[credit_guy]

> I know that I deserve to go to hell

Why do I deserve to go to hell? My life was and continues to be pretty boring: as a child I went to school, I did my homework and got good grades, later I went to college, and later still I got a Ph.D.. Then I got a job, I got married, got kids. I continue to go to work, I get paid, pay my taxes (if you prefer, "I render unto Caesar what's due to Caesar"). I don't steal or con people. I don't cheat on my wife. I don't take Lord's name in vain, because I don't swear in general. I honor may parents. I don't observe the Sabbath, I don't even know if it's supposed to be on Saturday on Sunday. I don't worship idols, either 2D or 3D, because I'm an atheist.

Why exactly am I supposed to go to hell?

[IKLOL]

You can live a good life, but if you've transgressed the law at any point you're guilty of it all. Jesus himself said if you even look at a woman with lust your heart is guilty of adultery, or if you're angry at your brother your heart is guilty of murder.

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” - James 2:10

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." - Revelation 21:8

"The thought of foolishness is sin: And the scorner is an abomination to men." - Proverbs 24:9

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." - Isaiah 64:6

I don't know about you, but I've BEEN unbelieving in my past, I've lied and sometimes still do, and I've thought foolishness and still do. So I've transgressed God's law, but it has been forgiven of me because I accepted God's plan of salvation, which is faith in Jesus Christ through His substitutionary death on the cross and bodily resurrection.

If you never broke God's law, you'd never die and you would completely earn your salvation. It's impossible for us, but it was possible for Jesus because he was God and born to a virgin, therefore he was fully man and fully God. His work on the cross makes it possible to be born again in this life, with his same duality (having our flesh and our spirit), and the promise that we will one day receive a new body without sin.

The point is, God is so entirely holy that we cannot be reconciled by anything that we do with our bodies, or "works". Faith is required to receive the gift Jesus Christ paid for, which is not something we do with our body, it's a spiritual transaction.

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." - 2 Corinthians 5:21

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” - 1 Peter 2:24

[credit_guy]

I can't say that you had me at "hello". In fact you lost me where the fearful deserve to burn in fire and brimstone just the same as the murderer. Really? The punishment for fear is to burn?

[IKLOL]

All people will be punished by eternal hell if they do not accept Jesus Christ. The default state of man is death and hell since the fall of Adam, but we can reconcile our sin with God through Jesus, who is called "the true and better Adam".

"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." - Romans 5:18

When we trust in Jesus Christ our sin no longer defines us, and no longer has any power over us, because we've accepted Jesus Christ's atonement for those sins, and all of the sins of our life. We can never defeat sin on this earth, for as long as we have the flesh it has some power over us, and that is the struggle of the Christian life.

I've been fearful, I've been a liar, I sometimes still fear and still lie. But I trust in Jesus, that since through his power he defeated sin and death, and was resurrected, that he can do the same for me. So though I've lied, I'm no longer a liar, though I've feared, I'm no longer fearful. Until you are reconciled to God by belief in Jesus Christ, you are defined by your sin, and punished for your sin after death.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" - John 11:25