There is life after death. This teaching is one of the foundation stones of Christianity. No man can accept the Bible without believing that there is a place of reward for the righteous and a punishment for the unrighteous.
Since all must stand before the Lord in judgment, it is imperative that each conduct his life so that he will receive everlasting life instead of punishment. Jesus said, ‘What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’ Matthew 16:26.
Outside Jerusalem, in the time of Christ, there was a valley which had been made a disposal place for the city’s refuse. Known as the Valley of Hinnom, or ‘Gehenna’ in the Greek, it burned continually. The English translation is ‘hell.’ Christ applied this term to the place of punishment in eternal fire after death.
There is another Greek word, which is translated as hell in the King James Version, which should not be confused with Gehenna. It is ‘Hades’, meaning ‘the unseen world’ in the abode of the dead. Confusion between Gehenna and Hades has led some to conclude that hell is simply physical death instead of everlasting fire. In most translations hades is rendered as ‘Hades’ instead of ‘hell’, and the difficulty is resolved. All uses of ‘hell’ in this lesson refer to Gehenna.
Christ describes it as a furnace of fire, Matthew 13:42 / Matthew 13:49-50. Hell, then, must be a place of conscious suffering rather than annihilation, as some believe. Christ emphasises this by saying, ‘If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched,’ Mark 9:43-44. Since the fire will never go out, hell must be everlasting, Matthew 25:41 / Matthew 25:46. Although a fire, it will be a place of absolute darkness, Matthew 8:12. If possible, hell is described even more vividly in Revelation.
Some reason that the fire cannot be literal, and hence that hell cannot be so bad. Regardless of what may be the nature of the fire, we are told that it is a place of torture. This is the important thing.
Torment denotes excruciating pain. It also implies that the one suffering will be conscious. And John further teaches that this conscious anguish will never end. Who will inhabit the place?
Hell is here called ‘death’ to denote the eternal conscious separation from God and from everything which is good. Some suppose that between heaven and hell there is purgatory, where those whose lives are neither extremely good nor extremely evil will suffer until they have atoned for their sins, at which time they will go to heaven. Pleasing as this idea may be, there is absolutely no mention of purgatory in the Bible.
One of the most beautiful descriptions that can be found is that of the eternal home as portrayed in the last two chapters of Revelation. Yet it is impossible for mere words to give an adequate description of the beauties and glories of that home of the soul called heaven.
In heaven is the holy city, the New Jerusalem. It is four square, around which is a wall with twelve gates, three on each side. The foundations of the wall also number twelve and are of twelve kinds of precious stones. Each gate is a pearl. There is a street in the city of pure gold, appearing as transparent glass.
A river proceeding out of the throne of God runs through the midst of the city. On each side of it is the tree of life, which enables one to live forever and which bears twelve kinds of fruit. Since God himself is there, we find no temple in that eternal home. But those who are permitted to inhabit it will be privileged to look on the face of God and worship Him.
In contrast with the earth, nothing in heaven is unpleasant or distasteful. There is no sorrow, no pain, no death. The tears shed in this life will all be taken away. It is a place of continual joy and rest for the weary. The gates of the city are never closed since there is no night there.
The New Jerusalem is lighted, not by the sun or moon, but by the glory of God and Christ. And since heaven is eternal and there is no death, there will be no need to reckon time.
Will we know our loved ones in heaven? No passage clearly answers this. Some think that Matthew 8:11 indicates that we will. It reads, ‘I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Our resurrection will be in a spiritual body rather than a physical one, 1 Corinthians 15:44. Since none of us has ever seen a spiritual body, we cannot know exactly what it is like except that it is incorruptible and will not die. We do know that we will bear the image of Christ, 1 John 3:2.
The choice of heaven or hell for your destiny is in your hands. It is the choice of accepting or rejecting Christ. Only faithful Christians will inhabit that eternal home. All others will be consigned to the place of everlasting punishment. It is our hope that this study has led you to a better understanding of God’s word and that, as a result, your hope of life everlasting has been made more sure.