevant to his case. The judge's job is to determine whether or
not the man is guilty and execute punishment.
To the criminal's surprise, the judge's reply would probably sound something
like this: "You are right
about one thing; I am a good judge, and it's because of my goodness
that I am going to see that justice is done and you are punished
for your crimes." The same thing that you may be hoping will save
you
on Judgment Day, God's goodness, will be the very thing that will
condemn you. The reality is that God is so good, He MUST
punish all sin. Just as a good judge would never turn a blind eye to
injustice, God will never look the other way and let any sin go
unpunished. He is a righteous judge so by definition He must punish
all those who have broken His Law.
You can tell how seriously God takes sin by looking
at His punishment. Just as man has a place where criminals are sent
to be punished called "prison," God has His own prison called
"Hell." Since God Himself is eternal
and absolutely good (1 John 1:5), the nature of the punishment and
justice He administers is also eternal and absolute. Jesus describes
Hell as a place of outer darkness, unquenchable fire, and eternal
torments (Mark 9:43-8;
Matthew 18:8, 25:41). Is that somewhere you want to wind up?
In the Bible Jesus mentions Hell twice as much as he
mentions Heaven, demonstrating the reality of Hell and God's clear
warning of it to man.
Hell is a horrible place and the truth revealed in
the Scriptures is that
most people are going to wind up there after they die (Matthew
7:13-14). Here are a few verses from the Bible that describe some of
the types of people who will be condemned to eternally suffer in
Hell:
- But the fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
(Revelation 21:8)
-
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom
of God. (1 Corinthains 6:9-10)
Just think about it for a minute. If what God says in the Bible is
true, you are doomed to spend eternity in Hell for violating His
Commandments. Does that bother you? Maybe you say that it doesn't
but consider the words of Jesus:
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it
off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two
feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be
quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
(Mark 9:43-6).
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with
one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
(Matthew 18:9)
Jesus says that you should despise the value of your
hands, feet, and eyes in comparison to the value of your soul. In
other words, it would be better for you to go through life missing
parts of your body than to spend eternity in Hell! Don't be a fool,
Hell is real and there's no second chance after you die. You may not believe in
Hell right now but that's fine, you will once you get
there. Everyone in Hell is a believer, only its just too late.
To
learn more about how to avoid spending eternity in
Pease click the arrow:
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