Today, The Bible & You

Today’s Front Page

The Nation’s Christian Newspaper

February 2023

Is There Life After Death?

Do people actually go to either eternal bliss in Heaven

or an eternal Hell after death?

  Critics of God and historical Christianity have always asked, “How can an all-loving God punish people forever in hell and punish them for any wrongdoing?”  But here’s the thing, there are many more attributes to God than love.  God is not only “all-loving.”  God is just.  God is holy.  The Bible speaks seven times more about the Holiness of God than the Love of God.  All of these attributes of God combine into the totality of who God is.

 A better question would be, “How can a loving God who is righteous, forgiving, just, and merciful condemn people to hell forever?”  There is a Scripture that perfectly describes this two-fold answer about God that is more completely represented.  This is God speaking to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7: 

 “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.  And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

  We must understand that God, who is just and holy, must punish those who sin.  His Love does not come at the expense of His Holiness.  God tells us in Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die…”  The answer is simple.  When we sin, we sin against an infinitely holy God.  Therefore, there’s an infinite offense.  This is why eternal punishment is the result.

 The Scripture in Exodus 34:7 appears to be a total contradiction, “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, AND that will by no means clear the guilty.”

  We are told that God is keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin … then immediately declares that He “will by no means clear the guilty.”  We are told in Romans 3:10-12, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

  The answer tells us why God gave us the Commandments in Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.“

  God will never clear the guilty — those who think they can enter the Kingdom of God by their own goodness and good deeds.  God wants all to know that is only when they come to the Lord Jesus, asking forgiveness for their sins, and thanking our Savior for washing ALL of our sins with His blood.  That is how we receive God’s mercy, and He takes our guilt.

  God’s holiness and judgment begin to be taken seriously when we consider the effects of sin in the Flood of Noah.  God had to destroy the entire planet earth in order to redeem those millions who would come to believe in Him after the Flood.

  According to an article at Answers in Genesis (AiG), “some people believe the population was relatively low” (whatever that means) because of “wars, disease, and other factors.”  However, if the population growth rate in the pre-Flood world (in the years between 4004 and 2348 BCE) was “equal to the growth rate in 2000, there could have been about 750 million people at the time of the Flood.”

  But “given the extremely long lifespans before the Flood, the growth rate could have been “close to four billion at the Flood” The Earth’s population may have been upwards of four billion in the year 2348 BCE!

  Future judgment is as important now as past Judgment.  Earth currently has about more than eight billion inhabitants.  How many of them will be judged with eternal condemnation if the Lord were to return soon?

  Approximately 31% of the world’s population is affiliated with Christianity.  Let’s leave aside the fact that some percentage of these individuals would not meet an evangelical definition of “Christian.”  According to AiG, if the end of history came this year at least 4.8 billion individuals would be cast into a hell where they would consciously endure eternal torment (Righting America, pp 224-225).  The righteous drowning of millions / billions of human beings prefigures the righteous burning of billions of human beings.

 As God’s judgment in Noah’s flood, so will his judgment appear once again as it is written:

  “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

 There seems to be a great division in beliefs on the presence of what the Bible calls “Hell” and if it even actually exists.  Just as Satan has propagated the supreme lie that he doesn’t exist in the minds of those who are in rebellion against a Holy God, so that same archenemy of what is holy is trying to convince these same people that there is no such thing as “hell”.  Logically, the fool themselves by thinking if there is no Satan, and no hell … what do I need with God anyways?  Even some denominations and religious leaders diminish the horror of what hell really is!

  Note this quote of a minister that doesn’t believe that God is a God of Love, nor does he believe in an eternal hell, “For centuries, many ministers have been preaching “hellfire and brimstone” sermons and promoting a religion of fear by teaching that the unsaved face an eternity of torture.  The common teaching is that incorrigibly wicked people will be tormented forever in some fiery, macabre manner in a terrifying place called hell.  This horrible fate usually conjures up in people’s minds visions of an ever-burning hellfire where sinners are continually roasted on spits, and a devil with horns and a tail runs around sticking his captives with a pitchfork.”

 The fact of the manner is that God is Holy and must judge sin.  The Flood of Noah is documented proof.  In Revelation 14:9-11 God makes it clear about a yet future judgment for those who take the Mark of the Beast and take upon them the image of Antichrist:

 “And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand.  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

 I, John Barela, ministered in a church several years ago where God was pouring out His Spirit in ways that I had never seen before.  People were coming to our Lord Jesus in amazing ways and responding to His Word.  There was a Methodist congregation nearby where most of their members began attending our fellowship because their pastor did not believe in the Scriptures as the Word of God.

   On one occasion a lady from our congregation called and asked if I would meet with some of the ladies from the Methodist group who were misrepresenting things that I had said, and she wanted me to tell them personally what the difference was between our fellowship and the Methodist teaching.

  There were about twelve at the meeting and it went well.  They asked me if I had said there were demons on top of the Methodist building, which of course the answer was NO.

  They told me that their pastor believes in the Bible exactly the same way that I do.  I knew this was not true but left it at that. Then they asked if I would meet with their pastor and share these things with him in front of them.  I told them yes.  So, they called the pastor and he agreed to meet immediately.

  We had a nice calm visit in his home.  I began by telling the Methodist minister, “We are here because many of your people have joined our fellowship recently and these people think that you and I believe exactly the same way regarding the Bible.  You have a right to believe anything you want, and I am not to challenge you about that.  I am here simply to show the different doctrinal positions we have.  Then I asked him a few questions:

  1.) “Do you believe in the Bible?” He answered, “Oh, yes, of course, I do.”  The Methodist people from his congregation all smiled with satisfaction at this reply.

  2.) “Do you believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures and its historical accuracy.”  He answered, “Do you mean if I believe in the Bible cover to cover and that Adam and Eve were literal people?  I said, “Yes.”  He answered, “Well, no I don’t.  Adam and Eve were not people, but merely an allegory.  And of course, I do not believe in Sodom and Gomorrah or that God rained down fire from heaven and destroyed them.”  I answered him, “I know that is what you believe.  But I do believe Adam and Eve were real people and that God did destroy Sodom with fire from heaven.”  The faces of the Methodist people form his congregation then changed.

  3.) I then asked, “Do you believe in the historical account of Jonah?”  He answered, “Well John, that’s really not important. My wife does, but I do not.  Again, it is an allegory.”  The answer from me to him was, “This puts anyone who believes that the story of Jonah is historical in a position to make a choice.  Do I believe this Methodist pastor who is teaching me that the story of Jonah is a was not a real story, or do I believe in the Lord Jesus who teaches me that the story of Jonah is a true historical story?  Our Lord Jesus teaches us in Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly; so, shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  This makes me have to choose because one of you, either you or Jesus, is not telling the truth.  I happen to believe our Lord Jesus is telling the truth.  He tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life …”  This is why many people have chosen to leave the Methodist religion and go to a Christ-centered and Bible-centered congregation.

  Then he responded by saying, “Pastor John, we need to put these things aside and work in citywide crusades for the community.”  My answer to him was, “You would probably be a very nice neighbor, but I could never join you in any type of crusade because our belief in the God of heaven and the Scriptures is totally different.  If anyone asks me if it is all right for them to attend your Methodist religion, I would advise them that a person can never become a true born-again believer following the teaching you just informed me that you believe.  And that they could never grow as a child of God as a member of your congregation.

  4.) I ended our visit by asking him, “As far as you know, how would you classify the ministers, district leaders, and bishops in your Methodist religion as far as being orthodox or liberal?”  Orthodox being Christ-centered and Bible-centered, — and liberal as believing as he did.

  His answer was, “Well there would actually be three groups: Bible and Christ-centered like you (me, John Barela), about one percent. Orthodox, like himself, 10 percent. (He classified himself as non-Bible-believing, and not believing that Jesus is God and the only way to heaven — as Orthodox.)  Then Liberal, a person who believes even less in the Bible and our Lord Jesus, 90 percent.  Bishops can be labeled as corrupt because they control so much money.”  To which I answered, “This seems to clear up everything we wanted to know.  It is evident that you do not believe exactly as I do like these members of your church thought.”  Now they knew exactly why many of their friends chose to leave the Methodist religion.

  5.) I asked him, “Do you believe in Hell as a final judgment?”  He quickly answered, “Oh no, I’m not one of those Jonathan Edwards types of preacher.”  My answer was, “I didn’t think so, but your members here told me that you did when I asked them if you did.”

  He answered, “Oh yes, I believe in Hell a little bit differently than you do.  When couples are going through a divorce, they are going through a type of Hell.”

  We ended on that note.

  The Methodist religion is not alone in its beliefs in Hell and the Bible.  Some denominations and well-meaning Christians believe that hell is a synonym for the grave.  They go to great lengths to prove that Hades, the grave, and hell are all the same things.  If so, why do so many Old Testament and New Testament writers under the guidance of the Holy Spirit make so much about the wages of sin and the eternal destruction of the soul in hell?  Let’s look at some of the scriptures that point to the fallacy of not believing that the penalty for not having Jesus Christ wash our sins away with His own shed blood is an eternal home in hell’s unquenchable fire.

  The word “hell’ appears 54 times in the Holy Bible.  Hell is clearly defined in your Bible as a place of torment and burning.  Only a fool who rejects what he reads would say hell is the grave or just separation from God.  But some denominations dismiss the concept of an eternal living hell, and those who try to make it a biblical metaphor say a loving God would not send anyone to such a place.  But is that true?  True, God is a loving God and He desires that ALL come to repentance and be saved.  God does not send anyone to hell.  It is YOUR choice.  C.S. Lewis summarizes this truth in his classic work, The Great Divorce: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done,’ All that are in Hell, choose it.”

  God does not send us to this place that our Lord Jesus spoke of where the worm dies not, nor fire quenched.  But YOU DO, out of your own self-will by rejecting a free offer of salvation found only in Jesus Christ you choose to live eternally in hell’s torment.

  “And if thy hand offend thee, cut if off:  it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:  Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:  Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:43-48)

 Jesus was obviously not advocating cutting off a member of your body, but He was making a point that if you live like the devil, you will make your home with him at the end of time.  He speaks of fire unquenchable and where the worm that eats your flesh, dies not.  Our Lord Jesus is quite literal here.

  Here we are speaking God’s Word to warn all who will listen about a place so horrible that I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go there.  We are not here to scare you, but to warn you.  Realize that you are a flawed individual with a sin-filled past and born to sin as a nature of humanity.

 Our Lord Jesus spoke of this very fact in the lesson of the rich man and Lazarus.  When He spoke of the rich man and Lazarus being separated by a huge gulf and the rich man being in torment, was Jesus just telling a story?  Was He stretching the truth, just to make a point?  Let’s look at the passage.  This is our Lord Jesus speaking.

 “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores.  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died and was buried; And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 16:19-24)

  Notice that those in Paradise have names, such as Abraham and Lazarus… but the “rich man” is nameless, faceless, and so is anyone who rejects the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ alone (Could this person be you?)

  This place of the abode of the dead, encompassed hell and paradise, as the above verses speak of, but our Lord Jesus emptied Paradise when He was raised from the dead and those who were in Paradise were removed to the third heaven. (Ephesians 4:8-10) But hell and its torments are still there, as it has not been emptied yet.

  Did you know that below your feet are millions and millions and millions of souls crying, screaming, weeping, wailing, gnashing their teeth, and begging for a drop of water on their tongue because they are tormented without rest with fire and brimstone, and they know that they are not getting out?

  It’s not like it is here on the surface, but those who died without Jesus Christ as their Savior ended up there in a spiritual realm of separation from God and are in eternal torment.  Those who reject God’s provision will have to face the consequence of their own choice.  We can either receive Christ’s offer of forgiveness of our personal sins and receive His salvation — or we can reject it.  It’s your choice.

  The unmistakable teaching of the Bible is that all people, whether they are saved or lost, will exist eternally, in either heaven or hell.  True life or spiritual life does not cease when our fleshly bodies pass away in death.  Our souls will live forever, either in the presence of God in heaven if we are saved, or in punishment in hell if we reject God’s gift of salvation.

  God’s Word was designed and written as a love letter telling about God’s love for us, sending His only Begotten Son to die in our place, washing all of our sins away and clothing us with His righteousness.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

  But take heart, my reader.  You don’t have to spend eternity in a devil’s hell and be cast into a “lake of fire” enduring torment and separation from God for all eternity.  You can choose the free offer of salvation and eternal life in heaven with Christ.

Are you in need of salvation?

  Are you ready to place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and receive this free gift of eternal life?  If so, do it now.  There is no special prayer you must pray to do so.  Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  The following prayer is one way you might make this confession with your mouth:

  “Dear God, I realize I am a sinner and could never reach heaven by my own good deeds.  Right now, I place my faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son who lived a sinless life, died in my place to cover my sinfulness, and rose from the dead to give me eternal life.  Please forgive me of my sins and help me to live for you.  Thank you for accepting me and giving me eternal life.”

  For more information on salvation, order the DVD “The Gospel — What it is and What it is Not.”  A foundational teaching for all believers, new or old alike.  It answers the question as to why God established the animal sacrifices that culminated in Jesus Christ the Savior.  It covers the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb in Jesus Christ.  It explains the difference between the law and grace.  You will better understand the cults who claim Christianity but do not accept the Gospel of His grace, which is the new covenant.

  An excellent evangelistic tool to reach those who are not yet believers but are seeking to understand what it means to be saved.  It is 1 hour 20 minutes long.

 To order this DVD for tax-deductible gift of $20 or more please contact John Barela at Today, The Bible & You at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma U.S.A. 74013 or please call him at (918) 279-1136.

Printed with permission of Today, The Bible & You located at P.O. Box 1722, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma 74013. the name of the original article in the February 2023 issue of Today’s Front Page was “Is There Life After Death?  Do people actually go to either eternal bliss in Heaven or an eternal Hell after death?” www.JohnBarela.com