Dulfite said:
That is the ignorance that, sadly, plagues the worldly perspective about Christianity. Let me clarify; It isn't that if you don't accept Jesus then you find yourself in hell. It is that God offered (and continues to offer) HIS love to you, freely, and if you CHOOSE to reject that love (by rejecting Christ), then you CHOOSE to go to hell. You, and me, and everyone else are responsible enough to decide whether or not we want to accept God's love, or if we'd rather choose to exist without HIM. If you choose to exist without HIM, and go to hell because of that, it is not God's fault as HE offered a way out of it for you. It's totally up to us humans as to what we do. And you may counter by suggesting that the fact that going to hell is the consequence for not loving God suggests HE is evil (as so many do), but if you believe in the God of the Bible (but just have a problem with HIS salvation methods) then that means you believe what happened in Genesis actually happened, which means that you (if you believe the book of Genesis as I do) believe that God intended for man to be with him. All throughout history God has provided ways for man to atone for mankind's sins. HE finally provided us with a way to ultimately remove ourselves from sins and the consequences of sins (through Jesus Christ's life, death, and rising from the dead) and yet the devil has convinced so many around the world to actually view that in a negative way.
The bottom line belief of Christianity is that we are all worthy of hell (me included), yet God gave us a way out. If you don't want to take it, that's your choice and you have to exist with that choice. I'd prefer everyone to exerience the liberating salvation that I have in Christ Jesus, but I can't (and wouldn't want to try to) force anyone to make that choice.
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