DESTINATION: HELL

Recently, my husband and I were watching a movie and the main characters who were age twenty something were in a helicopter that was about to crash. One of the characters said “Oh God, I’ve been good!” Immediately, I thought “sorry, wrong answer!” Actually, this is the 2nd movie in the same amount of months that I’ve seen where the main character thought that living a good life would get him or her to heaven.

The Bible clearly states: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” John 3:16-18.

Churches today don’t preach about hell as a literal place. When a person dies, their body is buried, but their soul immediately goes to heaven or to hell. I read a book* many years ago that drove this fact home to me and it literally scared me to the point that I did not want to see anyone die unsaved. In this book when a saved person died, a band of angels immediately came to that soul and escorted it into the presence of Jesus Christ. The person that had not accepted Christ as his or her Savior was rudely greeted by a screaming horde of demons that came and snatched the soul straight into hell. In both cases, the soul never lost consciousness and knew exactly what was going on. The soul going to heaven to meet Jesus was totally at peace and the soul being dragged to hell was terrified!

When I was growing up, it was not uncommon to hear a sermon about hell as an eternal physical, place of torment. When I got back into church in early 2000, I asked the pastor of the church we were attending why he didn’t preach about hell. He stated to me “because, I don’t want to scare people into being saved.” At the time, I thought that was a good idea, but now, I am thinking “why not?” Wouldn’t it be better to hear a sermon now than to stand before God on judgment day and hear him say “...'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matt 7:23.

Many people today also believe that when you die, you die. That’s it, zip, nada, nothing! The Bible clearly states that the spirit never dies (Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:5) and because it never dies, it never loses consciousness. When a Christian dies, the body dies and turns back to dust, but, the spirit immediately goes into heaven to be with Christ. Then when Christ returns at the Rapture, that body will be resurrected and reunited with the spirit. When a person dies without Christ, his or her body is buried and turns to dust, but the spirit is alive. It is conscious and it is aware of the torment of hell. The unsaved person will be reunited with his or her body at the Great White Throne of Judgment where he or she will answer to God and receive their final, eternal judgment. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Rev 20:11-15 (NIV)

If you are reading this and you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior, I urge you to read our blog titled New Life in Christ, dated April 2, 2010. Hell was not created for humans (Matthew 25:41). All of us have a choice. To accept Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross....or accept the consequences. "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” Matt 25:41.

I don’t write this to scare anyone. I write this for the Christian to wake up and realize that time is short and that there is much work to do. I write this for the unsaved person to wake up and realize that life is short and the choice you make today has an eternal consequence.

Since our souls are immortal, we will never die and we will spend eternity somewhere. You and you alone, control your own destination.

Cindy

*The Angelwalk Trilogy by Roger Elwood
Bible Verse taken from the New International Version
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