Hell

Often our minds do keep us trapped in a hell of our own making. Dwelling on the things we know about ourselves that we can't forgive or can't seem to escape from. Shame certainly is a culprit, pointing out our flaws and paralyzing us against seeking help. Then those who of no fault of their own are trapped in a living hell of the mind, like severe cases of mental illness or cases of mental abuse. These persons are trapped in a hell-like state because what they are experiencing keeps them from a vibrant relationship with God. And this is exactly one aspect of Hell. Separation from God. But we are not temporal beings, while we do have a beginning as Christians we believe that we live on after our mortal body dies.

Our understanding of God and all spiritual things are based on temporal knowledge. Or you could say our understanding of the perfect is imperfect.
We hate the word judgment because of the flawed nature of our own judicial system. We have set it up the best we can, but if you are rich you may be able to purchase the best lawyer who is good at setting the guilty free or convicting the Innocent. If you don't have any money you may have to settle for a lawyer who is less than adequate. The judge may be senile or bias against your race or gender or religious beliefs. Not to mention that he has never met you, and doesn't know anything about you. Don't get me wrong, we must have the legal system, as flawed as it is we would be worse without it. But then we make a jump from the imperfect and flawed nature of our legal system to how God handles judgement. This is normal to do, but certainly not a complete comparison. In order to do this right we must see the attributes of God.
You see God is all-knowing, everywhere, just, merciful, loving, graceful. He knew us before we were born, created us, and can see through the tunnel of time and know all our actions and true motives before we arrive at any moment in the future. Scary huh, well not really, God loves us so much and wantsto spend time with us so much, that God became a man, lived a harder life than us and paid the ultimate price for us, suffering and dying on the cross.

How does that fit in? Well the bible calls Jesus our advocate, which could be translated as lawyer. He is not a low paid public defender, he actually paid to defend us. Not only did he already take our punishment but then he comes to our defense and stands before God on our behalf. But what about those who don't know Jesus. This is the flaw in my human eyes, what about the good who don't have Jesus as a lawyer, who's debt he didn't pay? Jesus paid the dept of all mankind, he paid for the sins for all eternity, it is not his will that any one should perish but all should have eternal life. And yet we see in Revelation at the White Throne Judgement that there are people who will not spend eternity with God, but be thrown into the Lake of fire. This seems inhumane to us humans who know that there is nothing we can do to make it into heaven on our own. We know that we have been freely forgiven for all of our mistakes, why is our merciful God not as merciful for others. The answer is simple to me. God is Merciful, God is Just, God is All-Knowing, God is the Perfect Judge, God is full of Grace. I have no right to judge who will be in heaven for God. That is Gods job. My understanding is so limited I couldn't even file the papers in the courtroom of God.

What about the babies, what about the person on a mountain who never had the chance to accept or reject Christ's love for them. God has the perfect answer. I don't know what it is but God does. God knows the innermost being of every person, and knows the true answers to the questions that God has for each person. God sees our motives. God will have mercy on who God chooses and it will not be based on my understanding of who should receive it. It will be based on what should be done. God will not allow some into heaven and it will not be based on words or deeds that I think they should speak or believe, or religious actions that I think should be followed. God is bigger than my understanding of God. Jesus speaks of Heaven and he speaks of Hell. His love is unconditional toward us his creations. God wants us with him so much that he perfectly paid for our imperfections. God wants us to help the hurting, feed them, clothe them, heal their wounds and share the news about Gods love for them. We are to tell them what Jesus did on the cross and why. What they do with that information and how God judges them is not for me to know. But I know this, God knows just the right thing to do.