Do Stars Who Self-Destruct Bypass Hell Because They Entertained Us?

Townhall.com ^ | February 9, 2014 | Doug Giles

[Kaslin]

Last Sunday, as most of you know, the Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a heroin overdose. Strewn about the millionaire’s abode were sixty bags of un-used smack along with five empty/used bags of the “Ace of Spades”. According to the reports, those who discovered the dead thespian said he was found deceased with a needle in his arm. Not a pretty picture.

Later that same night, as the news channels began to report on Hoffman’s death, the various talking heads began to wax eloquently about how he was a great actor, a normal guy, who rode his bike around the neighborhood, loved his children and was an all-around good dude who was now “resting in peace.”

This left me thinking, “What the hell ever happened to hell?”

Did it get shut down?

Did I miss a Facebook alert about its closing?

Did it get defunded like ACORN?

Did Obamanomics also accelerate its demise?

I wonder this because I don’t hear much about the netherworld or the Prince of Darkness anymore and it appears as if, at least according to E! News, you can believe and do whatever the heck you want nowadays and upon your seedy expiration – boom! – you’re in heaven playing a harp, walking around in a white peignoir, sitting on a cloud, eatin’ ice cream with Jesus.

As a former self-destructive, narcissistic drug addict, my carnal man wishes it had that option available thirty-plus years ago, back when I was a hellion, because I never would’ve repented and started following Christ’s lead. Because, you know, he can be a real cosmic killjoy to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life; and what druggie doesn’t want to have his coke and snort it, too?

Just think about it. What a wonderfully convenient and fleshily appealing notion. Heaven without desisting from or believing anything!

Check it out, according to the glitterati …

- I can go to heaven without faith in Christ’s sacrifice

- With zero desire to follow God’s edicts

- I can screw everything that’ll hold still

- Shoot heroin

- Snort coke

- Fuel the nasty, despicable, murderous drug trade with my money

- Utterly wreck my parents', spouse's and kids' lives pretty much forever

And when I die during an O.D. of frickin’ heroin, when I come to, I will be rocking up instantly to the same place Mother Theresa calls home. Yahtzee! What a deal. Shoot, that’s better than the Toyota Sale-A-Thon.

Unfortunately for my flesh, back when I was a user the only option available for me to pull my head out of my backside and to bank eternal security entailed my putting my trust in Jesus’ finished work on the cross and doing a 180 away from all the things that caused him and humanity pain. As stated, there was not the option of doing whatever I wanted and still entertaining a hope of heaven when I was to take the big dirt nap.

However, as seen with the Hoffman situation, it’s now being afforded to us especially if you’ve won an Oscar or a Grammy. Or if you’re a fashion designer. Or any other BS profession that entertainment lackeys drool over. To them, if you dazzled us on the silver screen, the small screen or via the stage … then hallelujah, God loves you and abracadabra … you’re in.

Does it not strike any of you as strange that playmates, reality stars, rock stars, godless actors, mean old aunts and uncles who openly defied God and all that is holy, just and good are instantly sanctified once they die and they’re heading for the same place Billy Graham is?

That’s cuckoo talk to me. But if you’re comfortable with it, good luck. That’s definitely not a dice roll I’d bet on. But then again I could be wrong and the CNN entertainment reporter could be right.

[exPBRrat]

Interesting question.

I suppose it is theoretically possible to be a drug user and also in the state of grace at the moment of death.

...as an aside I’d point out that after WWII there were many rapidly discharged GI’s who were addicted to morphine as a result of wounds received.

After the war jobs were plentiful, addicts could work, keep a low profile, pay taxes, and support their drug habit...until caught by the authorities.

Not that I am in any way supporting drug use.

Divinely inspired scripture has warned us against the danger of wine{=recreational drugs} but to my knowledge does not proscribe its use. I suppose the ‘everything thing in moderation’ rule might apply.

If we’re made in Gods image then our bodies are in a way, a temple, so abusing our bodies to the point of death is NOT good. But that can be applied over to many things.

Hell is an absolute reality but would the practicing Christian who is front loaded with grace, works and current in the partaking of all the available sacraments go to hell for some recreational drug use? NO!

We’re all sinners to some degree that’s why Jesus suffered and died.

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[momtothree]

If you want to think that you as a sinner can say, “Yep, Mikey went to heaven and George is burning in hell”.. then go ahead. Not me... not my role as a Christian or as a sinner. I can only say that I believe Hell exists and that we are all judged by God if we enter into His Kingdom. Can I say that X is a sin? Yes. However, I can’t say what God chooses to do.

[cornelis]

I think you’re missing the point of the article.

[Fuzz]

E! News not discussing the whereabouts of dead celebrities eternal souls seems to be an odd thing to be concerned about.

[momtothree]

I’ll drink more coffee and revisit. LOL!

[Arthur McGowan]

I’ve wondered that, too.

What if Groucho didn’t make it into heaven? Would that mean no Marx Brothers’ movies in heaven?

[cornelis]

Coffee won’t do. Some Johnathan Edwards for you. P )

[Popman]

Did it get defunded like ACORN?

LOL...

Actually ACORN just changed their stripes...

[catroina54]

uhm maybe you need to refresh your memory of the parables dealing with situations such as you described where sinners are redeemed and are entitled to an eternity in Heaven- and rememeber Christ Himself spoke these parables -And remember the good thief as well ? he was a common criminal crucified next to Christ and he acknowledged Christ as the Messiah and Redeemer -what did Christ tell him ?
so all I can quickly come up with are the parable of the prodigal son,and the 1 of a group of laborers in a vineyard and everyone got the same wages paid even those that showed up hours later and did less work.
God’s Law and God’s ways.

[Mr Rogers]

“As mortals we are incapable of anything more than speculation based on little evidence and the word of god!”

In a great many cases, the evidence is sufficient. I suspect the number of people who make a conversion in the last 5 minutes of their life is rather small.

[yldstrk]

Pointing out that someone is on the road to perdition is not a sin.

It is more likely that someone who says “it’s all good” is the one going to Hell.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

While there is a Hell and many will go there I tend to be persuaded by the argument that in each individual case it is up to God to put people in hell. Human judgment is suspect as to what specific individual will or will not go there. Is drug addiction a sin? It is perhaps a sin only by analogy to drunkenness. Biblical people did not know of morphia and its derivatives and God did not bring it up. I don’t know only God does. By the way of course the media’s moral judgment is degenerate and ultimately evil and hopefully people will wake up and suppress its foulness.

[caww]

God doesn’t determine a mans ultimate destiny....Man does either by accepting or rejecting who God has provided to take our judgement and punishment. You choose to reject Christ or not...Deny/Reject Christ and you’ve set your ultimate place for eternity ....

MAn sends himself to Hell...God would have ALL mankind to be saved from it and provided the way through Christ Jesus.

[miliantnutcase]

Agreed

[P-Marlowe]

God doesn’t determine a mans ultimate destiny....Man does...

Tell that to God.

[Albion Wilde]

Preach it, Doug!

[RetiredArmy]

Good grief. Do people actually sit around and think this crap up?!?!?! YES Mr. Dummy, this guy is going to hell if he never accepted Christ as his LORD and Savior! Period. There IS NO OTHER WAY. I think Yeshua made that plain and simple in the Bible.

[SamAdams76]

I will not decide/point to and say that their soul should be in hell. That is between each and every individual soul and God. No one else. He is the judge.. not me. Only God knows truly what in in our hearts.

I agree with your line of thinking. It is not for me to decide how others are judged in the afterlife. I always find it odd that some self-proclaimed Christians out there presume to judge for God. Can't they just be content to let God sort it out? Some of them actually seem to take a perverse pleasure in judging and condemning other souls to eternal hell. I've always been a bit disturbed by that self-righteous behavior.

[caww]

....”Tell that to God”””...

Not necessary as He already told us... as it’s written:

He that believeth on him is not condemned.... but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:16-19).

If one is a believer he will go to heaven. If he has rejected God then he spends eternity separated in hell.

Hebrews 9:27, says, “. . .it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” ....This judgment is to determine ‘rewards for the believers’ and ‘degree of punishment for the lost’.

It is solely a matter of ‘the grace of God’ given to all who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior by faith alone. Eph. 2:8-9

God does not want men to perish. Heaven and Hell are both personal
choices that each individual makes while here on planet earth. God provided for man’s salvation through the work of His Son on Calvary’s cross. Romans 5:6-8. If men reject the Savior, they go to hell by their own choice.