If you knew you were taking a two-week European vacation next summer, what would you do to prepare?  Most people would immediately begin saving and researching how they would spend their days.  You might think the same would be true of life after death!  Most people, however, do not think seriously about what happens to a person a minute after they die.

When you think about heaven, what is your greatest hope and joy?  Do you long for heaven to escape troubles?  To see loved ones?  Are you hoping to find rest and relaxation?  If your greatest longing for heaven is not to worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – you may need to think more seriously about eternal things – you may need to read and study and think hard about what eternity will be like!  The Bible is extremely clear about life after death.  A careful biblical study of Heaven and Hell and death is worth your time and attention.

Over the last few months I have been asked to officiate three funerals.  It’s only natural to think about eternity in times like these – times when those around us die.  I became curious about life after death, so for the last 2 months I’ve read a half dozen books and almost every verse in the bible that deals with heaven and hell and death. 

Just to round out my study – and out of curiosity – last week I went to see the movie Hereafter. The movie paints the picture that most people want to believe – Heaven is for everyone and it is a happy family reunion with no more pain and all the answers to all the questions and total peace and bliss – but with no God, no punishment, no Jesus, and no judgment.  Wow!  What a hope!  Who wouldn’t wish that it were so?  But is that reality?  What does the Bible have to say?

Jesus had a lot to say about life after death.  In Luke 16:19-31, he said: “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

We see plainly that Heaven and Hell are as much reality as anything that happens here and now.  Each time I officiate a funeral, I remind people that the afterlife is very real – as a matter of fact, if their loved one could speak to them right now, they would tell you how important it is to trust in Jesus.  One of the clearest passages in scripture concerning life after death is Hebrews 10:26-31: “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Far from teaching that Heaven is for everyone, these two passages clearly present two realities: Heaven and Hell.  The following points explore the biblical reality of Hell as a final destination for many.

Do not reject the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins

“Sinning deliberately” can be understood as one who willfully and knowingly refuses to repent from their sins and receive Jesus’ offer of forgiveness.  This one, “after receiving the knowledge of the truth…” clearly hears the good news of Jesus and understands their situation.  This person knows they have sinned against God and deserves punishment.  They understand that Jesus willingly took their punishment for them, even though He did not deserve it.  The writer of Hebrews acknowledges that for this person, “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” That is, there is no other way for sin to be dealt with – Jesus is the only righteous person who could satisfy the holiness and justice of God.  By rejecting His offer, there is no hope for mercy from God.

If you reject Him, you can expect a fiery judgment

Two biblical terms that we should be familiar with are “Hades” and “Sheol.” These two words describe the same reality.  “Sheol” is the Hebrew term and “Hades” is the Greek translation.  This is the holding place for the departed as they await the Day of Judgment.  The Bible shows that Sheol/Hades is divided in two compartments: one for the unrighteous and one side for the righteous, also known as “Abraham’s side” or “Abraham’s Bosom.”

What is hell?  “Gehenna” was a literal place, known as the “valley of Ben Hinnom.”  In this literal valley, idolatrous Israelites would sacrifice their children by fire.  The valley became a dump site, known as a place of fire, death, shame, and torment.  Hank Hanegraaff writes in the book “Resurrection” that “gehenna (from valley of ben hinnom) is merely a symbol of a more suffocating reality.  Symbols convey a higher reality than they contain, thus, we find no relief in them.  R.C. Sproul: “A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, ‘hell is a symbol for separation from God.’ To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person.  The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God.  Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them.  In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath.  He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned.  They will know Him as an all consuming fire.” (p. 76-77)

We don’t like to think about hell as a reality – our instinct is to reject the notion.  Hank Hanegraaff gives us a great outline with three compelling reasons for us to be convinced of hell’s reality:

Christ

“Christ spent more time talking about hell than he did about heaven.  In the Sermon on the Mount alone, he explicitly warned his followers about the dangers of hell a half-dozen or more times.  Furthermore, in the Olivet Discourse, Christ repeatedly warned his followers of the judgment that is to come: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people on from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left…Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-33, 41, 46).

‘Do not be amazed’ he said, ‘for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).

The rich man and Lazarus:

‘There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Jesus taught about hell as a sure reality.  Another compelling reason for us to accept Hell as a reality is the concept of choice.

Choice

From “Resurrection”: “the concept of choice demands that we believe in hell.  Without hell, there is no choice.  And without choice, heaven would not be heaven; heaven would be hell.  The righteous would inherit a counterfeit heaven, and the unrighteous would be incarcerated in heaven against their wills, which would be a torture worse than hell.  Imagine spending a lifetime voluntarily distanced from God only to find yourself involuntarily dragged into his presence for all eternity.  As [Norm] Geisler explains, the alternative to hell is worse than hell itself.  It would ‘rob human beings of freedom and dignity by forcing them into heaven against their free choice.  That would be ‘hell’ since they do not fit in a place where everyone is loving and praising the Person they want most to avoid.’”

The third compelling reason for us to accept Hell as a reality is common sense.

Common Sense

Like choice, common sense dictates that there must be a hell. 

A. Without hell, the wrongs of the world will never be righted. 

Norm Geisler underscores the fact that hell is necessary for God’s justice to be maintained.  ‘Surely, there would be no real justice were there no place of punishment for the demented souls of Stalin and Hitler, who initiated the merciless slaughter of multimillions.  God’s justice demands that there is a hell.’ 

As Jonathan Edwards, arguably the greatest theological mind ever produced in America, explains, it flies in the face of common sense to suppose that hell does not exist: ‘It is a most unreasonable thing to suppose that there should be no future punishment, to suppose that God who had made man a rational creature, able to know his duty, and sensible that he is deserving punishment when he does it not; should let man alone, and let him live as he will, and never punish him for his sins, and never make any difference between the good and the bad; that he should make the world of mankind and then let it alone, and let men live all their days in wickedness, in adultery, murder, robbery, and persecution, and the like, and suffer them to live in prosperity, and never punish them; that he should suffer them to prosper in the world far beyond many good men, and never punish them hereafter.  How unreasonable is it to suppose that he who made the world, should leave things in such confusion, and never take any care of the government of his creatures, and that he should never judge his reasonable creatures!  Reason teaches that there is a God and reason teaches that if there be he must be a wise and just God, and he must take care to order things wisely and justly among his creatures; and therefore it is unreasonable to suppose that man dies like a beast, and that there is no future punishment.’”

B. A God of love and justice does not destroy His greatest creation

Far from annihilating us, God graciously provides us the freedom to choose between redemption and rebellion. 

It would be a horrific evil to think that God would create people with freedom of choice and then capriciously annihilate them because of their choices. 

As noted by J. P. Moreland and Gary Habermas, it ‘would be wrong to destroy something of such value just because it has chosen a life it was not intended to live.  Thus, one way God can respect persons is to sustain them in existence and not annihilate them.  Annihilation destroys creatures of intrinsic value…Since God cannot force his love on people and coerce them to choose him, and since he cannot annihilate creatures with such high intrinsic value, then the only option available is quarantine.  And that is what hell is.’”

C. Without a hell there is no need for a Savior.

Says [C. S.] Lewis, ‘I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully ‘All will be saved.’  But my reason retorts, ‘Without their will, or with it?’  If I say ‘Without their will’ I at once perceive a contradiction; how can the supreme voluntary act of self-surrender be involuntary?  If I say ‘With their will,’ my reason replies ‘How if they will not give in?’  Ultimately, ‘there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’  All that are in Hell, choose it.  Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.  No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.  Those who seek find.  To those who knock it is opened.’”

One of the books that I read over the last few months brought the reality of hell home like no other.  23 Minutes in Hell, by Bill Weiss, relates his experience of visiting hell on November 22, 1998.  What made Weiss so credible in my eyes was his overwhelming desire for us to not rely on his experience, but to thoroughly explore what the Bible has to say about Hell.  His experience is powerful, but even more trustworthy is the Biblical material.

Experiences are not always to be trusted – we must test everything in light of what the Bible has to say – and lucky for us, the Bible talks more about eternal destinations than almost any other subject.  Here are some additional passages teaching us about the realities of Heaven and Hell:

Matthew 25:31-33, 41, 46 - ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left…Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’…Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life”

Hebrews 9:27-28 - And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

John 3:35-36 - The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 5:28-29 - Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

(Galatians 5:19-21 ESV)

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

(Revelation 14:9-11 ESV)

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

(Philippians 3:20-21 ESV)

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

(1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ESV)

[31] “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. [32] Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. [33] And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. [34] Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. [35] For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, [36] I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ [37] Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? [38] And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? [39] And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ [40] And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

[41] “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. [42] For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, [43] I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ [44] Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ [45] Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ [46] And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

(Matthew 25:31-46 ESV)

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

(Luke 16:19-31 ESV)

The question for you is which will you choose?

Jesus told John on the island of Patmos, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”  (Revelation 3:20).  Jesus holds out the offer of forgiveness and eternal life – you only need to receive it by faith! 

 Further suggested reading:

“Resurrection” by Hank Hanegraaff 

“One Minute After You Die” by Erwin Lutzer

 “Heaven” by D. L. Moody

“Death and the After Life” by Billy Graham 

“Heaven” by Joni Erickson Tada

“23 Minutes in Hell” by Bill Weiss                

“90 Minutes in Heaven” by Don Piper