“You’re going to hell.” The masses snicker and scoff at this phrase. Some find it irritating, but mostly it’s just plain confusing.

If Christians are all about love, why do they condemn people to hell?

Moreover, if God is supposed to be accepting and forgiving, why would he damn people for eternity?

“Surely, the Big Guy’s above that,” many quip.

Why the apparent hypocrisy? The inconsistency?

If God is God, why can’t He see beyond our insignificant moral failings?

Why does He get so hung up on the details of our recreational activities?

Secondly, why do Christians say, “You could be the nicest guy in hell?”

What if I volunteer for every charitable cause, love and accept everyone, and always think good thoughts?

Surely I’ll go to heaven if anyone will. Why wouldn’t I?

It just doesn’t seem to be fair or make sense.

In all of history, the man who stretched out his hand to the outcasts of society and showed the purest form of love was Jesus Christ.

He lived an indisputably perfect example of how we should live.

Yet, through all of his love, acceptance and compassion, he never said, “I see the good in all of you and one day we’ll all be in paradise together.”

No. Jesus said, “No man shall come to the Father except through me.”

Sure, we’re all lovable, and God loves us all beyond comparison. But there’s a more serious underlying issue here.

We’re bound to the curse of Satan because of sin, which means that we are cursed to be under his control.

The only way for us to get out from under that control, that curse, is to believe in Jesus as the “way, the truth and the life.”

It’s like C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

There’s this curse on the land and the White Witch freezes everyone, tricking them with yummy “turkish delight.”

But then Aslan says that she can shear him and slaughter him if she’ll release the curse from upon the people.

Thrilled at the chance to “defeat” Aslan, she agrees to his offer. Her followers eagerly tie him up, cut him up and torture him, but she doesn’t realize that Aslan’s power is so incredible that he can come back to life.

And he does. And the curse is broken. And the people are free.

But the battle between good and evil continues.

And you have to have a healthy fear of the unseen power and forces.

And you have to believe in the Lion, what he did once and that he will come back for his followers.

So, now that I might have seemed completely vague, let me re-phrase this.

Yes, God loves us. Yes, he wants all of us in heaven.

But we cannot go, no matter how much He wants us to, unless we adhere to and accept the broken curse.

God says in 1 Corinthians 6:9, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards will inherit the kingdom of God.”

The reason that God cares about the details of what I do with my weekend in secret or public, and with whom, is because to live in that lifestyle is to bow to Satan and not God.

Those ways are not creations of God, but of Satan, and if you follow Satan’s ways, the curse remains accordingly.

I promise you that anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ, his crucifixion and the curse-breaking resurrection power will not be resurrected in that same power.

Not because God doesn’t want you to go, but because you’re still bound to the powers of Satan, therefore you are technically his.

Hence, you will (or would at this time) live where he will live: hell.

“Surely, the Big Guy’s above all that.”

Yes, he is.

And that’s why he rose from the dead in power.

And that’s why he defeated Satan and sacrificed his Son for us, so that we can be with him for eternity.

However, because manipulation and control are satanic and not heavenly, he will not force us to come to him.

He won’t shove it in your face unless you’re looking for or want to find the truth.

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April Goodwin is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Ames. She is a Jesus fanatic. [Editor’s note: She really is!]