Good News Bad News
Introduction
When it comes to good news and bad news, there is no more extreme truth than the news about heaven and hell. Life on earth isn’t all there is. It is a trial run for eternity, and Jesus was always clear that every person will be in one of these two locations in a never-ending experience. Jesus talked about these realities during His 1,000 days of ministry. He spent a lot of time teaching about what happens to us after we die, after we leave this life. He didn’t answer every question we might have about heaven and hell, but He taught us all we really need to know to ensure that we go to the right place.
Contrary to what some might think, there were several things He did not teach. He did not teach anything about a bright tunnel or a white light. He did not teach anything about soul sleep, a belief that people just go to sleep spiritually when they die and stay asleep until judgement or, alternatively, that they stay asleep forever. He did not teach that there is a limbo or purgatory or any kind of intermediate place. He did not teach that we go someplace for a while until our sins are fully paid for and only then do we go into His presence. He did not teach that we are reincarnated as bugs or animals or other people. He did not teach annihilationism – the idea that the soul is just wiped out or sucked up into the universe. He did not teach that someone just disappears into nothingness because He created us all to be everlasting beings. He did not teach universalism, the belief that everybody is eventually taken to heaven, because that would cancel the point of the cross, and all the warnings that Jesus gave about hell would be meaningless. He did not teach that we would just hang out in the clouds somewhere.
What Death Is
Actually Jesus didn’t teach about the afterlife, a term used commonly today. He talked about eternal life and eternal death. We can understand this more clearly if we realize that death is simply separation. There are three kinds of death, and each as to do with a specific kind of separation.
1. Physical death occurs when the soul-spirit is separated from the body. Perhaps you have stood at a graveside of a loved one and realized that your loved one was not really there. That body, placed into the ground, was only a shell. The soul-spirit had already been separated from the body.
2. Spiritual death describes the separation of the soul-spirit from God, and that is the state people are in if they are without the Savior. They might still be walking around but they are spiritually dead.
3. Eternal death is simply the state of spiritual death continuing forever.
What Happens When You Die
Temporary Heaven And Hell – The people that are in heaven or hell today are not in the same places they will be for eternity. The places they are in today have the same characteristics and nature, but they are not the same as the forever heaven and hell. Hades, death, and Sheol are the names given in the Bible to the temporary hell. When the final judgement comes – The Great White Throne Judgement, the people in the temporary hell will go into the lake of fire. It is the same way with heaven. Some day God will create a new heaven here on earth and all the people in paradise will live in heaven on earth forever.
Hell: A Not So Pretty Picture – The Bible says that hell is a real place where real people spend a real eternity with real bodies. It is a place of fire and brimstone where the lost burn forever.
Heaven: More Than A Ride On A Cloud – The Bible says that heaven is a real place where real people spend a real eternity with real bodies. The Bible says it is beyond anything we can imagine and promised all saved people a home there. If we were to ask Jesus, “What’s heaven all about?” He would say “Its all about being with me.”
Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Joh 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Joh 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.