Board index ‹ Heaven and Hell

[Koog]

I am a bit confused about who gets to go to heaven. Consider the following scenario: a man kidnaps a teen age girl, locks her up in his basement and proceeds to torture her. As weeks go by, she begins to slowly lose faith in God and Jesus. When her suffering reaches its unbearable peak she forsakes Jesus and at that moment the man kills her. 10 minutes later he accepts Jesus as his Lord and Savior and is hit by a truck. He goes to heaven and she goes to hell, right?

[jimwalton]

Oh, my, you're not confused. You've spent a lot of time making up the most contrived situation you could think of.

But your conclusion is wrong.

She goes to heaven. According to your wild situation, her turning against God was not a matter of the heart, a true renunciation of God, or a blatant apostasy. Peter denied Christ, but that didn't set him up for hell. God knows our hearts, our motives, and our situations. It's pretty easy to tell from your hypothetical situation that the girl's "turn" against God isn't a turn at all.

The guy most likely goes to hell. He kidnapped her, tortured her unbearably and continually for weeks, kills her and then 10 minutes later accepts Jesus as Lord, presumably while walking across the street? There's nothing realistic about this situation, and no reason to think the man was sincere.

My conclusion would be the opposite of yours. The girl who denied her faith under severe torture didn't deny it sincerely, and the man who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered wasn't sincere in his confession of faith while walking down the street 10 minutes later.

[Koog]

Of course I made up the most contrived example I could think if. That was the point, and I guess I get it now.