The following post contains thoughts of one individual and one individual only; ME. These thoughts do not represent the thoughts of another person, any organization, family member, friends, fraternity, church, club, supermarket, restaurant or any other establishment that I may be associated with, talked to, said hello to, or even visited once. The thoughts belong to me and me alone. If you consider yourself in the group above and feel as though you may be offended by thoughts that don't match up with those that you have, PLEASE STOP READING NOW!!!
Who exactly is going to Hell?
Over the past couple of months, I have had various conversations with various members of different faiths and these coversations have invariably caused me to wonder, Who exactly is going to Hell? I personally am Christian. I was raised mainly in A.M.E. and Baptist churches. I personally believe that Jesus is the way to salvation. I sing praise and worship and I believe every word that I sing. I sing from my spirit and more importantly, from my heart. I say all of that because I don't want anyone to confuse what they are reading as a blasphemy or even doubt of my spiritual beliefs. I am not one that posts a scripture on Facebook every day to prove to someone else what I believe. I have read, studied and experienced God in my own way so I know that HE exists.
I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine that will freely tell you that he believes in God, but doesn't practice organized religion on a consistent basis. He has studied all religions and just feels that God is so much bigger than religion and I agree with him on some aspects of that. We had an interesting convo about this and he asked me if I thought that he was going to Hell because he didn't practice Christianity. This question just caught me completely off guard. I told him that we would table the discussion and that once I was sure of what I wanted to say to him, I would get back with him. As of this exact moment, I have not contacted him. I know that he will read this and smile though.
Who is going to Hell? Christians believe that if you don't confess Jesus as your savior, you will not receive salvation. Layman's terms; you will go to Hell. Muslims profess that if you don't believe in Muhammad, you will not be welcome in Heaven. Layman's terms, you are going to Hell. I am using these two religions as examples because they are widely considered as the most popular and mainstream religions. If I live on this side of the street and I am Christian, according to my belief, I am going to Heaven and anyone else that does not confess Jesus as their Savior is going to Hell. My friend that lives on the other street is Muslim and according to his belief, he is going to Heaven and anyone else that does not confess Muhammad as their Savior is going to Hell. Including me. We both believe in God, but according to our respective faiths, both of us are going to Hell. Now, I am sure that I am not the first person to think of this and maybe it all makes sense to someone. But to me, a thinker, it doesn't. And honestly, maybe it's not meant to. But it is mind-boggling to me. If every organized religion states that there is a penalty of Hell for not accepting a certain Savior, every one is subject to going there according to popular conjecture.
As for my opinion, I am not waivering from what I believe, but I will leave you with a nugget to ponder on. Genesis 11:1-9 tells a story of the Tower of Babel. In this time, everyone had one language and one speech. Some decided that they wanted to truly get a glimpse of God so they started constructing a tower, building it higher and higher to get closer to God. God fearing that they were working on one accord and were getting closer to Him, scattered everyone from the tower. In this process of scattering them all across the Earth, he confounded their speech and language and they were no longer on one accord. Thus, different beliefs, ideologies and religions were birthed. I say all of that to say this. God is real. I personally believe that different religions were born out of necessity and confusion, but all of the same person. To bring us all closer to God. It's deeper than a religious experience while we are on this Earth. It is about a spiritual journey that brings us closer to our maker. We are ALL trying to build that tower again. With our own spiritual walks. So if I had to answer one of the best singers that God has put on this Earth, Who is really going to Hell?, I would simply say this. Everyone that is not helping us rebuild the Tower.
