Hi Chick,
You tell Savin, "You say Hell was not created for people but for Satan?"
Basically, I believe that is true -- for Lucifer/Satan rebelled against God before the Creation -- or, at least before Adam's fall. Therefore, Hades/Torment/Hell was initially meant for Satan and his fallen angels. However, when Adam disobeyed God and brought sin and death into the creation -- it became the eternal destination for all unrepentant sinners.
Did Satan's rebellion or Adam's fall surprise God? No. God cannot be surprised. God is omniscient and knows all things -- past, present, and future. So, when He designated hell for Satan -- yes, He knew that many unrepentant sinners would join Satan and his demonic angels.
You ask, "Will you agree that many people will go to Hell?"
Yes, billions are in Hades/Torment (Luke 16:19-31) now and will, one day, stand in judgment before Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment -- and then will go eternally into Hell, the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
Did God send them to Hell? No, they condemned themselves by continuing to deny God and refusing to follow Jesus Christ. A person has his whole life to believe and receive forgiveness and eternal life in Christ. We all have until that last breath to repent and turn to Him. However, the danger of this is that none of us know when that last breath will occur -- or, when it does, if we will have a chance to repent and be saved.
So, the best bet is to do it right now. Sincerely open your heart, invite Jesus Christ to come in and be your Lord and Savior (Revelation 3:20). Don't trust having time before that last breath. Get your reservations right now -- and you will not have to worry. Once you book that reservation (John 1:12) -- it cannot be canceled (John 6:47).
Next, you say, "We may disobey, but there's only one way I can get there and that's through God. If it was my choice to go there, I wouldn't go."
IT IS YOUR CHOICE! Right now -- you can make a decision to follow Jesus Christ -- to stop following the world. If you continue to follow the world and reject Jesus Christ -- you have made a choice. We ALL must make that choice: Jesus Christ or the world -- heaven or hell. There are no other choices. But, YOU HAVE to make the choice.
God will not make the choice for you and no one else can make that choice for you. Right now -- you have the opportunity to make a choice: Door A or Door B. Behind Door A stands Jesus Christ just waiting for you to open the door and invite Him in. Behind Door B stand eternal hell. Is that really a choice?
However, many folks will say, "I am NOT going to choose!" But, you are! By making that declaration, you HAVE made a choice -- but, you have made the wrong choice. Not choosing IS choosing -- for the default choice is hell. A person MUST personally choose to have eternal life with God. Your default choice is hell. But, either way -- YOU MADE THE CHOICE!
Then, you say, "You'll say it is my choice but I don't agree."
Whether you agree or not, whether you believe it or not, is irrelevant -- it is true. This is all clearly spelled out in the Bible.
Finally, you say, "There's going to be many people that honestly believe they're saved, but they will end up in Hell. Finding out too late, that they were doing it wrong."
That is true. Many people believe, or at least, will tell you they are Christian -- and they may believe it -- and, yet, not be a Christian believer. I did not become a Christian believer until I was fifty. However, for most of my life, if anyone asked if I was a Christian -- without hesitating, I would say, "Yes! I am a Christian!"[/b] But, I was so wrong.
What did I base this wrong assumption upon? When I was a teenager, I attended the First Baptist church in Sheffield and sometimes the Methodist. After joining the Air Force in 1955 and leaving Alabama, I attended many churches -- Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Reform (Garden Grove Community/Crystal Cathedral), non-denominational, etc. You name it, I found it during that next thirty years.
At age twenty, I was in the Air Force hospital in Texas and a friend and I started reading the New Testament. We decided we wanted to be baptized -- so we went to the hospital chaplain, who happened to be from a large Protestant denomination, and asked to be baptized. He did not ask us any questions, i.e, do we understand why we are being baptized? -- do we believe in Jesus Christ? -- do we attend services? -- nothing. We just went into his office, he sprinkled water on our heads and bid us goodbye. That was it -- an appointment in his office, water on my head, now go away. As you might imagine, that baptism did not take. It was a waste of good water.
During my years of searching, the main problem was that during all those years I found lots of churches -- but, I never found Jesus Christ. Not that He was lost; I was the one who was lost. If I had died during those years -- all that church attendance would have meant nothing, nil. I would have condemned myself to eternal hell because I had not made a deliberate choice to follow Jesus Christ.
I can recall an afternoon, about twenty-four years ago, when I sat with a friend, Don Mrla, and his pastor, Pastor Bien, and debated for several hours why I did not have to attend any church to be a Christian. I say debated -- actually, they let me talk and build my [i]"house built on the sand" case -- for they knew that in my frame of mind I would never have listened to them. At that point, because of my lack of Biblical knowledge, my misunderstanding about what it meant to be a Christian, and my determined "I am a Christian so don't bother me with church" attitude -- they realized that the only thing they could do was pray for me.
One excuse I might have had that time was my total ignorance of Biblical truth. Yes, I had attended churches all my life -- but, I did not even own a Bible. And, when I did try to read a Bible in my hotel rooms -- I could not make sense of it. I was spiritually blind.
But, through having a wife who prayed for me for ten years, and having friends who joined her -- and finally having God bring a truly Godly pastor, Pastor Sam, into my life -- I was saved and now I know that I have eternal life in Christ.
However, for all those years I wandered in and out of churches -- if I had died -- my fate would have been eternity in the Lake of Fire, Hell.
This is why I am so adamant, so persistent, about sharing the Gospel and the Word of God on the Religion Forum, in my Friends Ministry eNewsletters, and in every venue God will bring to me. I could have been eternally lost for lack of Biblical knowledge. I do not want to see anyone else in that perilous situation. So, if through my writings, even one person finds the truth and is saved -- praise God!
My fondest desire is that one day, when I am in heaven -- one person will come up to me and say, "Thank you. Your writing is what helped me know that I needed to make a choice to follow Jesus Christ." Can you imagine the joy that would bring?
Chick, don't do it because I suggest it. Do it for yourself. But, do seriously consider your spiritual state today -- and what it would be if you, for any reason, were to die or be killed -- where do you REALLY want to spend eternity? Consider that and then act upon your decision. I would sincerely love to meet you in heaven one day.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill