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Hell—no place for a family reunion

After one lecture a young woman came up to me and explained that she definitely did not want to be converted to Jesus. Her reasoning aston­ished me:

“I had a very close bond to my mother and loved her very much. She died when I was 20. She did not believe, and after what you have said today, she will be in Hell. I want to be there, where my mother is.”

I explained to her to reconsider three aspects:

Firstly: No-one can say of another with certainty that that person is in Hell. Two criminals were crucified alongside Jesus. The mother of one of the thieves would certainly have been convinced that her son was lost, since to her knowledge, he too was not a believer. She would have judged him by her knowledge of the way he lived. After he was con­demned as a criminal, he was sentenced to death on a cross. In the last minute before his death he cried out to Jesus:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus gave him the assurance: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). We will meet this thief in Heaven.

During her lifetime, your mother would also have heard of Jesus. We simply do not know, whether or not in her dying moments she called up­on Jesus. The Bible teaches: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [Jesus] will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Secondly: Consider please: Hell is no place for a family reunion—even if we follow your thought for the moment and assume that you and your mother would one day both be in the place of lostness. The lovelessness and hopeless apathy reigning there would in any case annul all bonds of affection that existed on Earth. Hell thus becomes the loneliest place im­aginable.

Thirdly: There is a further reason why you would not meet your mother in Hell. In Matthew 22:13, Jesus describes Hell as a place of darkness. One does not find anyone in the dark.

So I can only give you the one piece of advice: Make a decision for Je­sus and break the gruesome chain of lostness. After all, that is the rea­son Jesus came into the world, to save us from the way of lostness.

If you were to take a new path, you would be doing something good for yourself. Your children will also one day be grateful to you, if they have been raised in the faith from an early age. 

Translation from German: Dr Carl Wieland

Dr. Werner Gitt