Yes and No.
While (according to Scripture) it is true that
God can and will "send" people to Hell, He
doesn't want to, and derives NO PLEASURE from doing so. However, because
this is His Universe, and His Earth, and because He is our Creator, and
because He is a Righteous God with Integrity, He will
not allow me or you, or anyone else to push Him around, or spit in His face, nor to
tell Him what He MUST do. In other
words He doesn't OWE ANYONE the gift of ETERNAL LIFE.
Nor will He surrender His righteousness in order
to become a hypocrite and allow even ONE rebellious, selfish, or evil person
(who refuses to repent, and change his or her ways, in this lifetime) into His Kingdom.
In
other words God WILL NOT allow anyone who refuses (in this life) to acknowledge Who He Is, and
His Rightful authority over their lives into His eternal Kingdom.
In other words, our life on earth is (or will be) a "Trial" to see whether or not
we are:
1) Qualified to receive the gift of Eternal Life, and
2) Whether we
receive any rewards beyond that.
Like it or not, God is recording everything we say
and do, and will be able to "play" it back to us right before our
eyes, in order to show us to our faces what we deserve from Him on the day of
our Judgment. For those who don't believe this I suggest that you read the
following verses for yourself. Prov.
15:3; Jer.
16:17; Col.
3:5-6; II Thes. 1:4-9; Heb.
4:13; Rev. 20:11-15.
It also means that we will be Judged and either justified or
condemned, not by God the Father, but by His Son, Jesus Christ --
the One who became a man, and ALLOWED
Himself (John
10:17-18;
18:1-11)
to be stripped Naked, Spit upon, repeatedly Hit and Beaten, Mocked
by evil men, and finally
nailed to a cross (where He hung until death): all so that God could forgive our
sins with a Clear Conscience (Isaiah 52:8 -- 53:12; 2
Cor. 5:14-21; Eph.
1:7). However God has told us that He will only
give this gift to those who put their trust in Him and who acknowledge their
need of Him and His assistance in their lives and who "call upon His Son" for forgiveness (Rom.
10:13).
But all of those who thumb their noses, or shake their fists
at the Creator, or simply ignore Him (and live only for themselves and their
own pleasure) -- will be judged and very likely condemned. For this is what we are told
in Scripture, by none other than Christ Himself (Matthew
7:21-23). In other words, those who
end up in Hell, will be there because that is the path they, themselves, chose
to follow -- either because of their Pride and Fear of what their "Friends"
might think of them if they were to embrace the truth, or because of their Hatred of God and His Son,
or because they simply Loved having FUN, and playing Games more than they Loved
God, and therefore they ignored Him and those He sent their way
to try to Alert them to the dangerous path they were on.
And those who think that God should, or would, force
Himself and His Kingdom upon them don't know Him or how He operates very
well. For instead of forcing Himself into our lives, He simply
"knocks" at the door of our hearts (Rev.
3:20), and patiently waits for us to
open it (i.e. turn our hearts and the keys of our life over to Him and His Son)
by being willing to seek Him, and Obey Him and to turn from our own sinful ways (John
3:36; 6:37;
14:23-24).
In other words, those who end up going to this terrible
place, will do so because they gave God NO OTHER OPTION but to condemn them, due to
their OWN ACTIONS or INACTION, and because they REJECTED the Life-Rope that He offered
them (via a personal
relationship with Him -- through His Son, Jesus). Matthew 7:21-23
John
14:6, 23-24; 17:1-3;
I Peter 1:21
This Life is VERY brief compared to eternity;
however, it is in This Life
where WE CHOOSE our eternal destiny
whether we like it or not. II
Corinthians 6:2;
John
8:24; Luke 13:1-5.
The Bottom Line is that God has made it VERY clear that He exists and that He
went to GREAT LENGTHS to offer us forgiveness and the gift of Eternal Life (i.e.
immortality); In fact it is simply a matter of OUR OWN WILL.
If we are simply willing to acknowledge Who He is, and what He did for us
by sending His Son to die in our place on the cross, and (literally) ask Him to rescue us from our sins and their
penalty,
(Rom.
10:13)
He will do so, and give us His invisible (yet ever-present) Holy Spirit as a
down payment / pledge on our lives (Eph.
1:13-14), and begin to guide and direct us as He sees
fit (Col.
3:15; John 14:16-28); However, if we refuse to allow Him to
be who He IS, and to save us and be our Lord, then we will be on our own on the day of our
Judgment. John
8:24; Luke
13:1-5
Once we do invite Him into our lives we become
members of His Kingdom, and become brothers and sisters in Christ, and He
will begin to work in our lives to make us more and more like Himself (into the kind of people
He wants us to be) -- even if it means that we suffer in various different
ways (i.e.
Prov. 16:1; 16:9; Ps.
135:5-6; Hebrews 12:5-11)
for our own good,
and/or until we make Him our #1, and
ourselves and others #2 or #3 (Mark 12:28-31). And when we die, He will be there with us to take us into His
presence: for death is NOT the end for ANY who
Know and Obey the Lord. Psalm
34:22; John
10:14-26; John 11:25-26;
John 12:26;
I John 2:25.
But because God is Loving, He will nor force Himself
upon us or into our lives, but rather will simply knock on the "door" of our
Hearts (Rev.
3:20). But if we refuse to listen and continue going our own way, He will eventually go away and allow us to do our own
thing.
Or He may (perhaps) bring distress and/or catastrophic
illness, etc. in to our lives in order to get our attention; however He will not
"barge in" and demand that we serve and worship (i.e. hold in high
esteem as our #1) and follow Him, but rather BECAUSE HE IS LOVING, He
will wait for us to ask Him for His help -- as it is
impossible for us to make ourselves immortal.
But MAKE NO MISTAKE: God WILL NOT compromise His integrity, nor give His greatest Gift to those who refuse to acknowledge who He is and what He
did for them by sending His own Son to die a humiliating death on the Cross for
the sins of mankind (including theirs), and who refuse to SUBMIT THEIR LIVES to His authority
(by acknowledging and Obeying Him -- John
3:36), nor to those who insist on being their own god and doing their own
thing, and/or on worshipping or putting their trust in a false (i.e. manmade)
god or false "religion" -- of which there are MANY. This also doesn't mean that we will henceforth live sinless lives, but it does mean that, as
time goes by, we will sin less and less, as we grow in our relationship with
God. I John 1:6-10.
I guess what I am saying is "Don't
Challenge the Judge," and especially not the
One who shed His Blood in order to pay for Your Sins, and who knows everything
there is, or ever was, about you -- including your own motives. On a
side-note, I have also been told that this is also not a good idea to do with
earthly Judges either, and that those who do, end up getting hurt.
However, in some cases, it may be necessary: as in the case of unjust
Judges who treat their "subjects" as if they were dogs. Some are
also just plain ignorant because the Mass Media is corrupt and steadfastly
determined NOT to report the facts, nor even allow them to be debated in
public. Others are deceived by people in the system who are
supposed to tell the truth, but don't always do so (often for selfish, or
malicious reasons). But this is not the
case with Jesus: for not only is He just, but He also knows everything there
ever was to know about us. And I am convinced that He
will be able to literally "pull up" anything that ever happened to
us, or that we said or did, and show us to our faces exactly what we deserve
from Him.
For more in this see: Psalm
34:22; 89:11; 90:8,11;
Proverbs 15:3; Matthew
7:13, 21-23;
Luke
13:1-5; John 3:14-18; 5:22-23;
6:37; 11:25-26;
14:23-24; 17:3;
Romans 10:13;
2 Cor.
5:10; Hebrews
9:27; 2
Peter
3:9; I John 2:25;
Rev.
3:20.
See also:
Is
Everyone a Child of God?
Why
Jesus had to go to the Cross
What
about those who never Heard?
How Could A Loving God Send Anyone To
Hell?
How Could a Loving God Send Someone to Eternal
Hell?
How Could A Loving God Let Something Like This Happen?
Is
Water Baptism for Salvation or because of it?
How
to Know God -- Personally
Life's
Most Basic Questions
Why I Became A
Christian
Who
was Jesus Anyway
How
to get Saved