How Could God Send People to Heaven?

This question is asked so frequently by people that choose not to "believe in God," except they get it backwards.  They ask "How could a loving God send people to hell?" They have it all wrong.

This issue has jumped to the forefront of the church's mind recently with the publication and subsequent firestorm caused by the book written by Rob Bell, "Love Wins."  This post, however, is not a refutation of that book, it is simply addressing the question raised by that book. "How could God..."

"How could God..." create a race of people with free will knowing that they would turn their back on HIM, their CREATOR?  How could he stand that idea when he created us, so lovingly, to walk through this crazy world in a beautiful dependency on Him? How could he... knowing that we would mess up this world so much--create so much pain for ourselves and blame Him?!?

"How could God..." fix the problem that we created ourselves through our own foolishness and evil desires? How could he pay the price to fix that problem?  How could He be willing to send a part of himself, His only son to this earth to die for us? To be tortured in the worst way four thousand years of experimentation could invent?   How could he choose to let HIS SON be punished for our sin? To take our place?  How could God love us so inexplicably and completely that He would rather die than live without us?!?

"How could God..." send those same people who caused Jesus to die on the cross to spend an eternity with Him? How could he reward those people?  How could God send people to Heaven when it cost so much? How could God choose the world over His Son? 


"How could God..." be happy about this? How could God, plan this from the before He made the world and desire it to happen? After describing in painful detail much of what Jesus would go through the prophet Isaiah says this in Isaiah 53:10-11:


"But the LORD was pleased 
To crush Him, putting Him to grief; 
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, 
He will see His offspring, 
He will prolong His days, 
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 

As a result of the anguish of His soul, 
He will see it and be satisfied; 
By His knowledge the Righteous One, 
My Servant, will justify the many, 
As He will bear their iniquities"

"How could we..." ever doubt God's love?!?  How could we ever think for one second that God hasn't done everything in His power to keep us out of hell? It has been said, and rightly so, that in order to go to hell we have to step over God's dead body! 

We have such an arrogant, presuming attitude about this question in the Church today! How do you think God feels when we look up to Heaven and shake our fist at God for sending people to Hell?  God looks down at us with tears in his eyes and reminds us of the pain he suffered, of the agony he bore so we wouldn't have to go there! Yet we rejected His sacrifice!  I dare you, no double dog dare you, to ask that question on the day of judgment, because I believe that God's anger will be aroused even as his sadness fades when he turns to us and asks us how we could have so selfishly rejected the death of His only Son so we could live like animals here on earth, satisfying our own lusts like unthinking beasts. The tears will run and He will say, "HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY LOVE!!!"  Look at the scars in my hands and my wrists! Look and the blood and tears that I shed!!! Look at the torment when your sin separated what had never before been separated, the Holy Trinity! When your sin caused the Father to abandon his Son! 

So this last question I pose...

"How can we..." escape if we neglect so great a salvation. -Hebrews 2:3

"Save yourself"

Luke 23:35: "The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." 


The world didn't understand then, and still has a hard time understanding love. They can't get how someone could epitomize true, unselfish love in such a real way. What the people then didn't understand was that Jesus didn't come to earth to save himself, he came to earth to save us!

I want to love like that! To show a love so dramatic, so real, so unselfish that the world looks at me like I am crazy! A love so unexpected that they think I can't be for real. A love that changes the world.

The cool about this, the thing that gives us hope, is that some people will get it! No one will be unaffected. Even the vilest criminal is changed by this love! The cross is a punishment so severe, that it is reserved for the most heinous of criminals. Listen to what one of those criminals said. In the midst of all the agony he recognized this love, and was changed!

"One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: 'Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other criminal rebuked him. 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, 'Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'"


This is the love that the world doesn't understand, but that changes the hearts of those who are willing to open them! This is the love that has changed me and the whole world! This is the love that changed a hardened, terrible criminal, hanging on a cross, dieing a death and receiving a punishment he deserved!

You hold me now. (Even in Japan)

Usually when I hear of catastrophes I tend to remain relatively unaffected. I wish it didn't happen, but it just never really affects me that much. Usually the media overplays it, and I get tired of hearing about it. That's how I usually feel about earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis.

I love Yahoo. I particularly like their stories that they have on their home page. I love browsing those and reading them, so when I saw a link for pictures of the destruction that happened in Japan, I clicked on it. At first I was mildly intrigued. Pretty crazy stuff! Wow. Should have bought American SUV's and trucks, huh? Those little Japanese cars just didn't cut it when the tsunami and earthquake hit.  My perspective totally changed when I saw the pictures that you will see below the first two. I couldn't help it, I just started to cry. Can you imagine what those people are going through right now?

It hit me then. It hit me how selfish I am. How easy it is for me to live in my comfortable life and not think to far beyond my self or those immediately surrounding me.  "Glad it happened there and not here," I caught myself thinking.

As I was looking in a new-found fascination at the pictures of peoples lives being destroyed. I begin to think about how I would feel that was my next door neighbor, or my sister, or my mother.

I was listening to my music on my phone on shuffle. At that moment, the song, "You Hold Me Now," came on. I pray for those hundreds of thousands of God's children that had their lives completely altered by this catastrophe that they will find hope in this tragedy and that the God who made them and loves them so much will hold them in His arms and that they will turn to Him!

If you are like me, remember to care. Remember to pray. Remember to care beyond yourself a little. Let it all sink in. And when the bottom falls out of your life like it fell out of theirs, remember that we have a God who is there for us through everything and a hope for a life that will be free of all the pain of this world.

Dear God, can you help me?

I have recently been struck by the amazing power and supremacy of God--His holiness and awesome power! The more I think about how incredible He is, the more I am in awe of Him! The problem is that you and I forget! We read His word, sing songs to Him, even talk to Him, but how big is our God? I think that, at least for me, out prayers reflect our understanding, not knowledge but our real grasp, of His power and majesty. 


When the Creator-God revealed Himself as the Redeemer-God through the incarnation of Jesus, some people didn't get it. Remember the story of the demon-possessed boy? Well basically Jesus had just got back from the mount of transfiguration and when He returns to His disciples He sees this big crowd standing around His disciples and they are arguing with the scribes. So He asks what is going on and the father of the demon possessed boy relates how he had come to the disciples, probably to find Jesus, and begs them to cast out the demon. The disciples couldn't, and so this argument arose.


Here's what's interesting here, "And He *answered them and *said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!" 
They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 
And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. "It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"
And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."
Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." 
(Mar 9:19-24)


Have you ever prayed that prayer? I know I have. Of course I haven't said the words, "if you can," but I have definitely doubted God's power. Not because I don't believe in God, but because I have let this world and it's problems and stresses shrink God in my mind.

Jesus must have wanted to yell out at this crowd, "Are you serious? CAN I? Of course I can! Haven't you seen what I've done? Weren't you there when I healed the leper? Weren't you there when I calmed the sea? Weren't you there when I raised Lazarus? Weren't you there when I fed the five thousand? I AM!" 


I think that God looks down on me sometimes and just shakes His head. "Weren't you there when I got you that job when you needed it the most? Weren't you there when you didn't know how you were going to pay the bills, but I provided. Weren't you there when I provided the relationship that you've always wanted? Weren't you there when I saved you and redeemed you? Of course I can take care of you! Of course I can make your budget work out! Of course I can provide her with a job! Of course I can take care of your future! I am God! I am the One who made Heaven and Earth! I spoke and those fluffy clouds came into existence; I spoke and those trees sprouted; I spoke and those massive stars popped out! I breathed into you the breath life! Why do you doubt me, the One who knows you so intimately and loves you so completely?"  


Who am I to doubt his power in my life? Doubt His redeeming power? Doubt His Divine forgiveness? Doubt His transcendent purpose for my life? To doubt that He will accomplish what He wills? I am not worthy of such Divine attention, but I am eternally grateful that the One who made the Heavens and Earth would care for me so intimately and bless me so incredibly!

Punishment of Sin: Why did it have to be Jesus?

We all know that, because of God's very nature, sin had to be punished. God's holiness and justice demands it. His love, though, demands grace. This is the divine conflict within the very nature of God. Heck, just trying to decide between paper and plastic can be difficult for me sometimes, good thing I'm not God! We understand, though, that Jesus is the fulfillment and satisfaction of both equally dominating relational character traits of God. Basic theology, right?

Here's where it takes a little twist, though. Why did it have to be Jesus? Good question. I mean on the surface we kind of take this concept for granted. We accept it at face-value. If you really think about this subject, and really dig into it, I believe that you will have a greater appreciation for the grace of God and the necessity of the death of the incarnated God, Jesus.

Let's first look at some alternatives. I mean, did the God who made us REALLY have to come die for us? Maybe God could just punish us for a little while, like put us in time-out or something. Or maybe public service, where we could "pay back or debt to society."
Ok, if death was necessary, what about animals? I mean they were doing that for a while in the Old Testament, right? I kind of like that idea. I mean we kill fluffy, and we all walk free. Or maybe it could be a human. We could "appease the gods?" People have been trying this for ages with human sacrifice. We could just find the best person ever and kill him. Even the best and the brightest among us dying is still a better option than all of us dying, right?

The reality of it is, that none of those could ever work. It did HAVE be Jesus. No one, and nothing else could  take our place in the ultimate satisfaction of God's justice and mercy.

1. Sin had to be punished.
As we talked about earlier, this is a requirement of the holiness of God. The reason being is that God's holiness is the standard for the law. And in order for a law to really be a law, it must have consequences if broken.

2. Death is the only acceptable punishment.
The Bible affirms this in multiple places. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins" Hebrews 9:22. "The wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23. So the Bible says that this is so. But the question remains... Why? The answer is found in the definition of death. What is death really? Death, ultimately, is separation. That's why we hate it so much! When a loved one dies, we are separated from them. One aspect of God's holiness is complete separation from sin. If we contain sin, we must then die, or be spiritually separated from the relationship we were created to be in. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, but spiritual death is the separation of our spirit from God's. It's a tearing and breaking in our relationship with God.
(There is a difference, though, between spiritual death on this earth, and the ultimate spiritual death that comes at the end of time. While on this earth, we still are beneficiaries of the blessing of God and his general presence. At the end of time, when we have finished exercising the ultimate choice of our free will, if we don't choose to love and worship God, we will be completely and irrevocably separated from God. "These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." 2 Thessalonians 1:9)
So, we discover, our punishment can't just be a divine time out or a work camp to pay off our debt. Death is necessary.

3. Innocence is necessary for there to be substitutionary atonement.
This leap of logic might not readily make sense to you. But think about this, if the punishment for sin is death, and you can't die twice, (you can't be separated more than once), then how can you take anyone else's punishment for them, die in their place, if you already deserve it yourself?
And again we are disappointed, putting fluffy out of her fluffy misery will satisfy the justice of God. "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Hebrews 10:4
Fluffy isn't innocent because fluffy isn't capable of sin. Innocence is the absence of any transgression of God's laws. Animals can neither keep nor break God's laws, because, for example, they can neither really love nor hate in the full sense of those words. Therefore, fluffy is neither innocent nor guilty. Fluffy is irrelevant. In reality, animal sacrifices were more of an object lesson then anything else in the Old Testament. They rolled the sins of man forward to the death of Jesus because God said that they did, not because they were actually effective in dealing with sin. (Baptism is a similar concept. We are saved at baptism because God says so, not because water takes away sin as 1 Peter 3:21 reminds us. It is the appeal to God for a clean conscience.)
Mother Theresa also cannot satisfy the wrath of God because she wasn't perfect. No one capable of sin, except Jesus, was ever, or could ever be, perfect. The Bible affirms this in many places when it says that all have sinned in Romans, and there is none perfect in Isaiah.

4. The person who becomes the atonement must freely choose to be the substitutionary object of punishment.
It's not justice if you get mad at your wife and kick the dog or hit your children. We don't call that justice, we call that abuse. If God would have randomly chosen someone and killed them to satisfy his wrath, that would have been an abuse of His very sense of justice.
Again we see that neither an animal could not have taken our place. Animals cannot choose this because they have no concept of justice, mercy, or punishment. (Whether or not all dogs go to Heaven, they certainly do not go to Hell, in the same way that babies do not.)
We also see here that human sacrifice doesn't cut it either, they are almost never willing subjects.

Now we can fully understand the necessity of the very God who created us, dying for us in substitutionary atonement that satisfies his very nature. Only the Son of God, the divine incarnation of Him, could ever truly satisfy His wrath.

The Cross: the most beautiful paradox, the most complete judgement of justice, the ultimate sacrifice of love, and the most overwhelming out-pouring of grace. I can not helped but to be changed and shaken to the core. I will never be the same.


"But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors." 
(Isa 53:10-12)

Now to get back to my theology homework...

So you had a bad day...

Today is a good day. The 400 dollar tax return that I thought I was going to get on my taxes turned into a 650 dollar debt to the state of Oregon. (If you're counting that's a 1,050 dollar swing.)  Now after reading that you're probably thinking that the first sentence was intended to be very sarcastic. But you are wrong. Very, very wrong.

The details of what happened are pretty simple. I hadn't received my w2 from some unemployment benefits that I got last year, and just didn't really think about that when I did my taxes a couple days ago. So after typing the information into turbo tax, I watched the nice green number shrink and the ugly red number grow. Obviously I was very upset by this. Like I said before, I went from being incredibly excited, (I was going to pay off my credit card with that money), to immediately being devastated and trying to figure out where the heck I'm going to get 650 dollars from. Not a very good day. In fact a very bad day.

Let me tell you about someone else's bad day though. He was a very rich man. A very, very, very rich man. In fact he was the greatest man of the "men of the east." Last time I checked that's a good portion of the world. He had a huge family and was a very well respected man. He had everything. Probably had to sell his soul to get all this stuff right? Wrong! He was an upright man, fearing God, and turning away from evil! Wow, what a stand-up guy!

His name was Job. Yes, the guy from the Bible. And you know the story. He lost everything. All his sons and daughters were killed, he lost all his wealth, his wife ultimately turned against him. In other words, he had a bad day. A much, much worse day than I had today. And after all this happened, we get, in my opinion, the most incredible example of worship in the Bible! "He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."  Every time I think about this story I am amazed all over again!

So yeah, obviously my day was nowhere as near as bad as that. But you would still think it's a pretty bad day right? And here's where I tell you again that you are wrong! (man you are really striking out today...)  Are you ready for the good news?

I learned some amazing things today! Basically two things: I don't need stuff to be happy, (in fact just the opposite sometimes), and God has blessed me incredibly! I guess it's semi-ironic that I am really struck by how incredibly God has blessed me when I am getting ready to sell most of my toys and pay a huge tax bill. But God has given me incredible peace and joy through this experience!

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the plasma donation center, looking at all the people around me, and wondering about their stories. How many times am I just too self-absorbed to care about others?  I think that most of them are in much tougher and more stressful situations than I am--who am I to complain? God has blessed me so abundantly and incredibly!!! I have a job that provides for my needs, one that I actually enjoy! I have what I need to live comfortably. I also have the most amazing people in my life, a girlfriend who is amazing, supportive friends, an amazing church family (with an incredible pastor, Dave Adams!), and the most wonderful family ever!

Next time you hear me complaining, slap me. No, I'm serious. Just slap me and remind me that we serve an amazing God who never fails to bless us, love us, and take care of us! That's why this is a good day, because I serve an amazing God! Yup, definitely a good day, and it's only gonna get better!


"Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me; For I am afflicted and needy. 
Preserve my soul, for I am a godly man; O You my God, save Your servant who trusts in You. 
Be gracious to me, O Lord, For to You I cry all day long.
Make glad the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. 
For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You. 
Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; And give heed to the voice of my supplications! 
In the day of my trouble I shall call upon You, For You will answer me. 
There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. 
All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name.
 For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God. 
Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.
For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." 
(Psa 86:1-13)

Are you holding your breath?

After what seems like hours, I suck in a deep breath of air. Ahhhhhh... I never knew air could be so life-giving and so sweet! In and out, in and out. What a beautiful rhythm the heaving of my chest makes. The air sings in my lungs, a beautiful melody of life and hope!

It was a tunnel. A very, very long tunnel. And if you know me, you know that I can be very stubborn at times, especially if I am in a competition, even if I am just competing with myself. You also know, if you do in fact know me, that I also am a firm believer in holding my breath through tunnels. (touching metal and/or honking the horn repeatedly is also necessary depending on the circumstances.) If you don't give the tunnel the proper respect, then who knows what bad things could happen!  So I held my breath.

The interesting thing about breathing is that you don't think about it. Until you can't anymore. Suddenly, all that un-important breathing that you've been doing care-free for years takes on a new-found importance! All those other worries and problems you couldn't stop thinking about five minutes ago becoeme meaningless.  Just one breath, that's all you need and all you can think about!

Here's the question. What if God was our air? Let me rephrase that. GOD IS OUR AIR! Our capacity and our need for God is as all-important and all-consuming as our need for air, we just seem to forget that fact!

Let me make this personal. My need for God is immense and insatiable! I bring all this up because yesterday I forgot that simple fact. I didn't read my Bible, I didn't really spend time praying with God. I worried. I stressed. I let Satan creep into my mind and my relationships. I let him steal some of my affection. The real problem, though, is that I forgot to breathe. Yeah I took a couple sucks out of the air tank really quick here and there, but I didn't really BREATHE.  Don't you dare read this and shake your head in amusement or reproach! All of us, including you, do this. We hold our breath without really realizing it. Have you ever done that, forgot to breathe?

As I am holding my breath, wanting to breathe so badly, I hit upon an idea. Maybe if I fake breathe, I can trick my lungs into thinking I took a breath so I will be able to make it through the tunnel.  That's it, move my stomach in and out, in and out. Better. But my lungs are still burning with the need for air. Maybe if I just think about something else. Preoccupy my mind. But I can't focus, I can't think about anything else but my desperate need for air!

We do this. This fake breathing, this attempt to occupy our minds with something else when all that we really need is air. People turn to so many different things to try to accomplish this. Whether its alcohol, pornography, relationships, sports, or religion, we all "fake breathe." That's right, I said religion. I went there. Our attempt to dress the mess of ourselves up in a clothing of rules, regulations, and rituals is a sham. It's not really breathing! People everywhere try to deny this need, but in the middle of the night, when staring death straight in the face, when calamity hits, everyone has to face this need.

Now I want to make this very clear. I am just talking to "those" people. The ones who don't go to church, or haven't really committed their lives to Jesus. I am talking to the pew-sitters, the "big-givers," the hard workers, YOU, and I am talking to myself.

Jesus is my air. This morning as I realized what happened yesterday, why my day was in a funk, I started breathing. In and out, in and out. It felt so good and so real! Again my relationship with God was restored as I breathed in his presence--life-giving, heart-lifting, joy-bursting air! That's what I'm talking about. The real deal. The real "McCoy." Don't ever, ever forget to breathe. I guess I should say, that when you realize that you are holding your breath. Release it. Release whatever anxiety, whatever stress, whatever pain, or whatever distraction that's keeping your soul screaming for air, and breathe. Really breathe. Take a deep, life-giving breath. In and out, In and out, In and out....

"This is the air I breathe, You're holy presence living in me. And I, I'm lost without you. I'm desperate for you."  -Michael W. Smith