Questions Christians Avoid: Will all my non-Christian friends go to hell?

Introduction

I grew up in a subdivision just outside of Zeeland. My mom’s parents lives in town. My dad’s parents lived on the south side of Holland. The summer I turned 9, I was finally allowed the 2 1/2 miles into town where my friends and I would buy candy from Bunte’s Pharmacy and dream of buying a lego set from the Ace Hardware store.

Today, this might feel like a lot of freedom for a 9 year old on a bike, but you should also know, we had to ride past my grandma’s house on the way downtown, my mom’s aunt worked at the hardware store and my mom and grandma had both worked at the pharmacy and my mom was still the primary seamstress for the women’s clothing shop downtown. Everywhere we went, someone knew us. Either from my family, my school or my church.

Growing up, all my grandparents and aunts and uncles attended church regularly. All the kids in my Christian school class attended church. Almost all of the kids in my neighborhood attended church or at least had a home church they said they attended. Literally, I everyone I came into contact with was a Christian or at least pretended to be one.

When I started graduate school, that reality changed quickly for me. Suddenly, none of my closest friends at school were Christians. Some were Hindu. Some were Jewish. Some said they were Christian, but never prayed, read a Bible, or attended church. And some never thought about God at all.

My experience at Indiana is much closer to my kids experience today. Not all their aunts and uncles go to church regularly. Not all of their adult cousins attend regularly. Not all of their friends are Christians and almost no one feels pressure to pretend they have a church anymore. And so a question that felt very theoretical when I was a child feels much more relevant and emotionally fraught today.

What happens to the people who don’t believe when they die? Do we have to believe in a fiery hell where people are in agony forever to be a Christian? Would God really punish people forever for sins they committed over 70 years? What do we do with hell?

To answer that question, we are going to look at one of the passages that has haunted me the most in all of scripture.

Before we dive into scripture this morning, let us pray for God’s blessing on the reading of his word.

Text

Matthew 25:31–46 NIV

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

L: This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

P: Praise to you, O Christ!

What Happens When We Die?

What Happens After What Happens When We Die?

So what?