The Gospel Of Repentance

  What causes someone to make that statement, I no longer believe in God?! Someone declared to a podcast host recently that she no longer believes in God due to some tragedy and evil that has devastated her life. The reply from the host was the thing that has come upon you has affected billions of people around the world. You believed in God then, why don’t you believe in God now that you are suffering? I am paraphrasing, but that was the gist of his reply to the person that complained to him. I agree with his reply, but he should have gotten to the root of the problem – man’s sinful nature. That is the reason we suffer pain, poverty, disease and death. Also, to his credit he said that God is not a “celestial butler.” His exact words. He is correct. God is not our cosmic Jeanie in a bottle. God is not here to serve and grant our wishes. It is the other way around. We exist to serve and glorify Him. Because of mankind’s sin, death is working in all of us. It is a universal sentence

  Yesterday my daughter let me hear a segment of a sermon she was listening to that concerned her. The minister declared in his message that, “A person does not go to hell because of sin because they are covered by the blood of Christ. A person goes to hell due to unbelief!”   While it is true that a person will go to hell due to unbelief, the way the minister presents his case is misleading. How? Any unforgiven sin against the Lord can send a person to hell – not just unbelief. Judas Iscariot was a believer in Christ, yet he went to hell. Why? Not because of unbelief. But because he never repented of his sins to God. He committed suicide due to his sin of betrayal of the Lord Jesus for money (Matthew 27:3-5).   Another problem with his logic is that he is implying that all sin is forgivable except unbelief. Is not unbelief in the atonement of Jesus a sin too? Yes, it is. All sin is forgivable, including unbelief.   As long as a person does not die in unbelief, the word of God is pow