Those words should scare you just a little bit. You are going to die and be judged one day. Also, there will be a time when this world will end as we know it. What's going to happen, where will you be? There's just two choices, right? Heaven or hell. Where will you be?
I do believe in these places literally.
Where are they? What are they for? Who decides who goes where?
Imagine (some easier than others) if you have an anger problem.
Anger problems would be all about your problem, because you can't control yourself. Too inwardly focused. Day by day this steadily gets worse and worse. Years go by and you choose not address it, maybe in 20-50 it's not too bad, but could you imagine a million, it would literally be hell. It's you totally focused on yourself. Your really a shadow of a human at this point, but a you are totally focused on you and you alone. Think of Lot's wife, she wasn't human after God's judgement.
So who goes to hell? Does God send people to hell?
Again, think of the person with the anger problem. There's so many other problems that come with anger, such as road rage, child abuse, treating employees poorly, etc...These could all qualify as being sins. These get worse as time goes on, and the person never wants help from his anger problem. He keeps on sinning against God. He can hear about Jesus forgiveness, but never can accept it. He doesn't want forgiveness. He likes his anger more. It has in fact become his identity. So this person
out rightly rejects the Gospel. As I said though, this happens over time. In Screwtape Letters, I wrote this, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” You see my friends, you choose to go to hell, you reject the gospel because of self sufficiency. Total reliability on your own part. Lace up your own boot straps. The door to hell is locked, but from the inside. So who goes to hell, the person who loves himself more than God. A person who denies God's help, a person who loves self more than anyone or anything else. A person to whom God says, "Thy will be done."
What about the person who bends the knee to Jesus? What awaits a Christian? Heaven of course. Don't worry about what some people call it "the pie in the sky" and other names as such. If there is no heaven, there is no Christianity. It is woven all throughout the scriptures. But also, it is not a bribe. Nobody can bribe you to heaven. You get it when you get God. And only the pure in heart want God.
What do love about life? Is it hobbies, the love of a great woman, food, or sex? I might say these are just glimpses into heaven. You desire more than just what you can see, taste, smell, or touch. You desire something outside you. That is heaven. You've never seen it, but you want it deeply. This is also called the God shaped hole in your heart.
Do you want to sing to and worship Jesus? Do you find yourself drawn to church? Do you know there's something more than just self to be fulfilled? There is something out there for you. There is an ultimate city of different members of one society. We will get to praise God with each other as one voice.
How do we find heaven? If we loved Jesus, we will go to a place inside heaven and have our sins be taken away. It is called purgatory. It is not like the Roman Catholic Church explains it as a place of suffering, but it is a a place of more magnificent than earth. We should want a place like to as we
should not want to enter the city with the stench of our past sins. We will enter the Great City pristine and white as the scriptures reveal. It will be glorious. God himself will guide us there. This is the person who says to God, "Thy will be done".
At the end of the Narnian series (I won't give everything away, just encourage you to read those books) I write, "But for them it was just the beginning of the real story...now at last they are beginning chapter one."
If you are interested in this subject let me encourage you to read the "The Problem With Pain" and "The Great Divorce". You will not be disappointed.
Your Friend Jack
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither
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