by Aleta Kay
There was a segment on the news last night showing a little boy, probably between ages seven and ten, who was asked if someone would go to heaven or hell. With a serious, stern look on his young face, the child answered that the person spoken of would go to hell. I only saw the preview for the segment, not the actual report.
Based on the trailer for the report, it appeared the news media was highlighting people who train their children to hate. The trailer made it appear that Christians are people who hate anyone who is not a Christian. I wish I could have stayed up to see the whole report.
This is the question: Is it an act of hatred to speak the truth? When a person sits before a judge in a courtroom he promises to tell the truth. He will be held in contempt and spend a few days in jail if he is found to be lying. When he speaks the truth does that mean he hates the person he is testifying against? No. He is simply doing what is right.
When a doctor tells a patient he has cancer, is that doctor hating the patient? No. He is doing what is right.
When a Christian tells a person they will go to hell if they don’t repent of their sins, they are not saying they hate that person. If the Christian is saying it properly, the person receiving the message will feel the love of God, knowing that this is a warning, a plea to please turn your life, your will, over to God so you don’t end up in a hell that was created for Satan and his angels (demons).
I am just as upset with “Christians” who preach hate and damnation as anyone else. These people may or may not be Christians. That is not for me to decide. However, the Bible, God’s word, clearly teaches us to speak the truth in love. “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” People who end up in hell go to hell because they reject God and His love. God takes no pleasure in passing the sentence.
Please don’t lump all Christians together as religious fanatics who hate everyone else. Most of us are not like that, but those are the ones that get media attention. They are not doing God any favors.
God loves you and wants to give you His very best. In fact He did, when He sent His only begotten Son (Jesus the Christ) to die on a cruel cross for your sins and mine. Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven. Think about it; and please don’t reject Christ and His gift because of some misguided Christians.
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