Australian Rugby Union player, Israel Folau, has lost his job this week after posting a picture on social media that said “Warning: Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters: Hell awaits you. Repent!”

In the comments he said “Jesus Christ loves you and is giving you time to turn away from your sin and come to him”, as well as quoting from the Bible.

Folau clearly believes in Hell, and he wants to take every opportunity to warn people to find safety in Jesus.

The response from Rugby Australia and the media is that his comments are “homophobic” and that he has “vilified” people by how he’s expressed his religious beliefs.

To be honest, I wouldn’t post that image on Instagram, even though I agree that we need to warn people about Hell.

Yet I, too, want people to know that no matter who you are or what you’ve done, Jesus loves you so much that he died to forgive you.

Everybody is guilty of disobeying God in all sorts of ways, but no matter what you’ve done, Jesus offers unconditional forgiveness if you truly follow him.

I love Izzy’s courage and conviction, and I share his passion for people to come to Jesus and be rescued from Hell.

And I think he’s right when he says that God considers homosexual activity to be one of many things that are immoral.

But whether you agree or not, surely it’s un-Australian to sack someone for publicly saying something that’s in the Bible.

We used to think, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, but now our society silences views that are unpopular.

Nobody likes to be told that their behaviour is wrong, yet all of us are guilty in Jesus’ sight for all we’ve done to offend him.

At the same time, all of us can enjoy forgiveness in Jesus because of his self-sacrificing death on the first Good Friday.

JODIE McNEILL

One of the greatest lies of the Devil is that Hell is not nearly as bad as its reputation.

You might have heard people say that they want to go to Hell because they want to party with all their friends that they expect meet there.

Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in the Bible, and he made it very clear that a person should do anything in their power to avoid this horrible place.

In one part of the Bible, Jesus said that if a your eye causes you to sin, “gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”

And another time Jesus spoke of a man who had been sent to Hell who was in so much agony that he pleaded that someone simply drip a few drops of water on his tongue to somehow relieve his anguish in the flames.

What’s more, given that relationships are a good gift from God to enjoy, we can be confident that Hell will be like solitary confinement, with no human contact for forever and ever.

And contrary to another popular viewpoint, God will be present in Hell, but only as one who is bringing judgement and punishment for eternity.

There are better reasons to follow Jesus than just to escape this horrible, eternal punishment.

After all, the joy of having life to the full with Jesus is mind-blowing, even if we don’t experience it fully until we go to be with him in heaven.

But even so, it’s worth being scared out of Hell into the safe arms of Jesus, knowing that you can fully escape God’s anger by simply trusting in Jesus and experiencing his full forgiveness for everything you’ve ever done.

So what are you waiting for? Why would you risk eternal punishment when you can have certainty for eternity with Jesus?

JODIE McNEILL