What We Believe #11 – Eternity
3 minute Video version: https://fb.watch/gqQL6S26bt/
Decisions we make in this life affect our eternal existence.
Moses earnestly appealed to people, “I have set before you life and death. Now choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Jesus repeatedly called people, “Follow me.” He told us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Our Statement of Faith says: “There will be a bodily resurrection of all people (Acts 24:15). Our Lord Jesus Christ will judge with perfect justice (Acts 17:31, John 5:28-30) as the unrepentant and unbelieving are raised to the conscious anguish of eternal separation from the presence of God (Revelation 20:15, 21:8, 2 Thessalonians 1:9), and repentant believers are raised (John 6:4) to the unending joy of eternal life in the presence of God (Psalm 16:11, Revelation 21:1-4).”
Sometime in the future after death will come the resurrection of our bodies. All believers will be resurrected to receive their rewards and enter life eternal. All unbelievers will be resurrected to face judgment and eternal death.
Regarding the latter, Charles Spurgeon said, “These are such weighty things that while I dwell upon them I feel far more inclined to sit down and weep than to stand up and speak to you.”
Jesus himself described hell as a place of anguish. The presence of God that brings hope and extends the opportunity for relationship will be totally absent there.
In contrast is the hope of every Christ follower. Heaven will be the most wonderful place imaginable. Heaven will be the presence of all good and the absence of all evil.
Heaven will be a place of perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy – entirely separated from all impurities, imperfections, and deceptions of this earth. All our sins and failures and anything resulting in sadness, sorrow, or pain will be gone.
Heaven’s delights will far outweigh earth’s difficulties. The trials on this earth are nothing compared with the triumphs of heaven. The gains in heaven will more than compensate for the losses on earth.
Most of all, our relationship with God in heaven will be intimate and direct. We will see Jesus and dwell with God forever and ever.
A person may go to heaven without wealth, without beauty, without learning, without fame, without accomplishments, without friends. But no one can go to heaven without Christ.
Decide today. Choose life and follow Jesus. Your eternity depends on it.
~ Pastor Dave
