Of all the aspects of Christian faith, the concept of eternal destinies is hardest for some people to come to terms with. Various religious leaders have come out lately with statements which some find too harsh, others too wishy-washy. I suppose that is why I received a call not long ago challenging me to declare what the Bible says about these issues.
In response to the question “Do you really believe in eternal destinies of heaven and hell?” part of me just wants to answer “Yes.” and move on to something less contentious. But I know that will not satisfy the one who asked the question. For if one confesses that they do believe in eternal states of heaven and hell, they are called upon to defend their faith. What I will not do on this program is attempt to describe what heaven and hell are like. The Bible itself often resorts to figurative language when commenting on the place where the faithful will spend eternity in the presence of God as well as on the place where the faithless will spend eternity outside of the presence of God.
We’ll look at them by turn – starting with hell. It is mentioned 54 times in the authorized version though it translates a number of different words in the original Bible languages. There can be no doubt from reading the Scriptures that it is a real, literal place. It is always represented as a place of grief and torment - unpleasant beyond our most horrific nightmares.
I remember once, when I was having a kidney stone attack. I was in the hospital waiting for the radiologist to come and read my x-ray. The pain made the seconds drag by. But the medical personnel on hand wouldn’t give me anything for it until the doctor confirmed that the problem was, in fact, a kidney stone. As I lay squirming on the x-ray table, experiencing the worst pain I had ever known in my life, I remember thinking that if hell were worse than what I was going through, it must be horrible indeed.
Our understanding of the exact nature of the tortures of hell depend on how literally we take the passages that refer to it. However, it is generally conceded that all verbal descriptions - even divinely inspired ones, fall short of giving us a fully accurate vision of hell as it will be experienced by those who decide in this life to live and die without God.
There can be a lot of self-righteousness connected with speaking about hell. Certain classes of sin, especially moral ones, are seen as particularly deserving of hell, while simple failure to do good is often described as human foible which God will somehow overlook. However there is a passage which speaks eloquently to this issue. In Matthew 25, we read of ultimate judgment. This passage provides a description of how God will speak to those who are condemned, `Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' "Then they also will answer Him, saying, `Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' "Then He will answer them, saying, `Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "And these will go away into everlasting punishment."
This passage should make us all sensitive to the weakness and failures we excuse in ourselves. Those who are condemned here are not merely those who openly rebelled against God and practised flagrant moral sin. Among the condemned here are those who did not do good when there was opportunity. It highlights the demanding standards that God holds. Righteousness is not only about avoiding evil, but also about doing good. However the things that are most disturbing to me personally are the separation and the permanence of the condition of the cursed. With the words “Depart from me.” God sends those who rejected him from his presence forever. They are to suffer eternal loss. What a fearful situation. Separated from God. Forever. How shall we escape if we neglect the great salvation that God has provided through his Son.
Now let’s think for a moment about heaven. The English word Heaven used to translate the original Hebrew and Greek words occurs 503 times in the authorized version - almost 10 to 1 over references to hell. Now, in the verses just prior to the ones we already read in Matthew 25, we find the Lord Jesus addressing those who received his offer of salvation by grace. `Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, `Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? `When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "And the King will answer and say to them, `Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'
Notice that those Jesus calls “the righteous” enter a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. This is a place which God has reserved for the eternal blessing of those who seek Him. Now just as the torments of hell defy description and are accepted to be far worse that the most vivid verbal depiction, so the pleasures of heaven are beyond anything we know and, indeed, can even imagine. So I won’t try to add anything to it. Let me just share some selected verses from Revelation 21 and 22 that speak of the new Jerusalem. The apostle John tells how a mighty angel carried him away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed him a vision of the holy city full of the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
There is more, but this gives us a glimpse of heaven. It shows us what awaits those who have accepted the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross as their own. We need to move on, but I want to quickly mention something. What I’ve just read to you may sound like a “pie in the sky bye and bye when we die” kind of proposition, but there is a sense in which Christians enter into a foretaste of heaven even before the experience it fully. You see, heaven is where God is and by his Spirit He is in the life of everyone who believes. Oh! We won’t know the joy of being what we might call geographically or spacially in heaven, but we can begin to know the kind of relationship with God that will flower fully when we are truly in his presence. By faith, you can pass from death unto life. You can begin to know God in whose joy-filled presence you will spend eternity amid unutterable splendour.