The Tragedy of Hell

Some may think when they hear about the Putin’s and Saville’s and other people who have commit heinous crimes against disabled children (or any heinous crime but obviously my focus is on children with special needs) that surely they are going to hell and if they didn’t meet justice here on earth then going to hell is surely a fitting punishment.

I don’t think this is how the Lord sees it. As much as I may draw some comfort from the mental image of Putin being thrown into a lake of fire with no ‘get out of Jail free’ card by an angry God dishing out justice on behalf of the voiceless orphans who’s fate he’s sealed by this ban on adoption, the truth is… hell is a tragedy.

Those who go to hell are loved and died for just as much as I am or my angelic and perfect daughter is. God loves us. He loves us enough that he sent his ONLY Son to die for us, to go to hell himself on our behalf, and then to be raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand. For us. Love.

I love my daughter with a fierce love. That love has taken a shy Mum into a place of being unafraid to take on anything to protect her. I love her so much I would die for her. But to give up HER life to save people like Putin? Never. No. Sorry. I simply could. never. do. it.

Yet God did. That is a love that is so far beyond the love I have for my daughter that I simply can not comprehend it. It is beyond my human limitations to grasp. Maybe one day when I see heaven it will make sense to me but until that day, it is something I can only contemplate with awe.

In 2012, Russia’s President Putin banned all US Adoptions of Russian orphans.

This included children with disabilities and even children of families who had already passed court and were legally the new, adoptive children of the American parents, including some of our Reece's Rainbow parents. Click to read more

These children were taken back to the orphanages and the court decrees nullified. Some of those children have passed away, others still living out their lives locked away in an orphanage because most Russian people would never consider adopting a child with disability.

This article, The Tragedy of Hell, was written in response to the Russia adoption ban, but also references the horrific child abuse that was uncovered after the death of Jimmy Saville.

The Reece's Rainbow Announcement

The image of an angry God throwing horrible and hateful and sinful people into hell may or may not be accurate.

The image of an angry God throwing horrible and hateful and sinful people into hell may or may not be accurate. I’m imagining now, though, that perhaps the scene will play out more like this… a God that gave us every chance and opportunity to spend eternity with Him because He loves us so having no choice (because He is pure and can not look on sin) but to turn his back on those who refused that gift.

A heart wrenching scene where this God that knows, because His Son went there for us, what hell is like… having to send what should have been his children to an eternity of suffering and separation. Just as I can not understand and comprehend the level of his love, I don’t think I understand the depth of the hurt from this separation and punishment. I only know how much it hurts me to scold my daughter and every time she gets scolded she also gets a hug and kiss because I love her so much. Again, I couldn’t turn my back on her if I tried. How much would this pain a God who’s love so mightily supersedes mine?

Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord,

Like the rivers of water;

He turns it wherever He wishes.

It also makes me feel the need to ask… how much of it falls on our hands?

Christianity is a broad term that covers a lot of people. It isn’t even ‘one’ denomination. For me it means literally a follower of Christ, the step beyond salvation.

Being a Christian to my mind is living a life that reflects Christ. A life that if you gave up that belief people would notice. It is a life purposefully lived to act and share in the love that brought Jesus to earth giving up Heaven for a time to give us eternity. A life that if lived will draw others to a belief and love of the Lord.

John 12:32
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

Yet there are plenty of people who profess the very same Jesus I do, who do things that go against what is considered a Biblical standard for Christian doctrine and Christian practice.

People I’ve thought if I didn’t already know Jesus and love Him and their example was all I knew, I wouldn’t want to know Him. I would have refused God’s gift.

How many of us are putting people off Jesus and their rightful eternity in Heaven?

I’m not excluding myself from that question.

It is, of course, much easier to envisage the splinter in another’s eye, than it is to see past the plank in one’s own… but I am genuinely asking myself, “What am I modelling to those in my ‘area of influence’ that would attract them to the gift of eternal life with Jesus?”.

Is how I live my life causing the people with whom I come into contact each day or week to want to know the Lord?

If my life isn’t, then am I responsible for potentially allowing these people, whom I should add are NOT harming defenceless, voiceless orphans, the tragedy of hell?

We all know many people who live kind and caring lives who just haven’t met Jesus.

Am I their only chance?

Do I share His love in such a manner that it makes them want that too?

Do I speak about others in such a way that brings honour to my LORD?

Are my actions when I’m buying groceries such that I am noticeably different than those without the assurance of Heaven?

Have I lived Jesus’ love, so that when I encounter the Putins or just the people next door, such that they will see this gift as something of value and wish they had it?

Our job is NOT to to judge who is or isn’t a Christian. Nor is it our job to judge if a person is going to heaven or hell. It IS our place to give those we know, the opportunity TO GO.

James 4:11, 12
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may PROCLAIM the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;

This next verse hits hard… we were bought with a price… yes, it cost Jesus his life, it cost God his son’s life. Salvation is free for those who accept it but it was not cheap. It is the most expensive gift one could ever receive.

1 Corinthians 6:20
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[a] and in your spirit, which are God’s.

My hope is to live a life that will draw men unto the LORD.
I want to see others as God does, worthy of His sending His son to die for. I want to pray that people will see what lies ahead for them if they will choose Jesus.

This life is but a vapour. What we do here should mean more for eternity than the present. I don’t want to pass people I recognise in the queue for hell, on my way to heaven… do you?