Afterlife: Sadie Wants To Go To Hell

(dramatic music) If I find in myself a desire, which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. I was made for another world. Is there life beyond this one? Or is this life a cruel mistake? Either way, heaven or hell, I am coming for you. (gentle upbeat music) I have a secret. All my life I've had questions about my faith, about God and about religion. But now I'm going to tell you my questions, my struggles, my doubts. I hope you can handle, the truth. (upbeat music) Yeah, but although you might initially balk at the idea of hell, pause to consider this devastating truth. God honors the wishes of those who reject Him. So if you don't wanna be with God, you don't have to. I'm an atheist, I want to go to hell. Yeah, but you keep thinking of heaven and hell as places to be sent. Like, if we're mostly good people, we get heaven. But if you're like Hitler or something, you go straight to hell? Where all my friends are anyway. You just misunderstand Christianity, you think it sorts people into heaven and hell, on an apparently arbitrary basis, but the Bible tells a different story. These two have been fighting about this since sophomore year. For me, I wanna know, why did God even create humans, if He knew that He was gonna have to send some of them to hell? Hey, what the! Let's go, chop chop! Ah. (wheels rattling) Our world is infested with extreme forms of evil. From racism and slavery, to rape and murder, evil is both pervasive and systemic. Protecting someone by softening the consequences of their immoral actions, dishonors and trivializes the victim suffering. Of course, fighting evil and injustice is one thing. But sending people to hell, is another. How could a loving God send people to hell for all eternity? Simply put, hell is life without God. People go to hell because they don't want somebody telling them how to live their life. They want their own lives, their own way. If you want to be your own person, your own savior, your own Lord, that's hell. And you get that. But in some ways, the fairest understanding of the afterlife, is the Christian one, which says, God gives you what you want. (mechanical laughing) (sirens wailing) Guys, I think the neighbors just called the cops. (chuckles) What, it's not like we're doing anything. This is the same as a bike. Yeah, we just look like freaky ghosts! (group laughing) "Um, yeah, hi, officer. I think I just saw three freaky ghosts riding in a shopping cart." "Oh, freaky ghost, we'll be right over, ma'am." (laughs) No one would even believe that was real. Just like heaven and hell. Oh, come on, that isn't even a natural segue! You want me to believe that hell, is some hot, fiery place where little demons jump around holding spiky forks? That's just something they tell little kids, so they believe grownups. Hell is not a place. Hell is not a place in the traditional sense, but it is real. You're either in God's presence or you're not. And likewise, Heaven is not just a place, it's a shorthand for the full blessing of a relationship with God. If Jesus is the bread of life, loss of Jesus means we're starving. If He's the light of the world, loss of Jesus means darkness. If He's the resurrection and the life, loss of Him is eternal death. If Jesus is the lamb of God who died for us, loss of Jesus means paying the price ourselves. Man, that was expensive. (group laughing) Yeah. Sorry for being such a B earlier, I was seriously hangry. We're used to it by now. Ugh! Sadie? Hmm? When your dad died sophomore year, what did you feel about heaven before that? It's cool if you don't want to answer. No, you're, you're fine. (dramatic music) Before my dad got cancer, I always just thought that everyone would end up in heaven together. Like, when you died, you got your angel wings. And then in the hospital, all of my religious family members kept trying to get him to pray "the prayer", to make him Christian. Like it was a golden ticket or something. I'd never thought about hell until then. I miss my dad more than anything but, if going to heaven means that I don't get to be with him, then I don't want to go there. What are you asking God to do? Wipe out their past sins, give them a fresh start, forgive them? Incredibly, that's exactly what God has done, in Christ. This is the great scandal of the Christian faith. All of us, even the worst of us, can be welcomed. And when we reach the point of truly facing what we have done in our lives, the guilt will be crushed. But the grace of God extends hope and mercy, and it will be there for you. I'm sorry that happened to you, really. And I want you to know that as a Christian, it's not my place to judge your heart. Heaven isn't something we earn, it's something we choose. And, each of us has to make our own choice. Yeah, and all of this- Shut up! Keep going. Well, that love that you feel for your dad, all those beautiful memories, those are gifts from God. The same God who wants nothing more than to be with each of us. He has an open invitation to his grace for everyone. I mean, it's amazing when you think about it. Heaven is the literal presence of God, the source of everything good in our lives. Imagine losing that presence completely. That sounds like hell to me. Can I, can I talk now? No! No! (keyboard typing)