Question: Do people go to hell for sin or for not believing in Jesus?

Mike uses a pit analogy: person falls in the pit through his own foolishness (sin); you lower a ladder (Jesus); he refuses the ladder; you walk away. The question 'why is he in the pit?' has two valid answers — (1) because of his foolishness (sin), (2) because he rejected the ladder (unbelief). Both are true but serve different explanatory purposes. The wrong formulation — 'I am condemned for not believing in Jesus' — makes Jesus the condemner, which is backwards. Sin puts you in the pit; rejecting Jesus keeps you there.