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You die and then what?
Nothing. When you’re dead that’s it!
Can you be sure? If you travel round the world you will see churches, mosques and temples. So life after death is believed in by many. Also why should people have a fear of death? That seems extraordinary if our conscious existence finished at death. The reality is, everyone knows in their heart that this is not the only life there is, that there is a life after death. Some people are reluctant to admit this awareness and maybe you are one of them. But whether we willing to own up to this or not, we really do know that after death there is a God to Whom we are accountable.
I’ll come back to this earth because death is followed by rebirth.
Where is the evidence for that? While some people claim to be able to recall situations from their previous lives, is their testimony really trustworthy? Do they now remember everything perfectly? If not how much less would they accurately remember a presumed previous life? Are they more trustworthy than that of the Son of God Who knows, understands and remembers everything (1-3)? The Lord Jesus did not preach reincarnation but He did say that man will only die once and after that is judgment (4-7).
I’ll go to heaven, we all do.
Would you allow anyone who knocked on your door into your house? Of course not because if you permitted thieves, violent people and murderers to come in, then your home’s state and happiness would soon be ruined. And the same applies to heaven (8) because if God let everyone into His home it would soon become as bad as this world. You have standards and so does God and very high ones which reflect His character. He has told us what they are in the Ten Commandments (9), and also in the Lord Jesus’ teachings (e.g. 10-11). He said that we come fall short of God’s standards in actions and thoughts as well (12). Therefore it is clear that everyone is disqualified from going to heaven and so, certainly, no person can think that they are have a just claim to go there (13). Those who go to heaven must first have their sins forgiven and receive everlasting life (14, 15) and so know inner transformation that will make them want to do God’s will (16, 17). That is why Jesus spoke often about the necessity for a person to believe or be converted (18, 19).
Well, I won’t go to hell. There is no such place.
Hell was not an invention by the Church to stop people from sinning. It was the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (20). When He was here on the earth, He spoke more about hell than any other writer in the New Testament (21-23). Jesus had no doubt at all about its reality. Some people joke about hell but it is nothing to laugh about. Jesus said it was a place of burning, weeping and torment (24-25). He also stated that as hell was for punishment rather than to reform, those who went there would never be let out (7). Most people, of course, do not think that they will go to hell and perhaps you are one of them. Your reaction could be, “Well I am not perfect, but I certainly do not deserve everlasting punishment.” The problem is that you don’t see yourself as God perfectly assesses you. If you did you would realise that your sins are committed against a God of amazing and incomparable glory (28) and total holiness and righteousness (29, 30). Consequently even your smallest sin deserves appropriately severe punishment or judgment.
Do the dead know that they are dead?
Death is not the cessation but the translation of existence and the dead do know when they are dead (20, 25, 30, 31). We are “spirit, soul and body” (32) and the “spirit and soul” leave the body at death (33, 34) and go to either heaven or hell. So the “dead” only appear “dead” from our limited and earthly point of view because their physical bodies are now lifeless and we cannot see “them” now.
Who cares? I can’t do anything about it?
What an amazing attitude! Would you not prepare for the big days in your life, for example for exams, holidays or wedding? Why not prepare for the most important day of your life, that is the day of your death? You need to get ready for it. Remember there is a hell, which can be avoided, and a heaven, which needs to be gained. Have you ever wondered why Jesus Christ came into the world? One reason was so that people like you and me could be happily with a holy God, without being punished by His righteous anger (35). That’s why Jesus Christ died on a cross, as the sacrifice for our sin (36). And that’s also why it is said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3v16). You can do something about it and wherever you are, you can take that action now. If you will repent, i.e. turn from your sin, and believe, i.e. totally trust in or rest in, that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and took the judgment for your sin then God will completely forgive you and give you everlasting life and a place in heaven (37-39). You may like your sin but is any sin worth suffering everlasting judgment for?
Bible references:
1. Psalm 147v5 “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.”
2. Hosea 7v2 “And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.”
3. Malachi 3v6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
4. Matthew 10v28 Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy {meaning loss of well being rather than loss of being} both soul and body in hell.”
5. Luke 23v43 “And he {Jesus Christ when He was crucified} said to him {a thief also crucified with Jesus Christ}, “Truly, I say to you, Today shall you be with me in paradise.”
6. John 3v14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
7. Matthew 25v46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
8. Revelation 21v27 “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or makes a lie.”
9. Exodus 20v1-22 “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
(9.1) v2 You shall have no other gods before me.
(9.2) v4 You shall not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
(9.3) v7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
(9.4) v8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labour, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
(9.5) v12 Honour your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you.
(9.6) v13 You shall not kill.
(9.7) v14 You shall not commit adultery.
(9.8) v15 You shall not steal.
(9.9) v16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
(9.10) v17 You shall not covet your neighbour’s house, you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbour’s.”
10. Matthew 5v28 “But I say unto you, That whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
11. Matthew 18v21-22 “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus says unto him, I say not unto you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”
12. Matthew 15v19 “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
13. Revelation 21v27 “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
14. Acts 10v43 “To him {Jesus v38} give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.”
15. 1 John 5v13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.”
16. Romans 6v1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
17. Ephesians 6v6 “doing the will of God from the heart.”
18. John 3v36 “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”
19. Matthew 18v3 “And said, Truly I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children {i.e. with a believing and dependant attitude}, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
20. Luke 16v19-31 Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously {making merry luxuriously} every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom {To any Jew, the thought of enjoying fellowship with Abraham would suggest inexpressible bliss}: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
21. Mark 9v43 “And if your hand offend you, cut it off {figurative of sinful actions}: it is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.”
22. Matthew 23v33 “You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?”
23. Luke 10v15-16 Jesus said, “And you, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven {because Jesus lived there for a while}, shall be thrust down to hell. He that hears you {disciples v1} hears me; and he that despises you despises me; and he that despises me despises him that sent me.”
24. Mark 9v44 “Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.”
25. Luke 13v28 “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.”
26. Luke 16v24 “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”
27. Psalm 113v4 “The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
28. Psalm 145v17 “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.”
29. Romans 2v2 “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.”
30. Revelation 20v10 “And the devil that deceived them {the nations v8} was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
31. Matthew 22v29-32 “Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
32. 1 Thessalonians 5v23 “And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
33. Genesis 35v18 “And it came to pass, as her {Rachel v16} soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni but his father called him Benjamin.”
34. James 2v26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead.”
35. Jude 1v24 “Now unto him {God v25} that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
36. 1 Corinthians 15v3-4 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
37. Colossians 1v14 “In whom {God’s dear Son v13} we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
38. 1 John 5v11-12 “And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son {as Saviour} has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.”
39. John 6v47 Jesus said, “Truly, Truly, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life.”