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? May God give us the grace to leave a Godly legacy for those whose lives we have touched!
© 2017 Laurie Collett
6 comments:
Dear Laurie,
I grew up as a Roman Catholic, as my Mum would say,
"You was born a Catholic, you'll die a Catholic. Once Catholic always a Catholic."
The snag with that philosophy was that Catholicism stood as a barrier between me and Jesus Christ instead of bringing me to him. As a result, it led to being an atheist during my teenage years instead of a Christian. That is until December of 1972.
What I have seen over the years were those who hated God most intensely were often former Catholics.
Furthermore, had I've been born in Italy, grew up and lived there all my life, chances were that I would have never seen a Bible, let alone read one.
An excellent blog on the simple truth of the Gospel.
May God bless you and Richard.
Dear Frank,
Thanks for sharing your experience, which is a great reminder of what can happen when people put their faith in man's traditions rather than in God's Word. Praise God for His liberating mercy and grace!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, and may God bless you and Alex,
Laurie
Great post, Laurie.
As Frank pointed out, some of those who are most opposed to the gospel are those who have been raised in churches that have adopted traditions that are contrary to the scriptures and cause confusion.
Thanks, Donald! At least those who are unchurched may have an open mind and be more receptive to the Gospel, whereas those who have grown to dislike or mistrust church, for whatever reason, are harder to reach. Thanks as always for your comment and God bless,
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
yes, as you say in your post, there are many who go by traditions not truth. The catholic church speaks about praying to Mary whereas in the scriptures it is quite clear that there is One mediator between man and God - Jesus Christ - Who is the Word of God. Those scriptures are a living Word to each of us and are there to teach us God's ways. We must not sin wilfully when we know that what we are doing is wrong, because we are told that if we do this we crucify Christ afresh, and Who would want to do that. Although I was not born of the Spirit of God when I had my near death experience and was taken to that beautiful place, I believed there was a God and knew about Jesus because my lovely dad had told me much about Him. I believe that I could not stay in that place, and was told that it was not time yet and that I had to come back, because I had to do what I was called to do on this earth, as we all are who share what is given us to share. Every day of our lives is written in His book before even one of them was formed, and there is a time and purpose to everything. God bless you Laurie as you continue to share the gospel of salvation to all.
Hi Brenda,
Thank you so much for your lovely and encouraging comment, and for sharing your testimony. He designed each of us for a specific purpose since the beginning of time, and gifted and equipped each of us accordingly. I believe that the tears we shed at the Judgment Seat will be mostly for opportunities we missed and for where we fell short of His perfect plan for our life. Only one Person could truly say, "I have finished the work my Father has given me to do," and that Man is Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.
God bless you too,
Laurie
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