Hell? Really?

The details are not exact, but this one day I was washing dishes at a friend's house and I heard a mother and her two little children playing outside. We were next door to a church of scientology or something of that sort, and they were playing in the church's playground. The kids were pretty hyper, running around and having a blissful time. The mother was kinda just watching over them, not actively playing with them but making sure they were safe and pushing them on the swings every now and then. They were all enjoying themselves in a kind of fun, peaceful way.

And I thought to myself, according to my beliefs, this mother is going to hell (granting the assumption that she's not a Christian). Wow. Do I really believe this? I mean, yes I believe it. But what I'm acknowledging intellectually is difficult to bring to bear with what is before my eyes, a mother playing with her children.

In a classroom it's a little easier to say yes, man is totally depraved. In an act of cosmic insurrection he has displaced God's rightful place on the throne of his life and taken it for himself, and for that justice demands wrath. Moreover, condemnation to hell, eternal damnation, is God saying to the sinner, "thy will be done"; it's allowing the person the dignity of their choice, and when we rebel and refuse to stop our rebellion, hell is allowing us that choice.

I keep washing the dishes, and I think, but still. This mother playing with her children? Eternal damnation?

I have more to say about this, but, I'd like you the reader to comment what you guys think about that. Comments is the funs.