Apologetics: My View
Doing some research on capital punishment the other night, I had to choose whether I was for or against it. My conclusion was that I was for it, and my explanation was simply backed up by the fact that murderers don't deserve the life they have been given; and numbers 35:30. "Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer on the testimony of witnesses." The punishment for wrongdoing is our greatest fear. Just the same, the punishment for sin is our greatest fear. The Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness, a lake of fire, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal separation from the blessing of God, a prison, a place of torment where the worm doesn't turn or die. Most of us quake at the sound of this passage. Surely it is only to enhance the horrible place that hell is for eternity, but I can't imagine how this wouldn't be someone's greatest fear.
Skeptics and even Christians ask, why would such a God of love send anyone to hell? Why would he send someone eternally to such a place like this, least of all to his or her greatest fear? What we have to understand is that God is not just a God of love. God is also a God of justice and mercy, holiness and righteousness.
"God is a holy and just God. This refers to God's pure and righteous actions. God does what is right; he never does what is wrong. He always acts in a righteous manner because His nature is holy." (Pg. 49) "God is the ultimate standard of goodness, he is the source of goodness" (Pg. ), "altogether and consistently good. He doesn't know anything but good" (Pg. ), and cannot act under the influence of anything unjust or evil.
When God made man in his image, he gave him choice, reason, will, freedom, etc
God is sovereign and has given man the freedom to resist him. But since he is a just God, he must act according to what is deserved. "Aristotle defined justice as giving a person what is his or her due'" (Pg. )
Those who go...
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