Have you ever encountered someone who said it was unfair or harsh of God to judge people and send them to hell? You may have thought it (or still think it) yourself. If so, travel back with me to the 1st Century where we’ll find Paul speaking at a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch.
He had spoken there the week before and was asked to return so he could once again share the word of the Lord (aka, the gospel). This time, nearly the entire city turned out to hear from God. But things didn’t go so smoothly on this occasion. Instead, the Jews refused to listen and caused all kinds of trouble.
In response, Paul said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.” (Acts 13:46, ESV)
“Thrusting aside the word of God” was a colorful way of saying the Jews had rejected the gospel. But note carefully the practical outcome of that rejection. Paul couldn’t have been more clear. By rejecting the gospel message, the Jews were “judging themselves unworthy of eternal life.”
If your experience has been anything like mine, you’ve noticed that most people who reject Christ don’t consider themselves unworthy of eternal life – in fact, just the opposite. They would judge themselves “good people” – and therefore, in their minds, worthy of heaven. But the judgment the Jews were making was not about themselves, but about God’s message.
“Judge” in our verse is from a Greek word which literally means “to separate.” Used properly, it means to “make a choice, or come to a decision by making a judgment.” Paul had presented to them God’s Word, and the Jews made a decision about it. They considered it, made a judgment call, and decided against it. And in doing so, their judgment rendered them unworthy of eternal life.
God continues to welcome all to come to Him; but many choose to say, “No thank you.” And in refusing God’s invitation, they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life. What have you done with God’s invitation? –Dave
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by Hell are you subscribing these people who reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be condemned to a place where they experience litterally being burned throughout eternity? If you believe this horrifyingly heinous and gruesome judgement then I plead with you to prayerfully go to a place like Bible Hub and use Strong’s concordance. Also look at Greek and Hebrew translations to learn more about it.
I believe this was intentional misinterpretation by many power hungry early Catholic leaders wanting to control the masses of uneducated, which was most of the people.
Hi Wendi – I’m a huge fan/user of Bible Hub. In addition, I refer to the original languages frequently. We could debate what hell is/is not by looking at Greek words such as geenna or tartaroo, but I think I’d just rather ask a more basic question – if hell is not a place of eternal punishment, from what did Christ die to save us?
You missunderstand. I am not saying that he’ll is not a place of eternal suffering or a damnation. I was merely speaking of litteral burning for eternity. I was born and grew up Jewish. People would come up to me and tell me I better accept Jesus as my saviour or I would burn in hell for ever. It turned me off to Christianity.but God new me better. I always felt some pull towards Christ. Later in life He introduced Himself to me and shortly after that I got to know His only begotten in the flesh. I just wanted to go on record that it’s a symbolic representation of the the torment of forever being separated from God or the second death. The wages of sin are death.
I am so glad God drew you to Himself in Christ! For those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, we won’t have to face hell – whatever it ends up being! Is hell literally a place that is on fire for all time? I won’t be dogmatic about it. However, Jesus sure spoke of hell as a place of fire frequently. Just in Matthew’s gospel alone, I count 8 different references to hell as a place of fire (3:10, 3:12, 5:22, 6:30, 7:19, 18:8, 18:9, and 25:41). Of those, three describe it as either “unquenchable fire” (3:12), or “eternal fire” (18:8 and 25:41). In the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16), Jesus gave us a “peek” into the conditions there. From hades, the rich man said, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.” (16:24). Was all of this figurative? Possibly. But I’m not aware of other passages where Jesus (or others) explained what their language actually meant, if it were figurative. Granted, fire was often a sign of God’s judgment, so it is possible that each of those mentions of fire was simply a reference to God’s judgment. When I share the gospel, I focus on what is gained by placing faith in Christ. If needing to describe what people are saved from, I appeal to logic: If people are eternally separated from God, and ever good and perfect thing comes from God (James 1:17), then they will eternally be separated from anything good; i.e., tormented forever. I’ve enjoyed the exchange.