I Want To Go To Hell

February 27, 2012

So I’ve told you how concerned my children get for their cousin. That concern went to a whole new level this week for our son. While sitting around talking after dinner one evening (my attention was divided – I was also working on paperwork) our son blurts out “I want to go to Hell”. He’s made the comment before but this week it took on a tone that was very unsettling for me; and apparently for my husband as well. We both stopped what we were doing and looked at him. “Why?” my husband asked. “I would go to Hell if Sue (not her real name) could go to Heaven.” I wanted to cry. My reaction was to run to my son, grab him by the shoulders, and while shaking him say ‘Don’t ever let me hear you say that again!’ Fortunately for our family my husband was quicker than me. After some further probing we realized that our son thought he could save his cousin.

We knew he was concerned about her. And we knew that he knew she wasn’t born-again. What we didn’t know was just how deeply he felt for her soul. My husband sat with our son and explained that his going to Hell was not going to save his cousin. “Why not?” he asked. “Can I save you?” Daddy asked. “No.” “Who is the only One that can save?” Daddy continues. “Jesus.”

From there my husband explained that the only way ‘Sue’ was going to Heaven was to repent and seek forgiveness and follow God. That was a choice she had to make and was not something he could do for her.

Sunday ‘Sue’ received a sermon on repentance.

Our son believed he could trade his soul for his cousin’s and was willing to do so. A lie I believe was planted by Satan. I thank God my husband was around to handle that one; I think I would have blown it.

I know pride is a sin; but when I think about my son who was willing to condemn himself to an eternity in Hell in order to save someone he loved very much, I must admit I feel pride.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13

SAC'RIFICE, v.t. sac'rifize. [L. sacrifico; sacer, sacred, and facio, to make.]

1. To offer to God in homage or worship, by killing and consuming, as victims on an altar; to immolate, either as an atonement for sin, or to procure favor, or to express thankfulness; as, to sacrifice an ox or a lamb. 2Sam. 6.

2. To destroy, surrender or suffer to be lost for the sake of obtaining something; as, to sacrifice the peace of the church to a little vain curiosity. We should never sacrifice health to pleasure, nor integrity to fame.

3. To devote with loss.

Condemn'd to sacrifice his childish years to babbling ignorance and to empty fears.

4. To destroy; to kill.

SAC'RIFICE, v.i. To make offerings to God by the slaughter and burning of victims, or of some part of them. Ex. 3.

SAC'RIFICE, n. [L. sacrificium.]

1. An offering made to God by killing and burning some animal upon an altar, as an acknowledgment of his power and providence, or to make atonement for sin, appease his wrath or conciliate his favor, or to express thankfulness for his benefits. Sacrifices have been common to most nations, and have been offered to false gods, as well as by the Israelites to Jehovah. A sacrifice differs from an oblation; the latter being an offering of a thing entire or without change, as tithes or first fruits; whereas sacrifice implies a destruction or killing, as of a beast. Sacrifices are expiatory, impetratory, and eucharistical; that is, atoning for sin, seeking favor, or expressing thanks.

Human sacrifices, the killing and offering of human beings to deities, have been practiced by some barbarous nations.

2. The thing offered to God, or immolated by an act of religion.

My life if thou preserv'st, my life thy sacrifice shall be.

3. Destruction, surrender or loss made or incurred for gaining some object, or for obliging another; as the sacrifice of interest to pleasure, or of pleasure to interest.

4. Anything destroyed.

Adventures in Discipleship