To Hell And Back

"If you dun believe in Jesus, you'd go to hell?"

I'm not sure how many of us have heard this 'evangelistic' phrase being used by Christians. But it sounds quite horrible, isn't it?

We may think it's theologically correct, but actually it's not quite accurate...
And it's absolutely bad communication.

Because our friends would wonder,
"Wah! How can God send people to hell just because they got ONE answer wrong in a theological quiz?"

By the way, I do believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to God but by Him.

But dun miss this... we are in danger of divine punishment because of our SINS.

The sick man who refused medicine dies because of his disease, not because of the offered medicine.

It is not Jesus... but SIN which separates us from God.

So here's how I do damage control.

No, God doesn't punish people because they don't believe the right stuffs.

But do u believe tat people who sinned oughta be punished?
Answer: Ya.

Have you sinned in your life?
Answer: Ya.

So have I. Now that is the bad news.
We have all sinned and deserve God's punishment.

But Jesus took our punishment on the cross as our substitute.

All we have to do now is turn away from sin and trust IN Him and follow Him.
That's the solution. (not just intellectual belief)

That's Good news.

He may not say the sinner's prayer right away.

But at least now the gospel makes some sense to him.
God punishes sinners, not bcos we get beliefs mixed up.

It is our sinfulness that cause people to end up in hell.
Christ is the solution but it requires our response.

This is the kind of stuffs I learnt from this training material from STR. Nothing fancy.

Just good ideas on how to be an ambassador for Christ.

If you think this would be useful in your CF, church or youth group, contact Dave at hedonese@yahoo.com