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Josh
Goot
wrote:
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Hi, guys —
- If Christianity believes that you will
go to Heaven if you believe in Jesus Christ,
then how can Christianity claim people
like Hitler or Stalin will go to Heaven if they believed in Him?
They are more evil than any non-believer
who is kind to others and does good deeds.
Josh
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{
If
Christianity believes, all you have to do is
believe in Jesus, can Hitler and Stalin go to Heaven? }
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John
replied:
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Hi, Josh —
Thanks for the question.
Because when a Christian says believe they don't mean a mental agreement.
For example: we all believe that
4 + 4 = 8
To believe in a biblical
sense is directly connected to obedience.
When one surrenders to Christ, one
is empowered to overcome sin by
the power of the Holy Spirit but
ultimately we are all saved by grace,
including non-Christians that don't
know about Christ.
God gives us mercy, not because we deserve it, but because
we need it. We don't know what happened
to Stalin or Hitler. If they honestly
repented and accepted Christ's forgiveness,
then they were saved. As for non-believers,
they are also given grace. Whether they are saved, depends
on how they respond to that grace.
We don't know who is in Hell or who
will go there, meaning we don't know
specifically which persons. We do
know that without the Love and Mercy
of God, we would all end up there
because our natural tendency (due
to original sin) is sin. The
whole point is that Christ died for
everyone. He wants everyone to be
saved.
The last thing God wants is to see
someone go to Hell. Hell ultimately
boils down to someone choosing to
spend eternity rejecting God's love.
John
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Josh
replied:
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Thanks, John —
- So if someone who is as bad as
Hitler or Stalin claims that they
believed in Christ, but rejected
that power that
God gave them to overcome sin,
and continued to commit
terrible sins, then they are not
considered true believers, and
therefore cannot be saved and
sent to Heaven?
- Why should a person like Hitler
or Stalin be allowed to enter
Heaven (even if they believed
in Christ) when they committed
such terrible acts?
If they go straight to Heaven after
death, that means they
will get a free pass for what they
have done. In most countries around
the world, if you do the crime, you
do the time, no matter what your intentions are,
and even if you feel remorse for
what you did. It seems to me like
God is telling us that if we murder
millions of innocent people, (Christians
or non-Christians), and we still
believe in Christ, we will go to
Heaven. It seems like God is rewarding
us for killing people.
- How is believing in Jesus enough
to convince someone to do good
if there is no punishment?
If God punishes us, that punishment
should serve as a lesson to us that
we need to learn from our sins,
repent, and do the right thing next
time.
- Without this, how are we supposed
to learn to do the right thing?
When a parent wants a child to behave
and be obedient, they have to teach
them through punishment.
- How else are children supposed
to listen?
If you tell a young child to do something,
they may not want to listen. Children
are usually like that.
- How are you supposed to get them
to do the right thing if they:
- do not know, or
- don't want to do
it?
Explaining to a young child is not
always going to work. The only way
is the hard way, which is through
punishment. A parent may not like
giving out punishments, but they
understand that it is the only way
to teach a child to be obedient and
follow the rules.
- Why doesn't the same concept
apply to God and his people?
Josh
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Mike
replied:
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Hi, Josh —
You said:
- So if someone who is as bad as
Hitler or Stalin claims that they
believed in Christ, but rejected
that power that
God gave them to overcome sin,
and continued to commit
terrible sins, then they are not
considered true believers, and
therefore cannot be saved and
sent to Heaven?
Yes. All
of us have a natural law that is
written on our hearts. Even the atheist
knows murder is wrong. If someone
knows what they are doing is wrong
and yet continues to do it, their
actions show that they never really
believed, what they said they believed.
If they don't know what they are
doing is wrong, or there were mental
health issues that effected their
decisions, that is another issue,
but I don't believe you have this
in the case of Hitler or Stalin.
Words (belief) and actions go together;
we don't separate them.
That's one way you can detect a
shallow-minded politician. They will
say:
I'm personally opposed to
abortion, but can't impose my
views on others.
That's why the majority of
your constituents elected you, Mr.
Politician!! . . . because of your views.
On the rest of your reply, you are
correct, in the sense, that
proper discipline in the childhood
years is important to a healthy adolescence,
but again:
- We will be culpable for want
we knew was right, but didn't
act upon.
- We won't be culpable for what
we didn't know.
Hope this helps,
Mike
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Eric
replied:
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Hi, guys —
Let's not forget Purgatory, here.
If Hitler or Stalin, by some miracle
of God's grace, were to repent and
be saved at the end of their lives,
they would still be held responsible
for what they did and need to be
purified of all their evil before
entering Heaven. We don't know of
what this consists, but 1 Corinthians
3 uses the image of fire consuming
their works while they barely escape
through the flames.
I can guarantee that a criminal like
Hitler or Stalin, assuming they are
truly guilty, would not escape torment
of the greatest magnitude for their
sins.
While on the topic of Purgatory,
if anyone has a devotion to the
Holy Souls, they may be interested
in Mike's other web site: Helpers
of the Holy Souls.
Eric
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