Christians In Hell?
I recently read a book and also watched a show on (Christian TV) that talked about near death experiences. In both the book and TV show, they reported either seeing people in hell who were Christians. They were told that if they could not forgive then their Father in Heaven could not forgive them.
Q. After reading your website, I see that you believe in OSAS. However, I recently read a book and also watched a show on (Christian TV) that talked about near death experiences. In both the book and TV show, they reported either seeing people in hell who were Christians, or in the case of one gentleman who was a pastor from Africa, the angel who showed him heaven and hell told him that if the “book of his life were to be closed today, hell is where he would spend eternity”. In both cases the reasons given were because these Christians had refused to forgive relatives in their lives who had offended them. They were told that if they could not forgive then their Father in Heaven could not forgive them.
Is this possibly true? Please share any insight. This has really confused me.
A. Such scare tactics are becoming popular in the Church again, but have no Biblical support. Those who promote these things are either misinformed about the nature of God’s forgiveness or are trying to frighten believers into behaving better. The Bible admonishes us to forgive as we’re forgiven but doesn’t threaten us with Hell if we don’t. Such ideas render the Lord’s death insufficient to save us.
These people often use the Lord’s Prayer to support their views, overlooking the fact that only born again believers who are already forgiven can call God “Father” (John 1:12) The conditional nature of God’s forgiveness mentioned there has to do with our relationship with Him while we’re here on earth, not our eternal salvation. The parables of the Prodigal Son and the Unmerciful Servant explain this.
Jesus made it clear that our salvation depends only on believing that He paid the full price for all of our sins. (John 3:16, 6:28-29 and others) The New Testament contains numerous confirmations of this.
Giving more credibility to a man’s dream, or a TV network that in the opinion of many spews out as much heresy as truth, than we do to the actual words of God is a strategy sure to cause confusion. Especially in these last days we must become Bereans who search the Scriptures daily to see if the things we hear are really true.
