On September 5th 2022 Cartoonist, Paul Kinsella, whose life's work seems to be posting the most asinine anti-Christian cartoons imaginable, posted what has since turned out to be one of his most popular image to date. In the image, a very grumpy looking woman and a well-drawn nerd stand before a sterotypical picture of Hell in what appears to be an art gallery. While in reality, demons will be tormented more than humans in Hell, the image depicts them as evil overlords, standing upon rocks, poking and prodding at anyone who tries to escape the lava.
As Kinsella couldn't be bothered to get the basics of Hell right, it's not surprising that the image wouldn't present an especially reasonable argument against it, either. Not surprisingly, the caption reads "If you need the threat of hell to be a good person, then you're just a bad person on a leash."
Recently, this image crossed my own Facebook timeline. And it turns out, this is (or at least, was at some point in time) Kinsella's most popular cartoon to date. Now, looking at some of his other materials, it's not hard to see why. Most of it is just teenage-level trolling. "Jesus would not like guns. Especially nail guns." "You hung this painting (of Jesus) with just one nail?" ""Just these ten? That's all? Nothing about slavery? ...Or butt stuff?"" So, why is this particular cartoon so popular? Simply because it is more intelligent than the rest of the rubbish Kinsella posts on a regular basis. Most of his material is neither funny, nor clever. But this particular one at least reaches the level of "average Joe".
Now, I'm not entirely sure what Kinsella intends with this particular cartoon. Is it a criticism of the doctrine of Hell as a whole, as some of his other cartoons seem to be? Is it a response to less sophisticated Christians, who, lacking skill in apologetics, unfortunately do resort to simply warning about Hell? Is it a straw man reply to the moral argument? I'm not even going to pretend I know what went through Kinsella's head when he made or published this cartoon. But my response to it will cover all of the above possibilities.
To begin with, I'm going to simply grant the premise: Doing good, or avoiding evil, purely out of fear, does not make you a good person. But this can, of course, be flipped. What if even fear will not motivate you? You do what you want, purely because you want it. What kind of person does that make you? Well, it makes you a bad person, off the leash! So what do we do? Well, we make laws, we pay people to enforce them, and we hope and pray (if we're wise enough) that these powers will always stay in the hands of the good guys. If not...
Although anarchy and atheism tend to go together, not all anarchists are atheists, and few atheists actually want anarchy, simply because on the leash or off it, the world is filled with bad people. It is filled with murderers, rapists, pedophiles, thieves etc. And so we do need a government, hopefully a good one, to create the "leash" upon which to keep the bad people. And when that leash snaps? We pay taxes to keep them in cages instead.
But how do we decide these things? These are the kinds of questions I don't think Kinsella and his ilk have the mental capacity to contemplate, though I would hope I am wrong, and indeed publish this very article with the hope that it will reach and influence someone who was reached and influenced by the cartoon.
Let me ask you a simple question: Is weed illegal? Your answer will actually depend on your region. Here in England, the answer is yes. Legally speaking, you cannot grow a cannabis plant, you cannot smoke cannabis, and you certainly cannot supply it to other people. These things are against the law, and carry various penalties. But if you go to Colorado, the answer is no. You can grow it, you can smoke it, you can sell it.
So, what's the difference between England and Colorado? Laws. Without laws, you cannot call something "legal" or "illegal". With laws, you can say weed is legal in Colorado, but illegal in the UK. But as shown by the Holocaust picture above, there is a difference between "legal" and "good", and "illegal" and "evil". The law cannot make a thing good by legalising it, nor can a law make a thing evil by making it illegal.
But what does make a thing "good" or "bad"? Kinsella tells us that if we need Hell to be good people, we're just bad people on a leash, but what he doesn't tell us is what exactly "good" and "evil" are.
But Jesus gives us that standard. In Matthew 19:16-26, Mark 10:17-27, and Luke 18:18-27, we read an account of a rich young ruler asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Let's read Matthew's account and break it down:
"Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”"
So what do we have here, and how is it relevant to the conversation at hand? First, note the absence of any direct reference to Hell. Not once in this account does Jesus say "be good, or go to Hell". What He does, however, is exactly what we have done above. He draws on the ruler's statement "Good Teacher", asking him "Why do you call me good?"
Much like this rich young ruler, Kinsella would presumably say he is good. It's possible he'll admit that he is also a "bad person on a leash", or maybe even that he simply isn't interested in having a leash for his evil, but more than likely, he's going to be another egotistical atheist who thinks he's a good person. But the problem is, he's using his own standards to make that judgment! Paul Kinsella is good because Paul Kinsella says so!
But Jesus turns the assertion around and says no, God alone is good. If you want to inherit eternal life, keep the commandments. So the ruler says great, I've done all that, but Jesus grounds him by calling out his idols. His great wealth. So what has he done? He's broken the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me. And this man has broken it by having money as a god.
When we compare our lives to the law of God, what we inevitably find is we're all bad people. And I don't mean just atheists. I'm guilty of a lot of the same sins Paul Kinsella is. This includes blasphemy, by the way. I've done that. Who hasn't? Answer: No one.
And that's where things get problematic for the whole "fear of Hell" argument. Note the disciples' reactions. "Who then can be saved?" They aren't saying this because everyone on Earth is rich. It's because they know everyone on Earth is a sinner. Now, let's go back to our legal analogy. You might avoid crime for fear of jail, but what if you've already got a criminal past? "Your honor, I confess I did kill that man, but I promise, I've never killed again, and will never kill again". Well, that might reduce your sentence if you're lucky, but there's no justice in letting a criminal off Scot free.
But God is infinitely just. He simply cannot let sin slide. And if He can't let sin slide, we're all doomed. Even if we live the rest of our lives completely free of sin, the sins we have committed must still be dealt with. So what does Jesus say? "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
So you can be saved, but not by being a "good" person from now on. You're going to fail that regardless, because you are a bad person. You're going to sin for the rest of your life. But even if you could be a good person from now until you die, your rap sheet means you're already going to Hell. And that's not, as Kinsella's other cartoons seem to suggest, because God hates you. It's because it is just. So, what did God do in His love? "...He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus is a good person. Jesus kept the commandments. Jesus, and the 0 other people who never sinned, deserve Heaven, rather than Hell. Nevertheless, He died a sinner's death, facing the full wrath of God for sin. This is a concept known as "Penal Substitutionary Atonement". That is, we effectively "swap verdicts". Jesus took our punishment, so we, through faith, take His reward.
Now, there are about a million questions an atheist will come back with, such as how does Jesus' finite punishment replace our infinite punishment? I'm not going to extend this article by answering them all, I have done so in other articles. All I'm going to say from here is "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18). You may well laugh, as dunces like Paul Kinsella do. If you convert, you will also be laughed at. Make no mistake: If you are susceptible to peer pressure, Christianity is not the religion for you. But Christianity, ultimately, is true. Thus, there is a "good" and "evil", and we are on the wrong side of that. We've all sinned, and have earned God's everlasting wrath for ourselves. There is only one way out: The cross.
Thus, Scripture asks us "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). A Christian isn't being "good" in order to avoid Hell. Hell has no more hold on us. When we die, we go to Heaven, because our evil has been nailed to the cross. It is this same cross to which we invite you. But then why be good? For goodness sake. We have died to sin. If you have an infinite supply of antivenom, do you still mess around with venomous snakes? If your dad is a multimillionaire, do you still run up a debt with the mob? No, you separate yourself from bad things, even if you are somehow shielded from them. So it is with salvation. A Christian does good because we have died to sin. It has gone from being our toxic lover to our bitter enemy. We may still be tempted, but it is a war. Don't be a casualty.