Are There Any Good People in Hell?

 My name is David Braun and this is my story...

      Growing up I attended church regularly with my family.   I participated in everything the church had to offer including Vacation Bible School, Christmas plays, Youth Group and Church Camp.   At about age 9 I attended baptism classes and was baptized into the church membership along with several other boys.   In the classes I was taught about how Jesus had died so that I might go to Heaven instead of Hell.  I believed that Jesus was a real person and that Heaven and Hell were real places. I also believed I would go to heaven one day.    

      All through school and into college I was involved in church activities as were all my friends.  I do not recall anyone ever asking me about why I attended church so much.  I went to church because that is what my parents did and that is what all my friends did.  I never had any reason to doubt or to question what I was taught as a young person.  I did what I was taught to be the right thing to do and I believed I was going to go to heaven when I died.   

      Soon I began pursuing the "American Dream" and I moved away from the small town where I had grown up and went to a large city where I had been offered a good paying job. As a result of my new life style, I drifted away from church for several years.  I would attend church occasionally, such as when I went home to visit my parents, but most of the time I was just too busy to go to church.  For several years I was busy living life in the big city and taking in all it had to offer.  My wife and I were both advancing rapidly in our chosen careers and  had bought our first new cars and our first home.  I was living the "American Dream".

       Although it would seem that I had it all, I still felt that something was missing and I began attending church once again.  I was quick to become very active in the church and became involved in many activities including teaching classes and going on visitation.  I even became the church treasurer.   Soon after joining the church, my first child was born.  Now I certainly had the "American Dream" life, 2 new cars, a new house, a good job, a new baby, and I was a Children's Church teacher and the church treasurer.  What more could I want or need?

      However, things were different at this church than they had been at the previous churches I had attended.  I could no longer just tell people that I had been baptized as a child and that I was on my way to heaven.  I began to have some very serious doubts about whether or not I was going to heaven when I died.  Everything at this church challenged me. The preaching challenged me, the Bible studies challenged me, the members challenged me, and even the guest speakers challenged me.

      One such guest speaker spoke at the annual Missions Conference in March 1996.   I do not remember much of what he spoke of during several nights at the church, except for the Friday evening sermon.   The speaker took the audience on an imaginary tour of Hell with descriptions so vivid and so real that I will never forget them.  As he described the darkness, the isolation, and the eternal flames of Hell, I could smell the burning flesh and hear the cries of torment.

      As the tour of Hell continued, the speaker began to describe the people found there.  Most were those that everyone expects to be in Hell, the murderers and the thieves and all the evil, bad people of the world.  But then he began to describe a group of people which he called the self-righteous.  These people were church members who taught Sunday School and studied their Bibles and tried to live what they believed.  They sacrificed their time and gave their money and yet their lives ended in this horrible, wicked, and eternal place called Hell.

      This part of the message got my attention.  Within that group the speaker had described my life.  I was living the American Dream on the outside but on the inside I was destined to Hell for all eternity.  Would I really go to Hell?  Would God send a good person and an active church member to Hell?  I was living for God and I was doing His work.   I was a Children's Church teacher and I was the treasurer.  But the Bible says in Matthew 7:22-23 "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not ... in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."  I knew deep within my heart that I too was doomed to spend eternity in Hell.  I knew that all my good works were not going to save me from the eternal punishment and death of Hell.

      I tried to convince myself that I wasn't a bad person and that God would not send me to Hell.  Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned ...", but somehow I didn't think that applied to me.  I had never murdered anyone or stolen anything.  I was a good person and everyone knows God doesn't send good people to hell.  I began to wonder if I were good enough.  How good did I have to be?

      How many lies does it take to make a person a liar?  100 lies? 10 lies? 1 lie?   Certainly I had told at least one little white lie.  Could I be called a liar?   Yes.

      How much must a person steal to be called a thief? A car?  A shirt?  A pen?  I had several pens from my job at home.  Could I be called a thief?  Yes.

      I have always been faithful to my wife and I have never committed adultery. Matthew 5:28 says "That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."  Certainly I had looked at other women in an immoral way and according to this verse I had committed adultery. 

      Well at least I had never murdered anyone.  Matthew 5:22 says "That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:” I know I have been angry with people and I certainly did not always have a just cause. 

      According to the 10 commandments I was a lying, thieving, adulterous murderer.  I did not sound like such a good person anymore.  I knew I would spend eternity in Hell because Revelation 21:8 of the Bible says "But the fearful, ... and murderers, ... and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: ...."

      The first part of Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death".  This means that I deserved to die for my sins.  However, the second part of the verse says that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  Eternal life is a free gift!  God does not want to send anyone to Hell.  God loved me so much that He offered me the free gift of eternal life.  Romans 5:8 says "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us".  God loved me even before I was born, even when I grew older and turned away from Him and sinned against Him.  He loves me so much that according to John 3:16 "he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in my place so that I may have eternal life.   All I needed to do was to admit to my sin and accept the free gift of eternal life offered to all men.

      The next morning, Saturday March 30, 1996, I found myself on my knees and truly crying out to the Lord for the first time in my life.  Romans 10:9 of the Bible says "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  That morning I confessed with my mouth that I too was a poor and wretched sinner and that I too deserved Hell.  I finally admitted to myself and to the Lord that there was nothing that I could do to escape Hell.  I believed in my heart that only the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could rescue me from the eternal flames and torment of Hell.

Without God's help, I would have been a good person eternally tormented in Hell.   Is this your story also?   Are you a good person without a true relationship with Jesus Christ?  Search your heart and be honest with yourself.  You too can know for sure that you will have a home in heaven when you die.