If you were Muslim, cured cancer, saved millions of lives, and ended world hunger, would you still go to hell simply for not being christian?

Sincerely,
Just Curious

Dear Just Curious,

If you are a Muslim, you will go to hell.  If you are anything other than a christian, you will go to hell.  Nobody gets to heaven because they are such a good person (Rom 3:27-28).  Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the perfection that gives you a right to enter heaven’s gates (Rom 3:23).  No amount of good deeds cancel out your bad deeds.  If I save a million lives, but murder one – I am still a murderer.  Sin requires forgiveness, and forgiveness is a gift (Rom 6:23).  We receive that gift through Jesus’ sacrifice (Jhn 3:16), and we can only be redeemed by Jesus’ blood when we place our faith in Him (Rom 3:24-25).  We place our faith in Christ when we hear His Word (Rom 10:17) and obey it.  There is no way to God except through Christ (Jhn 14:6).  We here at AYP are unashamed to call Jesus our Lord (Rom 10:16-17) and proclaim Him as the only way to heaven (Jhn 10:7-11).

Is smoking weed a sin; if not, why?  If so, why?  Where does it say either case in the Bible?

Sincerely,
The Burning Dandelion

Dear The Burning Dandelion,

Plants (and drugs made from plants) are wonderful things if used as God intended – medicinally.  Anything that removes the clarity of someone’s mind or makes them drunk is sinful if used recreationally (1 Cor 5:11).  Christians are to be sober-minded, so that we can properly learn, grow, and serve the Lord (1 Thess 5:6).  The devil loves an addled brain, and the moment we stop thinking clearly, he is ready to pounce (1 Pet 5:8).  Furthermore, the body is a temple and should be treated as God intended – not destroyed with drugs (1 Cor 6:19).  Drugs destroy your body and mind.  You were bought with a price; glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:20).

I am a born-again believer, and I have a good friend who is also.  My friend recently lost her dad due to a sudden heart attack.  She is grieving.  Her relationship with her dad was not all that she wanted it to be, and after she was saved (which has been well over ten years ago), she had shared with her dad what Christ had done in her life.  What is more painful is that her dad did grow up in a Christian home, but he never accepted Christ.  My friend is frustrated with the sentiment that christians can find comfort in knowing their loved ones went to heaven.  She asked me where her comfort is when she knows her dad was not a christian, and he did not go to heaven.  All anyone says to her is that you don’t know what went on in the last moments of his life, but she is certain there was probably no last moment conversion for her father.  While she has the comfort of her faith for herself, how is a believer to find peace or acceptance in the reality that a close loved one went to hell?

Sincerely,
Friend Of The Mourning

Dear Friend Of The Mourning,

The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is, at times, almost unbearable.  That pain can be amplified when we do not have hope of someday seeing that person in heaven.

God says that He finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek 33:11).  That tells you that God will not send anyone to hell by accident, from spite, or out of malicious intent.  Anyone who ends up in hell really, truly belongs there.  When your friend’s father faces God on the Day of Judgment, God will make the right decision concerning his fate.  There is some comfort in knowing that God will not make any mistakes.

God has a deeper, more complete understanding of eternity than you or I do.  He is completely loving (1 Jn 4:8).  If your friend’s father goes to hell, it will be because the most loving and wise God of all creation knew that was where her father chose to be.  Ultimately, there are some sorrows and tears that pain us so deeply that we will never get complete comfort this side of heaven… but your friend can know that when she gets there – all tears will be wiped away (Rev 21:4).

The parable of the Prodigal Son gives us one perspective of how God views those that come back to Him and His teachings after straying and how this is a blessing and pleasing unto Him… however, 2 Peter 2:20-22 makes it seem that this is worse in God’s eyes than never following His Word in the first place.  Which is the case?  Thank you!!

Sincerely,
Looking For The Upside

Dear Looking For The Upside,

The story of the prodigal son (found in Lk 15:11-32) is the story of the lost returning to Christ… 2 Pet. 2:20-22 is the exact opposite.  Peter is talking about faithful people who return to the wickedness of sinful living.  If someone becomes a christian and then, once again, gets entangled in worldly living – they are worse off than they were to start with (2 Pet 2:20).  When we know the truth and don’t obey it, we have the same eternal destination as before… but we can’t plead ignorance anymore.  As long as we are still breathing, there is the possibility of returning to God, but it is a lot harder for an “ex-christian” to return to the truth than it is for an honest-but-ignorant person to obey God’s Word.

Have you ever heard of “hopeless hope”?  If so, what is it and where can it be found in the Bible?

Sincerely,
Uplifted

Dear Uplifted,

We believe the verse you are thinking of is Romans 4:18.  When Abraham was promised a child, he was a hundred years old, and his wife, Sarah, had never bore a child (Rom 4:19).  Yet, in spite of these facts, Abraham believed God.  Abraham’s faith in God was in direct contradiction to all logic.  Abraham had zero reason to hope for a son… but Abraham hoped anyway.  That is what the Scriptures mean when they say that Abraham “hoped against hope”.  Trusting in God when all normal logic says that you will fail – that is hopeless hope.  Hope that exists in spite of the evidence is the purest form of faith.  When we do what God says when there is seemingly no benefit for obedience, we truly place our trust in the Lord.  Our faith comes alive when we do what God says (Jas 2:21-24).

Throughout the Bible, I’ve seen the words “god” and “God”.  Someone told me that the capital “G” for god is for a reason.  So I assumed that for the small “g” god, the Bible is referring to any god like Molech, Dagon, Marduk, Bel, etc.  The capital “G” for God in the Bible is referring to an all-powerful and almighty God and also the creator of heaven and Earth, and there’s only one god that matches that description: Yahweh.  No other god is all-powerful and almighty and also the creator of heaven and Earth, only one.  In other words, no other gods can compete with His authority.  The same thing can be said about the Holy Spirit.  When there’s “spirit” with a small “s”, it’s referring to any spirit, but with a capital “S”, it’s the Holy Spirit.  Am I correct about everything I’ve just said?

Sincerely,
Feeling Capital

Dear Feeling Capital,

The capital letters were added into the English translations of the Bible, but they didn’t exist in the original Greek and Hebrew.  The capital ‘G’ is intended to tell you that it is talking about Jehovah… not idols, and the capital ‘S’ was added to tell you that the verse is talking about God’s Spirit, not any other spirit.  These capitals were added for clarity’s sake, but in reality, they are merely commentary from the translators.  The Greek and Hebrew do not provide the capitals, and context is what decides whether a verse is talking about the God or a god.  Most of the times that the translators added this capitalization, they have been right… but to be fair, we must remember that this punctuation isn’t found in the originals.