Jessa Duggar did not shy away from controversy on Facebook on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The 19 Kids and Counting star, 22, addressed her thousands of followers, talking about judgement, sin, and hell in a lengthy post.
“I will speak to you a hard truth,” she wrote. “I do not write this because I think that it will bring me popularity. It won’t. But it is Truth from the Word of God: the Bible. To not tell people this is to hide the truth from them. To keep silent is to not care for their eternal destiny! I care about you, and this is why I am speaking out!”
The evangelical Baptist called out those who defend their “sinful” life choices by quoting Matthew 7:1, which says “Judge not.”
“Whenever someone speaks out against something that God calls sin, ‘Don’t judge!’ can be heard coming from a thousand lips,” Duggar began. “People don’t like to have other people disapprove of the way they’re choosing to live their life. People are content to live on in lying, cursing, pride, anger, bitterness, disrespecting of parents, lust, pornography, fornication, adultery, and other sexual sins — and if anyone tries to confront them, their attitude and response is, ‘You live your life, I’ll live mine. Don’t you tell me what to do! Only God can judge me!’ But when unbelieving, sinful men die and stand before God, He justly condemns them to hell.”
She went on to give examples of excuses people have used when it comes to religion. Writing about a person who believes in “a loving God, not one who would send people to hell,” Duggar blasted the belief as contradictory to the Bible.
“The person speaking this is right — their god is not angry with them. He can’t be, because he doesn’t exist,” she continued. “They are not talking about the God of the Bible. They have created a god in their own mind to suit themselves. They have removed any notion of the Justice of God, and have created a god of their imagination that they can be comfortable with. The Bible teaches that God is a Just Judge, and He must punish sin. Every one of us have broken God’s law, and hell is our deserved punishment. (Unless you’re reading some very distorted ‘translation’ of the Bible, you cannot get around the fact that there is a hell).”
She concluded her post by listing a series of Bible verses, and urged her followers to read most passages from the holy text.
“If you find yourself a sinner in need of Jesus, then open your Bible today and begin to read the books of John and Romans,” she wrote. “Let the Word of God root out the sins of your heart. Do not let up until you have found Salvation for your soul!”