God Didn’t Send Them to Hell. They Chose It.

The Word at the Table

I'm Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor, and I'm glad you're back at the table. Two words for you this week. One for your faith and one for your leadership. I want you to read both of them carefully, because both of them have the potential to shift the way you see something you thought you already understood. Let's get into it.

This Week's Word

The Opening: Most People Have the Wrong Answer to This Question

Here is a question I want you to sit with before we go anywhere else.

Who sends people to hell?

Go ahead and answer it in your head. Because most people, if they are being honest, would say God does. That God is the judge. That God determines who gets in and who does not. That at some point, God looks at a person's life, weighs it out, and makes a decision that sends them to one place or another.

And I want to tell you today that answer is not accurate.

Before this word is over, I am going to show you from the Bible exactly who sends people to hell. And I believe that when you understand this, it is going to change the way you talk about God to the people in your life who are not yet in relationship with Him. Because the story most people have been told is not the full story. And the God they think they are rejecting is not the God I know.

Part One: God Did Not Create Hell for You

We are in Part 4 of our series Eternity: Waking Up the Church on Champion's Walk. We have been building something over the last several weeks. We talked about the danger of Comfort Christianity. We walked through the manuscript evidence that makes the Bible the most verified document in human history. Last week we established that heaven is a real place with a real address, and that every born again believer is already a citizen of it.

This week we have to go to the place most people do not want to talk about.

Hell is real.

The same Bible that tells us heaven is real also tells us hell is real. You cannot accept one and dismiss the other. If the source is true, then everything it says is true. And the Word of God is consistent and clear. There are two destinations. Both are everlasting. Heaven for those who have accepted Jesus as Lord. And hell for those who have chosen not to.

Faith Anchor #1: Ignoring hell doesn't mean it's not a real place.

There are people who will say they believe in heaven but not in hell. I understand the appeal of that. It is more comfortable. But comfort is not the standard for truth. God's Word is. And here is what the Word tells us.

Revelation 20:10 NKJV says the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Daniel 12:2 NKJV tells us that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. These are not emotional arguments. These are the words of a God who told us exactly how the story ends.

But here is where I want to pause, because I need you to understand something before we go any further.

God did not create hell for you.

When God created hell, it was not with you in mind. It was never meant for you. It was created as an eternal punishment for the devil and the fallen angels who followed him. That is what the Word tells us. Hell was not designed for mankind. It was designed for Satan and his kingdom.

Now let me tell you what hell actually is, because I think a lot of people have a surface-level idea of it that does not capture the full weight of it.

Hell is everlasting separation from the presence of God.

I want you to let that land. Because people tend to focus on the fire, the torment, the conditions. And those things are real. But the deepest, heaviest part of hell is not any of those things. The worst part of hell is the complete and permanent absence of God.

Think about this with me. Even now, in a world full of darkness, full of brokenness, full of people who want nothing to do with God, His presence is still here. There is always some remnant of it holding back what would otherwise be the full onset of destruction. You may not always feel it. You may not always see it. But it is there. He is there.

Faith Anchor #2: The worst part of hell isn't the fire. It's the absence of God.

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 NKJV describes the eternal consequence as everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. That scripture is not talking about the fire. It is talking about being separated from His presence and from the glory that holds everything together. For a soul that has spent any portion of its life with even a trace of God nearby, the total, permanent, eternal absence of Him will be unlike anything the human mind can fully comprehend right now.

That is not meant to frighten you. It is meant to wake you up.

Because here is what this series is called. Eternity: Waking Up the Church. And if I am going to wake up the church, I have to be willing to have the conversations that are uncomfortable. Hell is real, it is forever, and it matters who you talk to about it.

Who Actually Sends People to Hell?

Now let me answer the question I opened with. Because this is the part I need you to carry with you.

God does not send anyone to hell.

He sets the choice before us. He even tells us which one to choose. Deuteronomy 30:19 NKJV says it plainly. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.

He is not withholding anything. He is not making it complicated. He set out two paths, and then He told you which one to take. That is not the action of a God who wants people to perish. That is the action of a Father who loves His children enough to be direct with them.

And then He did something even more significant. He sent His Son.

The cost of heaven is not moral perfection. The cost of heaven is not a long enough list of good deeds. Romans 10:9 NKJV tells us that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That is it. That is the criteria. Believe and confess. Be born again and your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Salvation is a free gift. Mankind did nothing to earn it and nothing to deserve it. The only thing that called it forth was the love of a Father who could not stand the thought of being separated from His children for eternity.

Faith Anchor #3: God never locks anyone out of heaven. People choose not to enter.

So when people say God sends people to hell, I want you to have an answer for that. Because God gives every person free will. He gives every person an opportunity. He set the criteria clearly, He made the price achievable for everyone regardless of their background or their history, and He even tells you which choice to make. What He does not do is force anyone.

2 Peter 3:9 NKJV tells us that the Lord is not slack concerning His promises, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He is not impatient. He is not quick to close the door. He is longsuffering. He is pursuing. He is always making a way to get a person's attention, always sending someone across their path, always speaking in the quiet.

But when a person persistently chooses to say no, God honors that choice. Because He loves people enough to give them free will. And free will means the choice is real. When someone chooses not to accept Jesus, not because they never had the opportunity but because they decided they did not want Him, they have made an eternal decision with eternal consequences.

John 3:19 NKJV tells us that this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The condemnation is not God sending a verdict. The condemnation is a person choosing darkness after the light has already shown up. It is rejecting Jesus and choosing to stay unrepentant. That is what sends a person to hell. Not a decision God made about them, but a decision they made about God.

Rejecting Jesus and staying unrepentant is the choice that sends people to hell.

Church, we have to wake up. Not to become judges of the people around us, but to become more urgent about reaching them. Every person in your life who does not know Jesus is making daily choices that are moving them toward or away from an eternal destination. You have the message that changes that trajectory. You have the evidence. You have the Word. And you have a God who loves them so much He made the price free.

The way you have been thinking about who sends people to hell, and why it matters to talk about this with the people around you, I believe that shifts today.

Part Two: Opposition Is Not a Stop Sign

Let me bring you the second word today, and this one is for every leader, entrepreneur, and high performer who has been pushing toward something meaningful and feels like the resistance is getting louder the closer you get.

I want to talk to you about overcoming opposition.

You have probably heard the idea that when you are doing the right thing, everything should fall into place. That when you are called to something, the path is smooth. And there is truth in that. But there is also another side of the story that nobody talks about enough. Sometimes the thing you are most called to do is the thing that meets the most opposition. And when you do not understand what opposition actually is, it can look like a reason to stop when it is actually a signal to keep going.

Here is the first thing I want you to lock in. Opposition is confirmation, not cancellation.

The enemy does not waste energy on things that do not matter. If you are building something meaningless, nobody shows up to fight you. Resistance tends to show up when you are doing something that is actually going to make a difference. So when the pushback comes, the first thing I want you to do is recognize that you are on the right path.

Leadership Truth Bomb #1: Opposition is often the echo of your progress.

You are progressing so loudly, making such an impact, that what is coming back at you in the form of opposition is simply the echo of the ground you are taking. It is not a wall. It is a sound wave bouncing back from how hard you have been pushing. When you understand that, the same opposition that used to shrink you will start to fuel you.

I also want to say this to you because I have lived it. There have been things God asked me to do where I felt like every force was lined up against me the moment I stepped into it. And in those moments, I had a choice. I could look at what was waging against me and decide it was a sign I missed it. Or I could recognize that the opposition itself was confirmation that I was right on time.

I chose the second one every time. And I am still here building.

Think about resistance training in the gym. Nobody gets stronger without resistance. The weight fights you. Your muscles burn. Every signal in your body tells you to stop. But you push through one more rep, and that rep is the one that builds what the next level requires. Your life works the same way. What is pressing against you right now might be the exact weight that is building the strength your next move is going to need.

Leadership Truth Bomb #2: Don't let uncertainty shrink your posture.

In seasons of opposition, your confidence has to speak louder than your circumstances do. Your circumstances are going to try to talk to you. They are going to tell you to quit, that you went too far, that it is not going to work, that you should have stayed where it was safe. You cannot let that voice be the loudest one in the room.

You keep your head up. You stand tall even when your next step feels shaky. Posture sets the tone before progress shows up. What is on the inside of you is what will come out when the pressure is on. And if what is on the inside is confidence, clarity, and faith in what you have been called to do, that is what people will see. That is what will carry you through.

Leadership Truth Bomb #3: You don't need to push back harder. You just need to hold steady a little longer.

This is one I want you to sit with. Because so many high performers, when they feel resistance, think the answer is more force. More grind. More pressure. And sometimes that is true. But sometimes the assignment is just to hold your ground a little longer. To not give up any territory. To keep doing what you know you are supposed to be doing without flinching.

When you jump in a strong current and you swim as hard as you can just to stay in place, that is not failure. That is holding ground. And sometimes holding ground is exactly what victory looks like in that season.

Push back with purpose, not panic. Reacting emotionally gives your opposition power. Responding strategically gives you leverage. Know what you are doing and why you started. Stay clear on your why. And when the opposition pushes, you push back with intention rather than reaction.

Leadership Truth Bomb #4: Victory is on the other side of resistance.

Someone is always waiting on the other side of your obedience. There is a person out there whose life is going to be changed by the thing you are building right now. The product you are creating, the service you are providing, the mission you are running toward, it has someone's name on it. And if you lay down and give up before you break through, they do not get what God sent you to bring them.

Most people give up one press away from the breakthrough. You do not have to be one of those people. Endure with expectation. Know that what is pressing against you right now is building you for what comes next. What feels heavy today is what prepares you for what you are walking into tomorrow.

Keep going, champion. You are built for this.

Take This With You

Two things this week, one for each lane.

On the faith side, I want you to walk away with a clearer picture of who God is. He is not the one sending people to hell. He is the one who set out two paths, told you which one to choose, sent His Son to pay the price for the entrance, and is longsuffering toward anyone who has not yet said yes. That is not the picture of a judge waiting to condemn. That is the picture of a Father waiting for His children to come home. And if there is someone in your life who needs to hear that, this week is the week to tell them.

On the leadership side, the next time opposition shows up, I want you to flip how you read it. Ask yourself, is this resistance confirmation that I am on the right path? Nine times out of ten, it is. Hold your posture. Stay clear on your why. Do not push back harder, just hold steady a little longer. And remember that what is pressing against you right now might be the exact thing that is building you for your next level.

From the Table Last Week

On Champion's Walk, my faith show that teaches Real Help For Real Hope, I brought you Is Hell Real? Who Actually Sends People to Hell. This is Part 4 of our series Eternity: Waking Up the Church. I broke down why hell is a real place that was never created for you, walked through what hell actually is at its core, and delivered three faith anchors on why God never sends anyone to hell and what the choice actually is that determines where a person spends eternity. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YGz7tkGSVs&list=PLMPDSgKkGZNvHLzeBuhqHvZhuCSMEQEgV

On The Executive Perspective, my leadership and business show that delivers Real Help For Real Success, I brought you How to Overcome Opposition: Why Resistance Shows Up Before the Breakthrough. I broke down why opposition is confirmation and not cancellation, walked through why your posture has to speak louder than your circumstances, and delivered four leadership truth bombs on how to hold steady and push through to the victory waiting on the other side. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gll8tll63gA&list=PLMPDSgKkGZNuJ-dNFVFCWc3lb7BmJ07mM

Until Next Time

God is not the one sending people to hell. He is the one who built a way out. His name is Jesus. And the people in your life who do not know that yet are waiting for someone to love them enough to tell them the truth.

This Wednesday on Champion's Walk, we continue our series Eternity: Waking Up the Church. You do not want to miss what is coming.

Then Saturday on The Executive Perspective, I have something powerful lined up for the leaders and entrepreneurs who are building right now. Be there.

I'll see you at the table next Tuesday.

Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor