Part 2: You’re going to live forever, somewhere! I

A free Ticket

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)

I heard someone who was religious but didn’t believe in hell say, “I don’t believe a loving God would ever send someone to a fiery hell!” And my answer is that He did not. He went to the cross for them and shed His holy blood to pay for a free ticket to heaven; the only reason anyone will end up in hell is because they rejected what He had freely offered them.

No excuses will work!

There won’t be a single person in hell with a legitimate excuse for rejecting God’s offer. Jesus did what He did on the cross because He didn’t want anyone to perish (2 Peter 3:9). Jesus warned about hell over and over! In fact, he spoke eleven times more about the dangers of hell than he did about the joys of heaven. He referred to hell as a place of “outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). He also refers to hell as a “fiery furnace” where lawbreakers will be thrown at the end of the age when he returns. “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41–42). He calls it “the hell of fire” (Matt. 5:22), “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), and “eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:46).

Different names for two distinct destinies

The Bible has many names describing heaven (Home, Heaven, Father’s house, Paradise, the city, heavenly country, the Kingdom of Christ/God, Holy place, and many others) and for hell (Sheol, Hades, Hell, Lake of fire, and many others) but, whatever they’re called, they all fall into only two categories: 1) Eternal life with God, or 2) Eternal separation from God in torment forever. 

Therefore

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt. 25:46)

Tomorrow, part 3: Only two choices, you choose!