I am sure that you already know this, in fact, I have never met anyone that is not aware of this fact, but everyone you know is going to die, your pets are , your friends, everyone you know, and you are going to die also. This is not a new revelation, it is just the way that God has determined for everyone who has been born, in fact everything that He has created will have and end, even this earth. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” (Rev. 21:1)
There is one important fact about our passing though from this life to the next, which I would hope that you also realize, not all of us are going to the same place, and that does not exactly make our Lord happy. “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezek. 18:32) Now of course since the Lord our God does not live in our timeline, He already knows these things, and although we will not begin a discussion of the doctrine of election here, we must understand one thing, though our Lord has no pleasure in the death of those who will not accept His Son as Savior, that does not mean that He is going to change His mind about their final place in eternity.
Gods attributes are many, and each one of them balances each of the others in perfect harmony, there is no variance to His character. His perfect love is balanced perfectly by His perfect justice, and it is a blessing to us that it is. Those who die in their sins, those who will not recognize Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father will in no way enter into His kingdom, they are not even going to see that gates of it, and though it may be difficult for some of us to understand, they do not want to. Those who have no desire to serve Hm here would have no desire to be in eternal service to our Lord in heaven, it would not be service to them, it would be an eternity of sub-servient burdens.
Our minds have difficulty wrapping themselves around this fact, for we know no better Master to serve, He has proven himself to us as faithful and true, and His love is beyond measure, but to the lost only one master is known, themselves. To recognize anyone else, even the Creator of everything including themselves as master over them is beyond their ability to perceive, it is incomprehensible to them. For them to have to serve our Lord, for this is how they would see it, having to, would be in a sense forced submission, they would serve only because they have to, not because they want to.
There will be quite a bit of forced attrition at the great white thrown of judgement, a lot of individuals who are finally realizing their ultimate end and all of a sudden are sorry, all of a sudden they will want to serve because now they know the consequences are beyond their ability to control. The way that seemed right to them has finally been shown as what it was, the way of death. “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 14:12) So, why will they not serve Him now, what is in their hearts from the moment of their birth until the final second of their life that has kept them from accepting Christ as Savior?
Herein is where this humble writer of letters must tread on ground that he has no right to be on, but here is one of the rare explanations in the Scriptures that we are given. “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.” (1st Peter 2:8) These individuals were appointed for the path that they have themselves chosen. I understand this about as much as you do, in fact throughout the ages these verses have been discussed by men of God who found their minds coming only to one conclusion, it is in the hands of God as all of His creation is. Granted, you can search the writers of every religious ideology that has ever been and find very few that agree with each other, and I have been one of those searchers, many times in this area. I have come to the same conclusion that many other explorers of the Scriptures have come to, leave this subject alone, it is best left in the capable hands of our Sovereign Creator. It is the word “appointed” that puts, as it were, a stumbling block upon our consciences, for the word means predetermined, fixed, ordained, suffice it to say, these individuals will not be coming to heaven with us, and that is just what they want. “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:” (2nd Peter 3:5) I am not attempting to take these words out of context, I seek only to bring to our attention one of the key verses in this second epistle of Peter when he begins to speak about the apostacy, about those who were already in his time denying the Holy One of God.
The key words I would like you to see here is “For this they willingly are ignorant of.” By their own choice, by the efforts and actions of their own free will, they have set before themselves a path of their own choosing, knowing full well the consequences of their actions. They have in their own minds chosen hell over heaven. I do not know if their predetermined concept of what hell is exactly has been taken into the factoring of their decision, or if they just hate God so much that they would rather suffer in the torments of eternal damnation instead of serving in heaven. You would need to be in the mind of Satan to understand this concept, for he was well aware of the bliss of heaven, he lived there, remember?
All those who will spend eternity in the lake of fire will have around one-thousand years to think up all the excuses that they can, for the millennial period will end with the great white throne of judgement, their opportunity to be judged by what they wanted to be judged by, their works. But that is not really the concept that I desired to spend time on, nor even the appointed terminology that we read in 1st Peter, what I was wondering was why would these individuals decide not to accept Christ as Savior, especially when they know the consequences of their actions. I am not speaking here of those who have never heard the word, but those who have and have denied the truths of the Scriptures of their own free will, why would anyone do that?
I know that Satan has blinded their minds, (2nd Cor. 4:4) but I also know that the invisible things of God are clearly seen, (Rom. 1:20) I know that they were appointed,(1st Peter 2:8) but I also know that they have free will, the same free will that we were given, (Rev. 3:20) I know that He desires that all would come to salvation, (2nd Peter 3:9) and I also know that the thing made cannot say to the one who made it why did you make me this way. (Rom. 9:20) Trust me here my friends, you will not see this subject come up in many of my letters to you, this is Gods territory and I have no right to be here.
I believe that one of the main reasons our Lord has led me to write this letter to you is for this reason, to let you know that He is Sovereign, that He means what He says, and that He always does what He says. Hell was created for the devil and his angels, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matt 25:41) and people are going to be there also, for eternity. All I need to understand is that all those that will be there will be there because they did not accept Jesus Christ as Savior, every other possible explanation or reasoning I leave completely in the hands of our Lord, everything that there is belongs to Him, and He is the only one capable of the right decisions for it.