As far as I know, all religions include some sort of belief
system about what happens after our life on earth. Some Eastern religions
believe in reincarnation of the spirit into a new physical body – an animal if
evil deeds outweighed the good in the previous
life, or a human being with more or less privilege and status, again dependent
on deeds and “enlightenment” achieved before
death.
Islam and other works-based religions promote eternity in
paradise for those who did enough good during their physical existence to earn
it. This creates a conundrum: how good is good enough? The concept of salvation
based on works, and not on God’s grace as Christians believe (Ephesians 2:8-9), portrays a
giant celestial scale, with a person’s evil deeds stacked up on one side, and,
hopefully, outweighed by good deeds on the other.
The person trusting in one of these religious belief systems
can never know for sure that they are going to heaven, particularly if the god
they trust is capricious or fickle, changing his or her mind about whether the
dying person deserves eternal reward or eternal punishment.
Catholicism describes three alternatives after life on
earth: heaven, hell, or purgatory. This last state is not described anywhere in
the Bible and is based only on man’s traditions and philosophies rather than on
Scripture as the sole authority (Mark
7:13; Colossians 2:8).
Catholic doctrine describes purgatory as an intermediate state between heaven and hell where souls go who are
neither “good” enough to merit heaven nor “bad” enough to deserve hell.
In the Catholic Church, living souls are encouraged to pray
for their dead loved ones to transition from purgatory to heaven, aided by
“indulgences,” or cash payments to the church. But the Bible tells us that once
we step out into eternity, it is too late to change our destiny. Everyone will
go immediately and permanently to heaven or hell, based solely on whether or
not they trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Mark 9:47; 2
Corinthians 5:1-8; 1 John 5:12).
As he led the Protestant reformation, Martin Luther
protested against the concept of purgatory and other traditions honored by the
Catholic Church but absent from Scripture.
His faith was in God alone (2
Kings 19:15; Psalm 86:10; Isaiah 37:16; Luke 5:21)
as revealed by His eternal Word alone (Deuteronomy
4:2; 2 Samuel 22:31; Psalm 56:4; Isaiah 40:8; Luke
4:4; John 1:1; 8:47; 1 Peter 1:23), and therefore Luther's concept of the afterlife was based on Scripture.
Bible-believing (Psalm 119:11-18), born-again (John 3:3-8) Christians trust in salvation by God’s grace through
our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9)
in the death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) of His Son
Jesus Christ as the only Way to Heaven (John
14:6). Although a recent poll of Americans revealed that two thirds
acknowledged that they were sinners, the Bible says that all of us have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23), and that there is not a single good person on earth (Romans 3:10, 12).
How then can any be saved? A holy, righteous
God (Leviticus 11:45; 1 Samuel
2:2) cannot tolerate the presence of sin (Ezra 9:15), which is why no matter how hard we try to work
our way to Heaven, we cannot ourselves remove the penalty our sins deserve (Psalm 7:11; Isaiah 5:16).
God is just, and He therefore demands that the penalty be paid for our sins before
He can allow any of us into His presence (Daniel
9:14,18; Romans 2:5; 3:5).
From before the beginning of time, God knew that Adam and Eve would
disobey Him and bring the curse of sin upon the world (Genesis 3). He had therefore already devised the plan of salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14). His Son Jesus
Christ, equally God (Philippians 2:6),
would come to earth in human form (John
1:14) and live a perfect, sinless life (John 1:29). He would die an agonizing, humiliating death by
crucifixion (Matthew 27:35) to
pay for all our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21),
so that whosoever trusts in Him as Lord and Savior would not die, but would live forever with Him (John 3:16; 1
John 5:12).
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day (Matthew 28:6-7), He proved that
He is God (Acts 1:3) and
worthy to be our Savior. Whosoever trusts in Him is freed from the penalty of
sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2;
4:10), which is everlasting death and torment in hell (Luke 16:19-31). When God looks at
the sinner who has trusted His Son, He no longer sees our sin, but the perfect
righteousness of His Son, in which He robes us at the moment of our salvation (Isaiah 61:10).
By a mysterious spiritual transaction, the penalty for our
sins is debited against Christ’s suffering on the cross, and His perfect
righteousness is credited to our account. Instantly we are transformed (2 Corinthians 5:17) from His
enemies to His children and heirs (Romans
5:10), and joint heirs with Christ (Romans
8:17), ready to enjoy our inheritance of eternal life with Him in
Heaven (Ephesians 1:11-18; 1
Peter 1:4).
But if we reject His freely given gift of salvation by His
grace, we remain His enemies and children of the devil (John 8:44), and our afterlife will be one of eternal torment
in hell (Mark 9:43-48).
Trusting in Christ is the only Way to eternity in Heaven (John 14:6). We have but one life on this earth, in which
good works cannot outweigh or negate our sins or the consequences of those
sins. Once we take our last breath, it is too late to change our destiny, and
all the sincere prayers and contributions of our survivors cannot affect it.
May those who have not yet trusted
Christ do so today, for today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14). May we who believe
share His Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20)
with those who are otherwise doomed to everlasting hell.
Praise God that we can know from God’s Word,
beyond the shadow of a doubt, how to be sure our afterlife will be in Heaven!
Praise the Lord that He paid our sin debt in full! Praise God that He is not
capricious or fickle, but unchanging, and that we can depend on His constant,
saving grace (James 1:17; Hebrews
13:8).
What is a Christian’s afterlife like? After our
life is done, what remains of us for those we leave behind? Stay tuned to subsequent
posts as we explore these questions!
© 2017 Laurie Collett
5 comments:
Dear Laurie,
I have always been aware of the afterlife since I was small, for my mother believed in it. But unfortunately, I grew up in a Catholic family where exposure to Catholicism instead had led me to an atheistic adolescence. Basically, my problem is having a mental image of a perfectly righteous Jesus but one who is constantly dissatisfied with my performance and therefore destined for Hell, as it was impossible to please him.
And imagine a lifetime devotion to the Catholic Church, one can live a holy life for the better part of seventy years - then commit just one mortal sin. If he dies soon after, without reciting the Act of Contrition and carrying out Penance decided by the priest, it's an eternity in Hell (not just Purgatory) - meaning seventy-plus years of devotion to the Church totally wasted.
This has a severe repercussion on the character of Christ, effectively denying his love and his power of a full atonement. In effect, denying that Jesus is the Christ except by name only. Little wonder that the Virgin Mary has always played a major role in interceding for sinners. In Catholic countries to this day, there are far more shrines to Mary than there are for Jesus.
An excellent post, God bless.
Even many Protestant churches teach that while we are saved by faith in Christ, we can lose our salvation by committing certain sins, which is essentially the same thing Frank described about the catholic church. Praise God, according to Peter, we are kept by the power of God, rather than having to keep ourselves saved.
Dear Frank,
Thank you for expanding on the Catholic doctrines regarding the afterlife. To God, all sins are heinous and worthy of punishment in hell, whether or not they are "mortal" sins by Catholic classification. Although the Bible does speak of "a sin unto death," it does not specify what that is, for that might lead some to breathe a sigh of relief because they had not committed it. Praise God that sinners are saved eternally by their faith in His shed blood, and that even if we commit the sin unto death, it will result in our physical death but not the loss of our salvation or of eternity in Heaven. Praise God that He is love, and that there is but one Mediator between God and man, namely Christ Jesus.
Thanks as always for your encouragement and insights.
God bless,
Laurie
So true, Donald, even various Protestant denominations teach that we are not eternally secure, which clearly contradicts the wonderful promise of God's Word. We did nothing to earn our salvation, and we can therefore do nothing to lose it.
Thanks for your comment and God bless,
Laurie
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