Video Resources: "If I don't believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don't do evil, will I go to hell?" https://youtu.be/2ktaF1Mtr8M?is=GbNe0pnLfcULdKFE Background Lofi: No Copyright Lo-Fi Music 2022 🎵 LoFi hiphop mix & Chillhop 🎵 Chill lofi mix to study/relax to 14 – by Stomp’s Playlist Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DfHaOYeaqk&list=RD-DfHaOYeaqk&start_radio=1&t=2482s Highlighted Notes: It’s not about what you do, but about what’s in your heart. Sin is anything that leads to the harm of yourself or others, so it is the harm of ourselves or others that separates us from God. Righteousness is a state of being in which God places you. The kingdom of heaven is a closeness and proximity to God. Hell can be seen as the condition of our soul that is not in proximity to God. The lonely desolate place our souls experience is the definition of hell, and the only escape is a closeness to God. Love cannot exist without choice. Choosing to have a relationship with God does not solve all of your problems. He is, however, the solution to our soul’s condition. It is the choice here and now that leads to the eternal version of the hell we experience outside of God. It is God’s ultimate desire and goal for every person to be reunited with him in a personal unique relationship. Verses Referenced: • “It’s not about what you do it’s about what’s in your heart.” o Proverbs 4:23 o 1 Samuel 16:7 o Luke 6:45 o Matthew 5:27-28 o Mark 7:20-23 • “The sum of the law of Moses and the law of the prophets could be summarized into two commandments, which is love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” o Mark 12:28-34 o Matthew 22:34-40 o Luke 10:25-28 o Romans 13:8-10 o Galatians 5:14 • “It is your sin that has separated you from God.” o Isaiah 59:2 • “Righteousness is a state of being in which God places you.” o Job 29:14 o Isaiah 59:17 o Isaiah 61:10 o Matthew 6:33 o Luke 18:9-14 o Romans 1:17, o 3:21-26, 4:3-5, 9:30-31 o 2 Corinthians 5:21 o Ephesians 6:14 • “The kingdom of heaven is a closeness and proximity to God.” o Mark 1:14-15 o John 17:3 • "It is better for one member of your body to enter géenna of fire than the whole body.” o Matthew 18:8-9 o Mark 9:43-48 • Descriptions of the eternal heaven o Revelations 7:17, 21:4 o Matthew 6:19-21 • Descriptions of the eternal hell o Matthew 14:32 • “Those who have heard of me and have not believed in God’s one and only son.” o John 3:18 • “If God is light, then being outside the light is hell, in any form.” o John 3:19 o 1 John 1:5 • “God says you choose what you want to choose, but know that I chose you.” o Romans 5:8 o Revelations 3:20 o James 4:8 • “Jesus came down and sacrificed himself to create a pathway for us to have a relationship with God.” o Matthew 27:51 o Mark 15:38 o Luke 23:45 o Ephesians 2:18 o Romans 5:1-2 o John 14:6 o Matthew 7:13-14 • “The pockets of heaven are limited to the things we experience here on earth.” o John 16:33 o Ecclesiastes 2:23 o Job 14:1 • “We don’t experience heaven in it’s fullness, there’s an eternal versions of that.” o 1 Corinthians 13:12 o Ephesians 1:13-14 • “God would not force us to be with him in heaven if we choose actively if we did not want to be with him on earth.” o John 3:19 If I don’t believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don’t do evil, will I go to hell? - If I don’t believe in God o First off, if there is no God, evil is subjective, meaning evil is just what everyone else says it is. We’ve reached a point in society where relatively all people, I believe, would agree on certain aspects of evil. o I think evil, from a morality standpoint, can boil down to what harms another person, or what can harm oneself. Anything we think about evil stems from these two ideas. o Well, what does the Bible say about evil? The same exact thing. Now imagine this, a doctor comes to you and says, don’t eat this food, it’s not good for you, but you never get sick when eating it, so you don’t believe him and you continue eating the food. Then years down the road, you get sick, and you go to another doctor that says you got sick because you ate too much of that food. You believe the first doctor then, because you were harming yourself unknowingly. If the same can be said with God, and what he would ask us to do, would we do those things trusting that ultimate good would come from it? This is a bad question to ask though, because there is really only one thing that is asked of us. Could you imagine that? No do’s or do not’s. Just one aspect of life by which we live through, that would completely obliterate in us the desire to do evil. Two commandments that are given: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. You wouldn’t do much evil when you are focused on loving your neighbor as yourself. To “not” do evil, is simply to be committed to doing good. o To be worried or wondering about hell, but not believe in God I think is an interesting dynamic that a lot of people can relate to. I’ve seen people argue this point to say “well, if you don’t believe in God, then you shouldn’t be afraid of a hell.” This argument adds nothing to the conversation. If we think rationally, we have reasonable doubt on both ends. On one end, we think, what if I served God my entire life, then everything is blank at the end. Then in another strand of thought, if my entire life I did good, but did not serve a God, as I did not believe, then would I go to hell if it does indeed exist.  I think if we fear a hell, there is a small part of us that would agree that a creator is likely, even if just a small part. A small voice inside our heads question whether or not what we are doing is right. We are consistently faced in life with the reality that time cannot reverse. It passes us by, and we are forced to make choices that will impact us. Since this seems to be a pretty prevalent choice, we stress about it naturally. - Let’s talk about hell o Sheol (Hebrew old testament) = realm of the dead/grave in the Old Testament; not always a place of punishment. o Hades = equivalent of Sheol in many New Testament contexts. o Gehenna = place of final judgment/punishment in Jesus' teachings.  Hell is the place of the future punishment called "Gehenna" or "Gehenna of fire". This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction. • This is the place in Jesus’s teachings where he mentions it is better for one member of your body to enter Gehenna of fire than the whole body. If one part of your person causes you to exit the presence of God, sever it, so that it does not eventually drag your entire person in. • This is also where He says not to fear who may kill the body, but not the soul, but fear instead He who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna of fire. o You can imagine the visual picture Jesus paints, that the soul would be rendered dead, as the animals who lay outside the city, and are burned up. o Lake of Fire = final destination after judgment in Revelation. o The Pit / Abyss = prison-like realm for demonic beings and sometimes the dead. o Tartarus = prison for fallen angels (appears once in the New Testament). o Outer darkness, eternal fire, furnace of fire, second death = related judgment imagery. - We know that the death of the soul, the part of us that is eternal, is a synonym for being separated from God. o Does not death of the soul feel like hell? o In your own life, can you say you have experienced a version of hell that your soul has been through? o I think in the same way that heaven has come, and is here now, as Jesus proclaims, that hell has been here far longer. Hell as a state of being. A state of location for our soul. Our soul is bound to the body in this life, which makes sense. We can be in hell, but still have a good enjoyable part of our day. Momentary happiness stemming from pleasantries of life. But the suffering.... the insufferable loneliness we feel in the middle of the night. The anguish of our very souls as we are laid up thinking about things outside of the momentary pleasantries. I don’t think I need to describe in detail what sort of things bring on this anguish of our souls. This pocket of experienced hell we all know. There is an eternal version of that. An eternal version, of the separation from God that we feel here on earth. It is this separation, that Jesus also describes as the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where better a place to describe an absence of God, who is light, and in whom can be no darkness. Back to the base of the question: “If I don’t believe in God, but I do good in this world and I don’t do evil, will I go to hell?” And the other question I think we can also address in the same vein: “What happens to someone who hasn’t heard about Christ? Do they go to hell?” The judgement at the end is often mentioned in the Bible. Let’s see what this Jesus fellow has to say about it. I will present to you, Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ I recommend anyone to go and read Matthew chapters 5 through 7. In it lay many contemplations about what people do, and what is in their hearts. This verse we just read is the tip of that spear. All of these verses flow together. Through all the words of Jesus we can build an accurate representation of not only who God is, but what He wants. It is obvious as we search the four testament accounts of Jesus’s life that it is God’s ultimate goal to bring each and every person into a personal relationship with him starting in this life. However. God does not step on the toes of free will. In order for real love to exist, free will must exist. The purest form of love is love that is chosen. This statement that Jesus makes also shows the intention of God. It is His desire for us to know Him. Some could argue that it is quite literally the main point. For without it, we would be cast out from His presence anyway. Many people now believe that it is God’s desire that we do good works in this life and serve others, but we tend to forget the first part of God’s desire, which is to love Him. To choose God in this life. It is this choice, that God respects when he makes the ultimate determination for the location of our very souls during and ultimately after this life on earth. God is essentially saying, that it is His desire to know us, and for us to seek and know Him. All of our good works flow from this naturally. As we do, we enter in to the kingdom of heaven, which is why Jesus says it is here and now. When we actively choose to avoid God, and be separate from Him, He ultimately respects our decision. God would not force us to be with Him in heaven if we chose actively that we did not want to be with Him on earth. It is this concept that brings us to the idea that God would then continue separation from us after life here. This position of our soul holds the description of the outer darkness, the lonely desolate place outside of God’s presence, where there will be weeping, and anguish within ourselves. To answer the question, God respects our decision to be apart from Him, and that will undoubtedly lead to the condition of our souls, described as hell.

I feel like I have a fairly uncommon approach to the idea of wealth. Call me crazy, but I don't believe that the God of the Bible wants to give me money for the brand new Toyota Tacoma I've been eyeing through the targeted social media advertisements showing up on my feed. Even if I pleaded and prayed, justifying my capitalistic americanized prayer by convincing myself that it was within the "desires of my heart", I have to ask myself at a certain point, what am I really praying for? We read in Matthew 6:24 the words of Jesus as he says: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." The word "mammon" is mamōnas, and means riches or treasure. Wealth. We cannot serve both God and wealth. We read initially and excitedly say to ourselves, "Of course I would serve God and not wealth!" Do we hate wealth though? Often separated by categorized sub-chapter headings added well after the accounts were written, these verses when read in context are interesting. Read verse 19-21, 22-23, then 25 after. When we read it all together it flows quite well. We learn that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. We should not lay up treasure for ourselves on earth, but in heaven. We learn that the lamp of the body is the eye. If our eyes are good, our body will be full of light, but if our eye is bad, our body will be full of darkness, and how great will that darkness be. We cannot serve two masters, we must hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. We can therefore find solace in the realization that God takes care of our needs, and we have no need to be worried. "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" He says in verse 25. Our heavenly Father knows that we need these things. We are instructed to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us. I encourage you, reader, to search these scriptures for yourself. Ask yourself what kind of weights you are placing on the wealth found in this life, and what your life would really look like if those things were gone, or never attained. I myself find much freedom in the simple idea that at the very least, God promises to clothe me. To feed me. It is this peaceful solace where I find rest from the copious amount of stress that consistently find ways to slither into my life and siphon the possibility to store up those eternal treasures. I find that within such stress and anxiety, I am infinitely incapable of following God in His direction, and am equally deficient in loving the people around me properly, as to shine with light that fills the body. Indeed how great is the darkness that fills me those days. What do you think of these verses? Do you have any other interpretations? Ask some questions and make some comments from your thoughts, and I'll see you in the next post.

In Luke 13:23-27, when Jesus is asked the question, "Lord, will those who are saved be few", His response is to strive to enter the narrow door, and to those who beg the door to be opened to "the house", those who will say: "‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’" The response of the Lord will be: "‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’" There is a paralleled instance of this verse also in Matthew 7:21-23 that reads: "'Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."’" That verse in Luke caught me off guard though, something I had not seen before. He says the phrase, "where you come from." The word there is pothen, which means, "of place: from where, from what condition." The conclusion I drew from my study was that God is interested in all of us. Our entire person, which in our current state, includes where we have come from, and of what conditions we were in, and what condition we are in now. Insert every conceivable condition, and you will find the yearning of God to be in close relational proximity to us in it. In fact, when we read this verse, this is a condition set by God in which we can enter eternity with Him. By eternity with Him of course I mean the period of time set forth from the moment we choose to have God in our minds, including the present time here on earth, the part of eternity with God, the part of heaven, that is on earth. It is this eternity, of which Jesus describes when He says, "the kingdom of heaven is here", that has a specific prerequisite, for God to be invited into our past and present personhood. The brutal places in our minds we only dare to describe to our closest friends, certified therapists, or anyone present at our lowest when we are ready to throw it all away, sometimes even complete strangers when we are in such places. It can be stated, that God, before He would allow such an intimate proximity with us, would only enter such proximity when we allow Him to know us, not in part, as many of us would think such a perfect God would prefer, but in whole, our entire soul and where it has been. It is the personal nature of God that would not allow a closeness with Him without our desire first to be close to Him, and our submission and allowance for God to be let inside our own little worlds we call our minds and memories. This is the essential part of what many people would consider to be repentance, which is only distinguishable by God himself as he searches whether or not we truly invited Him into our soulscape. It is the very thing He will use when determining whether or not we really chose Him in this life. "I do not know where you come from" Have we really invited Him into every room in our house? If not, what is stopping us from doing so? If it is not our pride, it is our misunderstanding of who God is. Truly, it is our God's ultimate goal for humanity to be reconciled to Himself, a reconciliation that does not give regard to the size or weight of things we have done worthy of separating us from Him. For in fact the very thing we think would separate us upon revealing, is the very thing that would usher us into His presence upon submission. It is His presence that is the ultimate mission and goal. That is the kingdom of heaven of which Jesus teaches. A friendship, an ongoing conversation, an adoption to sonship. It is everything that could possible pose to matter in this life, and it has everything to do with how much we invite Him in. Comment your thoughts or ask some questions, and I'll see you in the next post.