Heaven And Hell Are At Stake (August 10, 2003)

Gene Robinson is going to hell.

I've read many news reports about the newly confirmed (and actively gay) Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, and I've heard many responses both from other bishops and from church laymen. The comments run the predictable gamut from joy that the church has stepped forward to include God's gay children in leadership to dismay that such a sinner could ever be given ecclesiastical authority. And of course both sides are concerned about the political fallout and potential for schism in the Anglican/Episcopal fellowship.

What I haven't seen yet (and it is possible that I just haven't looked hard enough) is the simple, direct, brutally offensive statement:

Gene Robinson is going to hell.

So I'll say it. I'll speak the unspeakable. Not from joy, not out of a desire to see him go there, and certainly not from hatred for him. With God as my witness I do not hate the man. Though I don't know him, I do love him in the sense that I desire what is best for him. What is best for him is that he repent and trust Christ and be saved.

But he has not trusted Christ and he is not saved, and he shows that he is lost by steadfastly refusing to repent. Such behavior on the part of a religious authority is nothing new - you will see in Scripture how the Pharisees also sinned scandalously, took offense at being called evildoers, maintained their religious posts and refused to change their ways. Jesus did not say they were saved anyway - he pronounced the judgment of hellfire against them.

St. Paul pronounced that same judgment in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “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 male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

To "not inherit the kingdom of God" is to be shut out of it. There are no intermediate kingdoms - there is only the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. We pick. Indulge the sins listed above with an unrepentant heart, seeking no forgiveness and desiring no change, and you will have made your choice for the kingdom of the devil.

I urge fellow Christians not to be embarrassed about what the Bible teaches on this matter, not to be bullied into silence, and not to fear being labeled “intolerant.“ The stakes are too high. What is at issue here is not denominational politics or the public perception of conservative Christians, but the eternal destiny of the souls of men.