Is God Creation's Biggest Loser?

By George W. Sarris

Even asking a question like that would almost seem blasphemous . . . if it weren't for the fact most Christians have been told that’s what we’re supposed to believe!

It’s not usually expressed that plainly, of course. The preferred statement is something like,

Of course God is a winner! He wins by defeating all His enemies and casting them into hell where they will spend all eternity separated from Him!

But what is that really saying?

God loses . . . forever . . . most of those He originally created in His image!

If a manufacturing company had to throw away the majority of its products because they were defective, would it be considered a successful company?

Does God ultimately “throw away” most of those He created?

Maybe Not!

Interestingly, the Christian Church has not always taught that God ultimately loses most of His creation. In fact, for the first 500 years after Christ, many of the most prominent Christian leaders believed that God would ultimately win in the end!

In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul explained that just as God created everything and everyone in heaven and on earth through Christ, so He will ultimately reconcile to Himself everything and everyone in heaven and on earth through Christ.

Even St. Augustine, whose teaching about the eternity of hell became the dominant view in later centuries, acknowledged that in his day “some – indeed very many – deplore the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their interminable and perpetual misery.”

These early Christians believed that God doesn’t defeat evil by simply shutting it up in a corner of His creation and leaving it there forever – like some kind of cosmic graveyard keeping sinners imprisoned for all eternity. Instead, they believed He will destroy evil by transforming the hearts of evil-doers – ultimately making them into those who love goodness. At the very end of time, God will actually get everyone He created into heaven.

If my web survey is any indication, there may be a lot of people today who agree with these early Christians.

What Do You Think?

Can God really be that great? Is God’s grace really that powerful? Does God’s work in the hearts of men and women actually extend into the ages to come?

That’s a powerful thought . . . about an immeasurably powerful God! With beliefs like that, no wonder the early Christians ended up taking over the Roman Empire!

     Visit George W. Sarris on Facebook, YouTube, or his Website. To participate in the Heaven & Hell Survey, click here.

What About Grandma?

By George W. Sarris

“It is called ‘Good News,’ is it not?” she asked. “But for me, it was very bad news!”

Those words were spoken by a lovely young woman from France who was visiting my family here in America for a few days. She went on to tell us,

“I am the only Christian in my family, and I wept when I thought about my parents, my brothers and sisters, and especially my grandmother who had died. If God is loving and all-powerful, why would He let so many people suffer for so long in hell? It doesn’t make sense!

So I told God that if that is the way He is, I could not follow Him anymore. And I walked away from the faith for several years.

I eventually came back to Him. But the concern still weighs heavily upon me.”

It’s About People

The discussion about who goes to heaven and who goes to hell is not just theoretical. It’s about people. Real people. People who love and are loved by someone else. And each one of them – like this friend from France – has a mom and dad, and a grandma and grandpa. The vast majority have brothers and sisters, husbands or wives, sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

We often talk of and sing praises about the wonderful, never-ending love of God in our church services, Bible studies, and personal interaction with other believers. But are those songs and words accurate? Does God really love with an everlasting love? Or is His love conditional?

For the moms and dads . . . grandmas and grandpas . . . sons and daughters . . . relatives and friends who have not professed some kind of faith in Him here in this life, does God’s love and mercy end at the moment of death?

Why This Topic?

As we talked around the dinner table, I explained to our guest how my interest in this issue went back to when I was a third year seminary student. I had been on the staff of a major evangelistic ministry for four years before attending the school. As is true today, the standard teaching of the ministry and at the seminary was that most of the people who have ever lived will suffer consciously in hell forever.

Like our new friend from France, that meant most of the people I loved.

But that teaching didn’t fit with what I read in the Bible about the never-ending love and unlimited power of God. So, I decided to look into the issue as the topic of a research paper for one of my theology courses.

What I discovered totally surprised me . . . and even now I’m amazed that most Christians have never been told that the belief in the ultimate restoration of all things was a prominent belief in the Christian Church historically, and it has strong Biblical support.

She listened intently as I explained my conclusion that the Biblical God is not a tender-hearted but ultimately weak Being who would like to save everyone, but is ultimately unable to accomplish what He desires.

Nor is He an all-powerful Despot who chooses some to live forever in luxury beyond description, while others are chosen to experience eternally a degree of degradation that is too horrendous for our finite minds to even conceive.

On the contrary, I became convinced that the Biblical God is far greater, far more powerful, and far more wonderful than you or I have ever thought or imagined. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, He defeated sin and death completely, and will one day restore all of His creation to its original perfection.

“I have never heard this before,” she said later.  “This is really Good News!”

Why Is It Important?

Over the course of the last several years, I’ve posted numerous articles on this subject. Most of the articles have been commented on frequently. Sometimes with insightful comments from people who both agree and disagree with what I've said. Sometimes with little more than name calling.

It's an important issue because it’s about who God really is. And it’s about the people you . . . and I . . . and this friend from France love.

So, what about your grandma . . . your grandpa . . . your mom . . . your dad . . . your husband . . . your wife . . . your son . . . your daughter . . . your brother . . . your sister . . . your aunts . . . your uncles . . . your cousins . . . your friends . . . ?

Does God have a plan to eventually get all those you and He loves into heaven?

          For more information, go to my website 
or read - Heaven's Doors . . . Wider Than You Ever Believed!

Heaven & Hell Survey

By George W. Sarris

Would you be willing to take a 6 question survey about your thoughts on Heaven and Hell?

That was the question I asked people sitting in front of the Public Library in New York City on two different days last week.

As you can imagine if you’ve ever been in New York, a lot of people said “No” even before I asked the question. Others were visitors from other countries – some spoke English, some did not. One elderly couple was visiting from Israel. A man and his two daughters were from Columbia. A woman visiting from London thought it was very interesting. And, another who was born in Russia but had lived in New York for the last 20 years, looked forward to an opportunity to freely share her thoughts.

It was clearly an unscientific survey, but I wanted to see what “real” people “really” thought about the afterlife, since death – and not even taxes – is the only thing we can actually be sure of in life!

Interest in the Afterlife

There has been much discussion recently about Heaven and Hell.

On July 6, 2012, Barbara Walters hosted a 2-hour special on ABC's 20/20 entitled, Heaven: Where Is It? How Do We Get There?  In it, she interviewed people from many different faith backgrounds on their beliefs in Heaven. She touched on the issue of Hell at the end of the program. According to the website TVByTheNumbers, it was the top rated network program for the evening for adults 18-49. It beat out NBC's Dateline, as well as reruns of CSI:NY on CBS, Bones on Fox, and Supernatural on CW.

The cover story for the April 16, 2012 issue of TIME Magazine was Rethinking Heaven. The featured article focused on the writings of a number of recent scholars who have pointed out that the New Testament idea of eternal life is not just a pie-in-the-sky future reward. Rather, it is, in the words of N.T. Wright, “God's space, while earth . . . is our space. And the Bible makes it clear that the two overlap and interlock."

A little over a year ago, Rob Bell’s controversial book, Love Wins, was published. As stated in the subtitle, it was A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  It was immediately a best-seller.

So, What Do People Think?

I was encouraged by the variety of people who filled out my short survey. Willing participants were male and female of various ages, White, Black, Asian, Latin, Atheist, Buddhist, Christian, and Jewish.

As expected, those in my sample who professed to be Atheists did not believe in either Heaven or Hell, and those professing to be Agnostic generally answered “Not Sure” to both.

Half of those who claimed to be Buddhist did not believe in either Heaven or Hell. The other half was evenly split between those who believed in both and those who were not sure for both.

Among the Jewish respondents to my survey, a little over 80% believed in Heaven, but less than 20% believed in Hell.

The largest group taking the survey said they were Christians. Of that group, 84% believed in Heaven, but only 42% believed in Hell.

The large gap is undoubtedly true in part because people in modern America are increasingly coming into contact with friends, co-workers, and even family members from a variety of different faiths. People don’t like exclusivity, and they don’t want to think that those they love are going to spend an eternity in Hell where they will experience endless, conscious suffering with no hope of any kind of relief.

Interestingly, 65% of the Christians who took the survey answered that they either did not believe, or were not sure that misery in Hell was never-ending.

Who Will Ultimately Be In Heaven?

Several people commented that the most interesting question was the last one.

At the end of time, what percentage of the total population of the earth most closely represents the number of those you believe will be in Heaven? 

            __ 0% __ 10% __ 25% __ 50% __ 75% __ 100%

Some chose not to answer the question at all and, predictably, the Atheists answered 0%.

However, what was most surprising to me was that 74% of the Christians who took the survey thought that one-half or more of the total population of the world would eventually be in heaven – and only 19% believed that, ultimately, that number would include 25% or less of all those God created!

In fact, the number of people who thought 100% of the total population of the earth would ultimately be in Heaven was the same as the combined total for those who thought only 10-25% would eventually be there! One person actually put down two answers: 10% and 100% - the latter included the comment, “optimistic with hope that we all make it!”

The Survey

The information from this survey will be used in an article for the blog, Engaging the Culture, and posted on the ChristianPost.com website.

1. With which of the following religions or religious groups do you most closely identify?
__ Atheist
__ Agnostic
__ Buddhist
__ Christian (Eastern Orthodox)
__ Christian (Evangelical)
__ Christian (Mainline Protestant)
__ Christian (Roman Catholic)
__ Christian (Other)
__ Hindu
__ Islam
__ Jehovah’s Witness
__ Jewish (Reformed)
__ Jewish (Conservative)
__ Jewish (Orthodox)
__ Jewish (Other)
__ Mormon
__ Unitarian
__ Other (Specify) ____________________________

2. Do you believe in a place or state of happiness after death, commonly referred to as Heaven?
    __ Yes __ No __ Not Sure

3. Do you believe happiness in Heaven is never-ending?
    __ Yes __ No __ Not Sure

4. Do you believe in a place or state of misery after death, commonly referred to as Hell?
    __ Yes __ No __ Not Sure

5. Do you believe misery in Hell is never-ending?
    __ Yes __ No __ Not Sure

6. At the end of time, what percentage of the total population of the earth most closely represents the number of those you believe will be in Heaven?
    __ 0% __ 10% __ 25% __ 50% __ 75% __ 100%

Would YOU Like to Take the Survey?

Would you be willing to take a 6 question survey about your thoughts on Heaven and Hell?

If so, please go to my website – GeorgeWSarris.com/survey – and take it online.

If you think your friends would be interested, let them know about it. Please take the survey only once to assure an accurate result. When you click “Submit,” you will see the totals listed for each question up to that point.

Heaven and Hell are issues that affect everyone. So, what do you think?

              Visit George W. Sarris on Facebook, YouTube, or his Website