We were a group of 20 sitting on the edges of the Monument for the Murdered Jews of Europe in downtown Berlin. It's an impressive monument made up of more than 2,000 slabs of cement and looking like a statuesque cemetery in the middle of this massive city. I was giving a group of teenagers a tour of Berlin and we were sitting there discussing what we had seen in the museum when this question came to me from a girl who was 19.

"So all those Jew went to hell, right?"

I stuttered, and my mouth went dry.  "Do you believe all of them went to hell?"

And she said, "That's why I'm asking...but I think so, yes."

I found myself irritable. "I don't think you can make that kind of black and white statement. Jesus is the judge and he will judge them based on the revelation that they had and how they lived..."

"But isn't that what we believe...that they went to hell?"

A few more comments went around and I diffused the situation by saying "We are not going to solve this quetion right now so let's move on to why we are here..." 

What shocks me is how blithely she could pronounce them in hell. It made me ill. The girl had a kind of light and blank look as though though her question went no further than some passing though she had that day...like should I eat strawberries or cherries...? Hmmmm, let's see...what do I feel like?

I know that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. But as one good friend explained to me...that means that everyone will stand one day before Jesus. He is the door.  No one will escape the jdugement seat of Christ...even Christians.  Yes it is true, there is a hell, and we should warn people--but warmly showing them the way to life...and realizing that Jesus, and Jesus alone will judge the nations righteously. Thank God Jesus is my judge. If not...this young girl could send me to hell quite nonchalantly, as with the wave of  her hand and on a whim... cherries or strawberries... hmmm...what do I feel like..?

I was out evanglizing a few months ago when I had an amazing talk with a muslim guy. This other Albanian Christian guy, Nari and I were sitting chatting to him outside a coffee shop. The man was remarkable. He spoke German, English, Arabic. He was a translator who knew the Kouran and the bible very well. He spoke with respect and he had a very peaceful atmosphere about him. My sense about him was: this man is special.  I asked him, "Have you felt God's love for you?" and he said to me "of course." He explained to me the difference between Muslims and believers. Believers are ones who have had revelation of God... He was a believer.

After the man left, I turned to Nari and said, "It's hard for me to believe God would send this man to hell..." and Nari agreed with me... I shared my feeling with another guy there...an American, and he said, "Well, he is!"  He went on to tell me Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life...as though I didn't  know the scripture and needed some instruction.

But within me was a gnawing question:

"What if we don't see everything? What if what we think that means is not what God thinks it means..."

Donald Miller puts it very well:

"The very scary thing about religion, to me, is that people actually believe God is who they think He is. By that I mean they have him all figured out, mapped out, and as a pastor, Rick, says "dissected and put into jars on a shelf."

I confess to you, these conversations make me tired...these kinds of attitudes make me tired. I want to know the truth. But what I sense very often from Christians is that they just want the right ANSWER. That is a very different issue than a search for truth. If we are going to go on a quest for the truth and what it means for our lives, we have to have open discussion. We have to be able to ask questions without being beaten over the head with easy answers.