There is an argument that is used to defend the idea that once you have been born again, there is no way you will go to Hell. The reasoning goes something like this: Once you are born again you have become a child of God and there is no way for you to stop being a child of His. (The question is then asked.) Would you as a human being send your own child to Hell if they were rebellious? (The expected answer is: No.) (Next question.) If you then, who are nowhere near as loving as God, would not send your child to Hell, do you think that God, who is Love, would send one of His children to Hell? (Expected answer: No.) Funny how we like to use human reasoning to contradict what the Word of God teaches. Here is how the Bible says human parents should deal with a rebellious child who will not repent of their sin:
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
If God commands His people to judge their rebellious children, stoning them to death if they don’t repent. Why, then, do we think it strange that a holy God would judge His rebellious children who won’t repent by sending them to Hell? Does God hold His people to a higher standard than He Himself keeps?
Nowadays, if we have a child or brother or sister in the Lord who lives like the child above, we would call them a carnal Christian, and let them believe that without repentance, when they die, they will go to Heaven. Don’t we have a responsibility to God and to them to warn them of their true destiny if they do not repent of their carnality and sin?
“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul” (Ezekiel 33:7-9).
In the Book of Revelation, Jesus tells John to write and warn the saints in the seven churches to repent and overcome their sin and carnality before He returns for His church, so that they would not be left behind in the judgment that was coming. Most Christians I talk to believe that we are now living in the Last Days and that Christ’s return is imminent. If that is so, shouldn’t we be warning the sinning saints to repent?
In the example we just looked at in Deuteronomy, the parents chastened the one they loved, trying to get them to repent before they had to judge them to death. Our God does not want any of His children to be lost, which is why He is so patient, warning us and dealing with us to try to get us to repent. But He is a fair and just Judge and He will judge each one according to their deeds. 2 Peter 3:9 tells us, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
A large part of what the Lord has inspired me to write in the last section of this book seems to be directed to His prodigal children who He is reaching out to in His love and mercy, for He desires that none would perish, but that all would come to repentance.
Maybe you are one of those, who although you have not left the Father’s house, the church, yet, you have left your first love. You are living in sin and carnality. If so, He is calling you to repent and return home to Him; He is waiting for you with open arms!
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