A big thing that I am involved with at Uni is Hot Potatoes, it is run by the Christian Union and is a lunchtime meeting where we aim to explain the christian message to anyone who wants to listen. We try and choose topical titles, or subjects that students can engage with, visit www.christian.union.shef.ac.uk/hotpots, its on my website bloglist for previous titles.

Anyway, today was 'Why does a God of love send people to Hell'. Jo Houghton(a trainee from fulwood - see website bloglist again!) was speaking and he dealt with a potentially tricky subject very well.

God is a God of love. This is important and has to be said,he is defined in the Bible many times as Love. How then can he send people to hell, which to our minds does not seem to be a very loving thing to do. For the answer we must look at other attributes of God;
1. God is Angry.
This may seem strange and again may not fit our view of love. But the Bible says that God made the World, he made each one of us, he therefore has a certain claim on our lives. Becuase he made us it is logical to say that he owns and rules over us. However, none of us from the very beginning recognise God's rule and in essence we reject him and go our own way. We want to be in charge of our own life and do not want to acknowledge the God who made us. this is what the Bible calls sin. God therefore must be angry and punish this rebelion because...

2.God is Just
As human beings we all crave justice. When people get away with crimes, or if something 'unfair' happens to us we get very upset. We want justice. Well, as we have already learnt God made and therefore rules the world however we do not live like it. We all reject his rule, and rebel against him. God must therefore punish this rebellion, this is the just, the fair thing to do. We have all rebelled against God, it makes sense therefore that we must be punished.

3. However, God loves you.#
Despite God's anger at our rejection he has done something incredible for us which means we do nothave to be punished. he sent Jesus, his only Son to come to earth on a rescue mission. On the cross, the epicentre of the christian faith, god punishes his Son instead of us. Justice is served because the wrong in the world is payed for. jesus takes the wrap. if therefore we trust Jesus, and his death on the cross, we are forgiven and accepted by the God who made the whole world..... Incredible. For a simple run down of the Chrisitian message please look at the 2 ways to live link.

Slightly longer than expected!!