We have discussed many things in the last few articles, including understanding who Satan and his ilk really are. We have seen the broad and wide highway to hell and the lake of fire. We have also seen the narrow path of salvation to heaven. In previous articles we discussed how people are living today and how life “should” be lived—if heaven is your future desired home.
We know there are basically two types of people; the born-again followers of Jesus Christ and those who do NOT follow Jesus Christ. The biggest problem is being able to show this fact to unbelievers—the lost. It is also the reason why the lost call believers, “haters.” In their eyes we are telling them of their sins and that they must face them, that they must ask for the Lord God to forgive them of their sins.
We must understand the unsaved see this as “being told” that the things they are doing are wrong, thus they believe we are creating an unhealthy situation for everyone. No one likes it when someone tells them that they did something wrong or bad. Make sense? It’s a negative blast to their egos.
If we show unbelievers that they are wrong, they think God is bad to them; thus we are bad and corrosive Christians. What makes the situation worse is when they find out what the Bible says about their eternal ending. So what is the real problem here? Better yet, what is the real question in this situation? The question is this: What does the Word of God says of them?
2 Timothy 3:1-7: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
It is evident by the unbelievers rejection of God’s Word, that they are angry and arrogant (among many other things). It is also evident that they do not have a factual knowledge of Jesus Christ, who came as God in human form. Thus their first and continual response will be to turn away from this knowledge, which requires they come to the Lord in all humility.
To acknowledge that sins are indeed wrong, and then to humbly ask for the Lord’s forgiveness is more than they would be willing to do. No one likes to be told that they are wrong (much less be humble about it.)
The next thing to understand is their view of death as a human (which is the first death). They obviously know that all will die some day, yet in their minds, it’s just NOT today. They are stuck in this mindset: “Out of sight, out of mind,” or even better yet, “If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” The second statement is easier for them to digest mentally (for obvious reasons). So in their minds, if someone dies, they are placed in a coffin and buried—that’s it.
The problem with this mentality is that the nutshell is holding much more than they realize. They have the view that if they can’t see heaven or hell, then neither of them exist; so they are not willing to consider anything else on the subject. It becomes strictly a “downer.” And who wants to deal with that, when there is so much more life to experience, so much more fun…and all?
So now the question is this: Is that sort of thinking REAL, is it the truth? NO!
The Word of God is rife with statements of death, ranging from Genesis 3 to the end of Revelation. It never leads to any of the thinking expressed by unbelievers. As a matter of fact, it is completely the opposite.
We read in Genesis 2, that God created Adam and Eve and at that particular time they were made perfect, and had they done as the Lord God told them to, they would have never seen death and neither would those who followed. As the Bible says from beginning to end, life is about whom you wish to follow, Jesus Christ or Satan. So now the question is, what about this thing, life and death?
The Bible continually tells us that we are to make the choice between Jesus Christ or Satan and that we will see eternity. The eternal destinations will be in heaven or in hell and eventually the lake of fire. The CHOICE is ours!
As I stated before, when a person dies, the physical body ceases to function. Then they are popped into a coffin, and then into the ground. And that is where the unbelievers like to leave it all.
Of course that is NOT the end of it all.
We must consider WHERE in eternity that person is. The problem is, NO ONE wants to talk about that part. No one has seen heaven or hell, thus to the unbeliever it does not exist and the person that died is forgotten…to a degree.
Funny isn’t it? They know about death, but they will not accept that there is an afterlife. Funny how everything in this life is in twos. You are right or wrong, up or down, in or out, alive or dead, here or somewhere else, but you can only be in one of those at any given moment. So why would they not accept the idea that there is this life and then an eternal life? A little “narrow-minded” wouldn’t you say?
And then we have all the “Near Death Experiences.” Are they real or not? This is what God’s Word says:
Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
According to this Scripture, there is one life after our earthly death. It’s in black and white. Knowing this now, what does that mean for our lives in the here and now? It means that we must consider where we wish to be in eternity…prior to our death. Oops! There’s another one of those moments. Simply because it does not fit your ideas about life, it does not mean it is not the truth.
That being the case, we need to think about this. Life has shown us that there are two ways to go in everything. So must it be that there is a life after our earthly death. Thus we must consider where in eternity we want to go: heaven or hell. So what does this mean about our life in the here and now? It means we need information concerning how to get to heaven or hell, after we die or how to be among those taken in the Rapture.
This is some rich information to deal with and whether or not you like it, eternity will be one way or the other. We will continue to discuss this further in Part Two, to find out what the answers really are, according to the Word of God.