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NEXT IN DAY 7

ABEEDAH: Are you telling me I'm going to hell if I don't believe in your Jesus?!
RODNEY: What about people who never heard about Jesus or were misinformed?
HOLLY thinks there will be people in heaven who never asked for Jesus as personal savior
JOHN asks how God will judge those of us who know

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Where will I go after I die? People of all times, places and religions have instinctively known that there will be a final judgment and reward or punishment after death. This knowledge is built right into us. Heaven and hell are logical extensions of God’s character, explained in Day 5: God is holy; he has established physical AND spiritual laws. > God is just; there is a penalty for wrong choices: HELL is the penalty for a lifetime of sin. > God is love; he offers a substitute (Jesus) to free us from the penalty; if we accept, we get HEAVEN instead of HELL. The substitution is a GIFT, and hell is the residual. If the gift is rejected, hell is what’s left. Is there a spirit world? Permeating the physical world, there is a spirit world we cannot see and can only barely understand; not only the Holy Spirit, but angels, Devil and demons. This mysterious realm is most discernible to people who open themselves to spirit influences and powers. Generally, modern Western culture is cerebral and chooses not to acknowledge spirits except in jest. Christians need not be much concerned about it, except to recognize that the spirit world is very real and can have considerable power over individual lives. Fortunately, salvation, explained in Day 5, takes care of it all for us. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we also get the Holy Spirit. To the extent we yield to the Holy Spirit, he (a part of God living within us) drives away evil powers that want to corrupt our lives. We don’t even have to think about it. We just focus on God. What is heaven? Heaven is both a place and a state of being. The Bible says people there will have a different body (perfect!), and there will be no sin, pain or sorrow. There are many references to heaven in the Bible but no detailed description except for a symbolic dream in the book of Revelation. Heaven is beyond our capacity to comprehend, and human words cannot describe it. We should dismiss as pure fantasy images such as a person with wings walking around heaven playing a little harp. All we can know, and need to know, is that heaven is the wonderful place after death, with God; it’s where we want to go! What is hell? Hell is what’s left after God leaves. It is confinement together of all unforgiven sinners, Satan and evil spirits, left alone to fend for themselves in an environment of unstrained evil and suffering, without God and unable to die. Hell is the exact opposite of heaven. It is the terrible place for people who are not in heaven, totally abandoned by God, cursing themselves for rejecting Christ in their earthly life. We should dismiss as pure fantasy images such as the Devil with a tail, red suit and pitchfork. All we can know, and need to know, is that hell is the horrible place after death, without God; it’s where we don’t want to go! Can good people go to hell? Some 'bad’ people will go to heaven, like the repentant thief who died on the cross beside Jesus. Some ‘good’ people will go to hell, like the pious religious leaders rebuked by Jesus. A person goes to hell for relying on his own merits rather than on Christ’s merits, regardless how good that person may be. Rejecting Jesus Christ – thinking ‘I’m good enough’ or ‘I don’t need God’s salvation’ – is what condemns a person to hell. In legal terms, it’s offer-and-acceptance. No response is rejection. Is God always fair? God is not always ‘fair’ in our sense of the word. But he is always holy, just and love. Jesus told this story to illustrate (Matthew 20:1-15): A landowner went to town at 6:00 in the morning to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius (a day’s wage, let’s say $150). At 9:00 he went back to the marketplace and got some more laborers, saying I’ll pay you whatever is right. He went to town and did the same again at noon, and again at 3:00 in the afternoon. At 5:00 he saw men standing around the marketplace and asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘‘Because no one hired us,’ they answered. ‘You also come and work in my vineyard,’ he said. When evening came, the owner said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages.’ They all received $150. But those who were hired early grumbled that it was unfair that those who were hired later got the same pay. The landowner answered, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for $150? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ What is original sin? Now, for another illustration, look at this train diagram. It will to help explain some key Christian concepts and terminology. ﷯ ‘Original sin’ means that everyone comes into the world on Track 1, headed for hell because of sin, and stays on Track 1 unless the person makes a deliberate decision to get off and go to Track 2. Because God is just, there are exceptions, as explained in Day 7: for children ... for mentally handicapped ... for people who have never clearly heard about Jesus. But the exceptions DON’T APPLY to listeners and readers here. We KNOW, or at least are put on notice to investigate further. And now we will be held accountable, individually, for our response. What is 'predestination?' Some people say there is really nothing we can do about our destiny ... that God has determined it in advance (predestination). True, he has laid the tracks, and he has limited our option to only two tracks. He has predestined that all on Track 1 go to hell, and that all on Track 2 go to heaven. But, we can choose, with our own free will, the track we want! We can look out the window and heed the signs at the stops and platforms along the way, which are our decision points. To change, we simply get off the train on Track 1 and walk across the platform to the waiting train on Track 2, as explained in Day 5. Besides getting us to the desired destination, the train on Track 2 has softer seats and nicer passengers. What is 'election?' God has chosen (elected) the category of people that will go to heaven – the ones on Track 2 – but each individual chooses (with his own free will) whether or not he wants to be a part of that category. Failing to make a decision to change means that the person deliberately chooses to remain with the group on Track 1. What is 'justification?' By what right (justification) can someone simply get off the train on Track 1 headed for hell and get on the train on Track 2 headed for heaven? Because Jesus Christ offers a fully paid ticket, purchased by his substitution death on the cross. What is 'grace?' We don’t pay for the Track 2 ticket with our own money or works. It is a free gift from God, more than we deserve – that’s grace!

 

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Clear and concise explanation of Christian faith for pass-along and discussion