That'll Send Ya to Hell

By Donnie Clark

An exegetical musing of the bane decencies that we were all told not to do, but never told why not to do them. Dedicated to the Christians everywhere who have grown up under the false pretenses that you were going to hell because of something “bad” you did. May the love of God shine through these pages and you walk away more free than any bird who ever spread its wings. Guilt is a powerful motivator. It is nowhere more dramatized and propagated than in the American church. And I believe the greatest concentration of this... is in the region that I was blessed to grow up in, the Bible belt. It has, in many regards, become a place of condemnation rather than conversion. I never heard of the kindness of God drawing men to repentance while I was growing up. Only that nearly every action I did was going to send me to hell. That every time I disobeyed, or talked back, or was sarcastic, or picked my nose, or didn’t put the toilet seat down, I was going to hell. I am embellishing to an extent, but if you grew up in the beautiful Bible belt, you are probably chuckling somewhat. Have you ever taken the strong drink of guilt? Hoping that it will wash away the badness inside you? If the answer is ‘yes’ then you are probably reading the right book.
This book is an attempt to give you Biblical apologetics from which you can live, not in condemnation, but in the freedom that comes with the sacrificial blood of Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:1 (NKJV). “Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring.” - Mike Yaconelli

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donnie Clark
• Release date: Feb 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311805164

Donnie Clark

Pastor, Teacher, Father, Son, grandpa, mentor, and lover of Christ.

Book preview

That’ll send you to hell

An exegetical musing of the bane decencies that we were all told not to do, but never told why not to do them.

Donnie Clark

Copyright 2014 Donnie Clark

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means – mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of Donnie Clark.

Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.

Rich Mullins

Dedicated to the Christians everywhere who have grown up under the false pretenses that you were going to hell because of something bad you did. May the love of God shine through these pages and you walk away more free than any bird who ever spread its wings.

Forward:

I trust people who have dirty hands. I think Jesus was the same way – smelling like fish was a prerequisite for discipleship. I have had friends from all walks of life, and one thing I have found to generally be a good rule in measuring character, is that dirty hands often accompany a seeking heart.

Among church folk, it is generally difficult to find dirty hands. Christians far more enjoy using their mouth, than their other parts. The mouth is an easy tool, and requires the least amount of effort to exercise.

It is for that reason I am a member of Addereth—the church with the funny name. I have been a member of Donnie Clark’s church for several years for this reason: it is filled with people who have a desire to be the dirty hands of Jesus. It is the action that preaches the message; the rest is just pop psychology and empty philosophy. That is why I endorse this book. His conclusions have been arrived at, not in an office or classroom, but in loving people through funerals, divorces and drug addiction. Theology is easy, but life is hard. It is when we are faced with having to love a real person that our beliefs truly solidify. Loving a person instead of preaching to to a crowd moves faith out of an intellectual pursuit. And moves us into a pursuit of relationship. This has been Donnie’s pursuit. But when you lead people out of their intellectual faith there will be obstacles. Brain faith is easy and most church folk like it. But brain faith won’t help you love the drunk living next to your church, or the mom addicted to meth who is asking for money.

Religion can leave you feeling parched. And if you are looking for a drink, these pages may help satisfy you. The answers here make some sense of the theological mess we are in. The same way water makes sense to a half-naked thirsty man wandering around the desert.

Michael Kay

Addereth School of Ministry

Preface:

Guilt is a powerful motivator. It is nowhere more dramatized and propagated than in the American church. And I believe the greatest concentration of this… is in the region that I was blessed to grow up in, the Bible belt. It has, in many regards, become a place of condemnation rather than conversion. I never heard of the kindness of God drawing men to repentance while I was growing up. Only that nearly every action I did was going to send me to hell. That every time I disobeyed, or talked back, or was sarcastic, or picked my nose, or didn’t put the toilet seat down, I was going to hell. I am embellishing to an extent, but if you grew up in the beautiful Bible belt, you are probably chuckling somewhat. Have you ever taken the strong drink of guilt? Hoping that it will wash away the badness inside you? If the answer is ‘yes’ then you are probably reading the right book.

This book is an attempt to give you Biblical apologetics from which you can live, not in condemnation, but in the freedom that comes with the sacrificial blood of Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring. 

Mike Yaconelli

Index:

Chapter 1: Everything’s a sin - Defining sin, conviction, and knowing your heart

Chapter 2: Living in the Shadows - It’s easier not seeing, because then I don’t have to be responsible for not moving

Chapter 3: What WILL send you to Hell - What is Hell, and the unpardonable sin

Chapter 4: That firewater will damn your soul to hell - What the Bible says about alcohol, the use of wine

Chapter 5: It’s just sex, what’s the big deal- A Biblical look at the covenant of marriage and sex

Chapter 6: You were NOT born that way - Homosexuality and God’s view towards it

Chapter 7: Overconsuming M&M’s – Be careful little eyes…

Chapter 8: Filthy Lucre – Gambling and the love of money

Chapter 9: Going straight to Hell – The Church’s view of suicide

Chapter 10: Tattoos & piercings – religion’s imputable evidence

Edited by: Michael Kay, Addereth, Inc.

Cover art design by: Johnnie Williams

Copyright: 2014 -

Chapter 1

Everything’s a sin!

Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Luke 23:34

The God of the Bible met me. It was a cool South Alabama Sunday morning, February 14, 1988 to be exact, and all that I knew was that I wanted to experience God in the way that everyone else seemed to be experiencing Him. I had just gotten saved four days prior to this beautiful morning, and my mind was flooded with constant thoughts about God, life, Christianity, the Rapture, about everything. I remember the anxiety of impatience I had waiting on the service to start, the restlessness of having to sit through the sermon, just so that I could get to the altar at the appropriate time, and really just find God, as I had been instructed to do in times past.

What I experienced that day was indescribable and incredible. It was like a thousand pounds were instantly removed from me, and a peace beyond anything I’ve ever felt suddenly flooded my spirit. It was far more than just being saved, far more than just repeating a prayer, far more than just attending a church service. It was a moment. Something real happened to me, something deep, something eternal, and something that instantly changed the course of my existence.

When I stepped into the altar on that Valentine’s Day, I lifted my hands to Heaven, and when I did, I was surrounded by saints of all ages who laid their hands on me, and didn’t let go until God was finished with me. And I was finished with myself also.

That was the day His Holy Spirit filled my life with joy, hope, peace, purpose, compassion, and so much more, and that was the beginning of my journey that would lead me to where I am now. A place I would never have designed with a thousand greater minds than my own, and a place I would not trade for a thousand more beautiful places to look upon.

Rules are easier than teaching

I want you to learn something early on in your Christian walk that, unfortunately, I did not learn until I had pastored for many years. Something that I was guilty of simply by following the patterns of those before me, who were guilty of the same by their own admission. What I want you to learn is this;

It’s far easier to just give ‘em rules than actually teach them the ‘why’.

There’s actually a very legitimate reason why this is the instituted pattern of many religious organizations. The reason is that it is far easier to just tell people what they can and cannot do, rather than to take the necessary time to teach them the systematic understanding as to why the expectation has been made in the first place. And since we are a generation of professional preachers who schedule tee times rather than prayer times, we really have no exegetical understanding of what we actually believe anyway, we just do what we were taught to do, and preach against what we were taught not to do.

We tell people that alcohol is a sin, although we don’t know what the Bible says. We tell people that tattoos will send them to hell, but we have no idea what the Bible actually says about it. We tell people not to gamble, and that gambling is a sin, but we have no Biblical basis for any of these rules that we institute.

The reason why we do this is that we love rules far more than we want the responsibility of relationship. But true understanding takes legitimate investment. And when we are not truly in love with the subject, we tend to learn just enough of the right answers to pass the test. But Christianity is not a test, it’s a daily walk, and you don’t pass the test by knowing the right answers, you pass the test by knowing the author of the questions! But that takes effort and investment on our part, and most of us are not willing to pay that high price associated with that kind of understanding. And so, since we don’t desire to know, we just accept things drilled into our heads by the generation before us.

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to. 

J.D. Salinger

So, before we tackle the task of all the sins that you do daily, it’s vitally important that you actually learn what the Bible says concerning sin; Because most people don’t actually know. And then, once you have a true Biblical understanding of sin, you can then move into a real convictional driven life, rather than a guilt ridden condemning existence that most of us live in, just trying to not go to hell.

When we think of sin, we think of the top ten list that we learned in Sunday School, coupled with all of the convictions passed on from generations before us. And for most of us, we are satisfied with our average grade for not breaking the rules. This is the mentality of