Ask some Christians, “Do you believe in heaven?” All Christians will say, “yes”.

Then ask them, “Do you believe in hell?” The answers will be split between “yes and no”.

This is because of the spirit of unbelief in some toward Scriptures that talk about eternal punishment, hell etc!

Some liberalists say, “Man is not lost in sin and going to Hell as Hell does not exist”. This clearly contradicting Scripture.

Some liberalists believe in annihilation, as one is swept from existence, which is quite unthinkable or unconceivable because it contradicts what Jesus and writers of Scripture have said.

Luke 1:32-33: … shall be no end.

Ephesians 3:21: …throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Hebrews 7:15-16: …. but after the power of an endless life.

Revelation 1:18: … I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 15:7: … who liveth forever and ever.

We advocated that the eternal life given to repentant believers is a life where one lives with God eternally. This is true, but it needs to be qualified as a spiritual life as a spiritual being with a body and with an awareness of God for eternity, as a reward for believing in Jesus (John 3:16) with an act of repentance.

We are spiritually alive when we become repentant-believers and the inverse for the non-repentant person is correct.

The non-repentant person is spiritually dead to the things of God, albeit they are still physically alive.

The main issue here is the use of the words life and death, as some want spiritual life for the believers and a spiritual death for the non-believers. “Everlasting” means “everlasting” in heaven as it does in hell.

Death here for the non-repentant is to be conscious of their disobedience while still in a spiritual form with a body and not swept from existence which is rejected by those who advocate the doctrine of annihilation.

To say that there is an annihilation of non-repentant is like giving them a reward for disobedience and lack of repentance toward God. This is clearly a contradiction with Matthew 25:46—”These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.“

Another view says that there is an ultimate reconciliation of the non-repentant, who are given a reward for disobedience toward God.

Again it is clear contradiction with Matthew 25:46—”These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” But in Luke 18: 30 it refers to life everlasting, aionios and then when we compare this to Matthew 18:8 we see the same word used for everlasting punishment.

Therefore we are left to conclude that there is eternal life, which means ‘eternal fellowship spiritually and physically with God as a spiritual being’. Thus there is an eternal separation spiritually and physically with God in hell.

Jesus is our Forgiveness; He is the one who stands before God as our Advocate to proclaim where we stand in Him, whether we have made Him Lord and therefore appropriated His forgiveness.

2Corinthians 5:21 For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (MKJV)

Jesus’ death and the shedding of His blood provided forgiveness for the sins of the entire world – yours and mine. Now in Romans 6:23b tells us, “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. There are three points to consider in this part of Scripture.

i) God wants to give us a gift, and the gift is eternal life.

ii) God wants to work through His Son, Jesus Christ to give the gift to mankind.

iii) The eternal life through Jesus Christ can be received only by making Jesus Lord; that is to say, you must be in Him.

The sickness that takes us to hell is “Sin with an unwillingness to repent”.

The medicine that takes us to heaven is repentance and receiving Jesus as Lord.

RSVP is required

When man sinned and did not repent he lost his spiritual dynamic of direct communication with God and now the consequence of this is that all the descendents are spiritually inert or dead without spiritual inspiration. The veil of sin had been put between us and God. Adam had died in the spirit reducing him to a defiled triune in makeup, body and soul. “But” this does not mean that man has no conscience, but that his conscience is not impacted by the Holy Spirit as it is in the believer. By way of example; we could take some elements like a clear glass of water at room temperature and we can see though it, but if we drop another element in like some ink into the water it becomes cloudy and less transparent. The sin in man is like the ink clouding his thinking.

The diagram below shows the difference of the original design to the fallen state of man.

We are the descendents of Adam born into this world with a spirit that is dead. Our conscience is seared to the things of God and we operate in our makeup being governed by our mind and body. But once we become aware of the knowledge of good and evil, then the penalties of sin fall upon us. Following this we receive, by the leading of the Spirit of God, the realization for the need to repent of our own sins. Then to accept that Jesus is the required atonement for our sins we can be saved.

Once we have taken the step of repentance salvation is given to us and the cleansing work begins by the grace of God.

14.3.

The Second Resurrection will occur after the one thousand years (Millennium) rule of Christ and the Church on this earth. Christ will demonstrate to all the glory of God’s rule and some who become believers in Him and those who are born and die during the Millennium will be in the Second Resurrection along with all unbelievers covering all the ages (John 5:28,29 – Revelation 20:5,6 – Daniel 12:22 – 2Peter 2:4 – 1 Corinthians 6:2,3). They, together with the fallen angels, will all come to stand before the Great White Throne where God will sit and judge all. The Lamb’s Book of Life will be opened which will have a list of all the new believers who were converted during the Millennium, for the purpose of confirmation of entry into heaven.

The believers who were resurrected at the time of the First Resurrection will not be judged at the second resurrection, because as we have seen, previously they had already repented, accepting the blood, the truth of Christ by faith without seeing Him.
14.4. The White Throne

This brings us to the first group to come before God at the White Throne. This group is found in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 20:15). These are all who have become believers and obeyed God’s Word and lived a righteous life during the Millennium and acknowledged the sovereignty of Christ and worshipped Him (Zechariah 14:16-21) and who will overcome the Great Testing at the end of the Millennium (Revelation 20:7-9).

14.5. The Lake of Fire
The next group to be resurrected will be of the non-believers and these will be all who never called on the name of Jesus for forgiveness or sought to live according to the Word of God, before Christ came the second time, plus all who did not live according to the Law before Christ came the first time. This is a physical resurrection unto condemnation where shame and everlasting damnation will be revealed to the resurrected unbelievers (Daniel 12:2- John 5:29- Acts 24:15). The physical resurrection (Matthew 10:28 – John 5:26-29) will be to show to all the consistency of God’s law, the condemned will see their own unrighteousness (Job 9:3 – Isaiah 64:6) compared to God’s righteousness and they will go into the lake of fire (Romans 2:5, 6).

We must all face our sins and repent now because after death there is no right of appeal found in the Bible. There is no record in the Bible to say that your loved ones can pray or pay your way out of hell.