Atheism – Media 4 Life Ministries

Hell is for real

Many have raised the question and discussed the existence of a literal place called Hell. Is Hell for real? I believe that it is, in fact Jesus Himself spoke more about the literal existence of Hell than anybody else in the Bible. Another word for Hell is the lake of fire mentioned four times in the book of Revelation. What is that place and where is it?

I don’t think that anyone really knows for sure.

There are some that believe that hell is in the center of the earth, while others believe that it may be far out in the universe i.e. the outer darkness Jesus spoke off. “And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Mat 25:30. This phrase was used by the Lord three times in the gospel of Matthew.

The word Hell appears 32 times in all of the Bible. In the Hebrew the word hell is Sheol. According to the concordance the word Sheol can mean: underworld, grave, hell, pit. The OT designation for the abode of the dead or: 1) place of no return 2) without praise of God. 3) wicked sent there for punishment. 4) righteous not abandoned to it. 5) of the place of exile. 6) of extreme degradation in sin.

In the New Testament which was written in the Greek the word Hell/Sheol is translated as Gehenna. Here is what the concordance list as to what it means: 1) Hell is the place of the future punishment call “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.

The Apostle Peter in his second epistle uses the word tartaroo to describe Hell. Concordance: 1) the name of the subterranean region, doleful and dark, regarded by the ancient Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead, where they suffer punishment for their evil deeds; it answers to Gehenna of the Jews. 2) to thrust down to Tartarus, to hold captive in Tartarus.

I believe that Peter used this word because he was writing to a Greek audience and they knew what he meant by the word Tartaroo.

There are many even within Christendom that either flat-out deny the existence of Hell or fail to speak about from the pulpit. Just as many deny the existence of Satan i.e. the Devil. Universalism teaches that there is no Hell and that eventually everybody will be saved. Then there are those that would say, if God is so loving, why does He sent people to Hell?

First of all, God does not send people to Hell, they send themselves there by rejecting His free gift of salvation which is through His Son Christ Jesus. He did not come into the world to send people to Hell, He came to set people free from sin and the white throne judgment of God that all of those who reject Jesus will have to face one day.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” John 3:16-20.

Many people know John 3:16, but many forget to read the other verses to get the full context of what Jesus was saying. God loves us and he demonstrated His love by giving His only begotten Son, but many do not want to believe, do not care or simply reject Him. All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God (Rom 3:23). All of us have broken God’s divine laws and we deserve punishment.

God by His Mercy and Grace has provided a way to avoid that judgment and that is through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Those who believe by faith will be saved and inherit eternal life. Those who reject will have a different destiny; Hell or eternal separation from God.

Some may say that God does not exist, therefore Hell does not exist. Can they really be sure? Can they be sure hat there is nothing after death? I may not be able to proof the existence of God or Hell to an unbeliever or someone who rejects God completely, but I know that I know that God is for real, heaven is for real and unfortunately Hell is for real.

God does not want anybody to end up in Hell and I believe that He makes every effort to save people from that place. He does this through His word and the witness of others that share the gospel. People have to really harden their hearts before God let’s them go, just as Pharaoh did. It is not God that hardens the hearts of people. God gave Pharaoh many chances to listen to Him, but Pharaoh hardened his heart each time and rejected, until God finally let him go.

I hope that there are many out there that have a soft heart that hear the call and the voice of God. This world as we know it is coming to an end. I don’t know the day or the hour, we are on God’s prophetic time clock. Looking at the world today, it’s a few seconds before midnight.

I’m no expert on Hell either, neither do I want to be, I never wanna see or be at that place wherever it may be. I hope that if you are an unbeliever and read this, not to laugh it off, but to at least think about what Jesus said and what He did. Jesus did for us what we could not do ourselves. He died for you and me, taking our deserved punishment so that we can spend eternity with Him. Eternity is a long time and there are only two destinations; Heaven or Hell. Which one will you choose?

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6.

Good without God?

Atheist or Anti-theist are pushing their agenda with the ultimate goal to remove God from the government, schools and public life. Atheist believe that without religion, society would be better off and the world would be more peaceful.

Religion in their view is outdated and obsolete. They argue that we have made many advances in science, the medical field and we possess a higher knowledge than our forefathers did. They believe that all the answers can be found in science and human wisdom. They believe that with human reasoning and science they can fix most of the problems facing modern society and the world today.

One of their arguments is, “if we could just get rid of these religious people the world would be a better place.” They have billboards and signs on buses that read: “There is probably no God” and “you can be good without God.” Atheist and Anti-theist have become increasingly outspoken over the last few decades and the liberal media outlets have given them a platform to do so. Although Atheist are a minority in this country and the world , people like Atheist Bill Maher have their own shows on cable TV.

Just recently, Bill Maher ridiculed Tim Tebow again and again because of Tim’s faith in Jesus Christ. He mocked him because he prays on the field and speaks openly about Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. I have not heard Maher and others attacking Muslims, Buddhist and Hindus in the media as they attack Christians and Christianity. Are they afraid to speak out about Islam? Are we dealing with hypocrites that attack one faith only, Christianity? Political correctness has taken over this country and made it almost impossible to say anything in the media or in public about other faith groups like the Muslim faith for example. The liberal media is very quick to report on people who speak out against Islam and the Islamic Sharia law.

People that voice their concerns about radical Islam and it’s teachings are called by the media, Islamophobic. The liberal media seems to have no problem with Christian bashing on TV. Shows like Maher’s mock Jesus Christ and His followers, ridiculing them because of their faith. Would this country be better off without God? I don’t think so. We are already witnessing a vast moral decline in society. If we remove the God of the Bible completely from public life, this country and the world would be in chaos. The moral values that we once had would be forgotten and everybody would do what’s right in their own eyes. The US constitution is based on biblical principles, the ethic and moral law that we all enjoy can be found in the pages of the Bible.

The founding fathers, although not all of them were believers wrote the constitution with the ten commandments and the laws of the Torah as a guide. Many want to deny this today, trying to change the history of this country by adding things that are not true. Go to Washington DC and look at the US Supreme Court House. On the Western facade, you find the words “Equal Justice Under Law” and on Eastern facade, “Justice the Guardian of Liberty.” The Eastern facade has Moses holding the two tablets with the 10 commandments as the law giver. Our moral and ethical values come from the 10 commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

The judiciary laws are based on biblical principles. If we take God and the Bible out of the equation, how would this world look? Who would set the moral standards, who would decide what is right and what is wrong? What is right for somebody may not be right for somebody else.

If we solely base morality on human reason alone instead of God, how would this world look? There are already plenty of people in society today that think there is nothing wrong with killing or raping someone. Nothing wrong with stealing from others. If we build a society based on human reasoning and human understanding without God or the ten commandments, society as we know would cease to exist.

The reason that we are still live in a somewhat civil society is because of believing Christians that stand for conservative principles. I’m not saying that every non believer or liberal person is bad, but in general a liberal mindset has no boundaries. It’s a view of compromise, tolerance towards those with the same mind, but the most intolerant people against those in opposition. Atheist and liberals look at issues as grey, rather than black or white. That is a dangerous view to have because it is clouded and uncertain. Jesus said, “Let you yes be yes and your no be no, everything else is of the evil one.” Religions have been around since the beginning, all religions have one thing in common, a set of moral and ethic rules to live by. These different religions have much in common when it comes to moral and ethical values. Who gave mankind moral values? People intrinsically know when they did something wrong. They know that certain behaviors are wrong. How do they know?

Is it because God has given mankind moral standards that are instilled in every human being? I heard a story of missionaries that went into the deepest jungle in South America and reached a people who were totally isolated from the world. They had a custom of revenge killing. After month and month of ministering to the tribal people and telling them about Jesus and salvation and forgiveness through Him, the chief told them a story. A family member was killed by a rival tribe and as it was their custom, he sought out the person and killed him in return. Justice was served in their belief. The missionary spoke in length with the chief and ask him how he felt killing someone. The chief answered that he knew it was wrong, but he did it anyways and felt terrible afterwards. God gave us all a conscience. Instinctively we know what’s right or wrong. God’s law is written on our hearts, some just ignore and refuse God’s law and have hardened their hearts.

So, my fellow Atheist, you may deny God and His existence. You may want to shout from the roof tops, “I can be good without God.” The fact is His laws are written on your heart. If you want to get rid of God from society, the society will collapse sooner or later. There are some Godless societies, North Korea would be one. Maybe that would be a good model for us to learn from? Instead of worshiping God, people worship the supreme leader.

“Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.” Patrick Henry.

“It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.” Benjamin Franklin.

“Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.” Patrick Henry.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Thomas Jefferson.

“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.” Noah Webster.

The Atheist Dilemma (media4lifeministries.com)
Human Reasoning or God’s Standard’s? (media4lifeministries.com)
I Was an Atheist Like You Before I Found Jesus (fallenfromgrace.net)
Bill Maher – Anti-Tebow Tweet Not Much of a Joke (fueledbyscotch.wordpress.com)
A case of Blasphemy by Bill Maher. Why do people hate Jesus so much? What can we do? (pastormikesays.wordpress.com)

The Atheist Dilemma

Atheists or Anti-theists love to make the statement, “there is no God!” I had numerous conversations with anti-theists which lead nowhere except around and around in circles. An Atheist strongly believes that there is no God, just as I strongly believe God exist. Sometimes I wonder why atheists are so outspoken against something they claim does not exist. They even have their own symbol and hold conventions, and meetings of “Free Thinkers”. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, who recently expired, and many others have written numerous books on their belief’s.

Before I was a believer, I never thought of going around mocking Christians and their faith and belief’s in God. Atheists, however, go out of their way pushing their godless agenda. Atheists can get pretty upset when I call atheism a religion. Their statement of “there is no God” is an empty statement, because they cannot for a fact disprove God. Neither can I necessarily prove the existence of God. In my view an atheist has thoroughly examined all the evidence and has come to the conclusion in his or her mind that God does not exist.

Since the atheists can not disprove God for a fact, their belief that God does not exist is by faith. As a believer I know with an absolute certainty that God exist and that God is the creator of all things. I have not seen God, but I believe by faith just as the atheist believes by faith. When I say God, I mean the God of the Bible, YHWH, the only true and living God. God is only a title and there are many god’s. It can get confusing sometimes because people have made so many of their own god’s in the past and present. The Bible speaks very clearly about the natural man, which in this case, the atheist is, a natural man without any kind of true spiritual understanding. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 2Cr 2:14.

It is a fact that unbelievers and rejecters of God have no spiritual understanding or relationship in any way to the true and living God. The dilemma for the atheists is that they can not be sure that there is no God. One thing believers and unbelievers share is that, at one point in our life, we will have to face death. One out of one dies and that is reality. The question for the atheist is, what happens at the moment of passing? Blackness, darkness, nothingness? The light switch just get’s turned off? What if you are wrong, my dear atheist? What if there is something that happens at the moment of death? The writer of Hebrews wrote this: “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment..” Heb 9:27.

What if he is right, my atheist friend? Can you stand before God on your Day of Judgment having rejected Him? The only unpardonable sin is the rejection of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I would not want to be in your shoes on that day. Are you 100% sure that God does not exist? Because if not, I would really take some time to learn about Jesus. Meet the real Jesus, not the one portrayed on the History Channel or Discovery channel. Start with the gospel of John. Jesus said, “seek and you shall find,” Matthew 7:7. I think that the atheist community is in a dilemma because, if their theory proofs to be wrong, there is much to fear: Eternal separation from God. Even the unbelievers are still getting blessed by God, which will end one day, either when they die or on Judgment Day, at the end of the age.

The Bible teaches that today is the day of salvation. Seek God before it is too late. I hope and pray that any proclaiming atheist reads this to at least investigate who Jesus is, why He came and died on the cross for the sin of the world. The glorious promise of eternal life He gave to all of those who believe in Him by faith. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Mat 7:13, 14. Jesus does not want anyone to perish but to have everlasting life. Are you sure that when you die there is nothing? Think about it.

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.” Psalm 14:1

Believers in Jesus are not any better than anybody else. We are sinners just like everybody else. We are fallen creatures that were forgiven by Jesus Christ through His sacrifice on the cross. Heaven is not full of good people, but of forgiven sinners.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.