My best friend got me hooked on the Twilight series of books. So, the other day when I was at Walmart looking for "Breaking Dawn", I decided to head over to the Christian section of books to see if anything caught my eye.
So at Walmart, I see the book "Hell", by Bill Wiese. I had already read "23 Minutes in Hell" that he wrote first, so I decided to get this one to see what it was all about. I'm not finished reading it yet, but the author explained something in a way that seemed very clear to me and I just thought I would share and see what all of you thought about it.
He said that going to Heaven is not about being good or bad. He said you absolutely must be saved to go to Heaven. He used this analogy:
If you knocked on the door of a beautiful home and asked to be let in and told them you wanted to live there, they would shut the door in your face. Obviously, they aren't going to let you live there no matter how good of a person you are. You would have to have a relationship with them for them to even consider letting you stay there.
So, basically what he's saying is that Heaven is God's home. No matter how good of a person you are, if you don't have a relationship with Him, you aren't going to Heaven when you die. If you choose not to acknowledge God, and the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, you are choosing to live in a place that is void of God. Hell is that place. Because all things good are from God, there is absolutely nothing good in hell. No water, no air, no peace, no comfort, no love. I will tell you that when I read "23 Minutes in Hell", I could barely breathe. It terrified me just to read hell being described. I am not exaggerating. I literally was terrified. I cannot imagine how horrible it is.
I grew up believing in God, knowing that Jesus died for our sins, and that we must be saved to live eternally with Him in Heaven. But, I just have never had it explained so plainly to me. I always got caught up on having a hard time believing that a good person would have to suffer eternally in hell. But, the point is that we are all sinners and none of us could ever be good enough to deserve Heaven. The author says that the second after you die, it is too late to change your mind.
So, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm still learning and I don't pretend in any way to have it all figured out. I just wanted to share what I read.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I will definitely be getting this book over the weekend! Thanks for letting us know about it.
Kristin, I also read 23 minutes in hell. YIKES. Seriously... you want to shout to the world, "HURRY... ACCEPT CHRIST BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!" I think there are Christians out there that wanna gloss over hell as a reality. The whole "God is love" mentality, ya know? God IS love, but there is so much more!
I totally agree that there is no "good enough." There are 2 teams: God's team, and not God's team. If you don't belong to God, then you belong to the God of this world, that being Satan. It gives me shivers because scripture is so clear that hell is a real place and that satan roams the earth seeking whom he can devour. Eery isn't it? But God can't allow sin into heaven, it's a perfect place -so it doesn't matter how nice of a person you are, or even if you volunteer 100 hours a month at the nursing home. There is one way to the Father (heaven) and that is through His Son. One path. It's a free gift... all we have to do is reach out and accept the gift. There are so many people that are baffled by the simplicity of this concept. "all I have to do is say YES to Jesus?" Sounds easy enough. But spiritual fruit (peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control) is the result of true salvation. That's where the being a good person comes in... but the good works are a result of our faith - not something we do to attain heaven. We can't ever be good enough except for when our heavely Father sees us through Jesus colored glasses. Only then can we be "good enough". Christ's sacrafice on the cross is the only thing that saves us. Period.
I'd really like to believe that EVERYONE will go to heaven, but that's just not the way it works. I want to be the one that Jesus says, "enter, good and faithful servant" to... not the one that he says, "depart from me, I never knew you" to. It's deep, and it's serious and it's eternal. People make hard decisions every day of their life... but choosing eternal life in heaven by giving their hearts to Jesus is the biggest one a person can make. Eternity is eternity. I can't even imagine enduring hell's conditions (as described in that book) for 5 minutes, much less forever.
Thanks for sharing this post. It's a tough subject, but one that has eternal consequences to be sure. I think you are right on! :)
On a happier note, I really enjoyed the book 90 minutes in heaven, though the author is not as descriptive - it's still beautiful and well... I'm glad that I can say with confidence "that's where I'm goin'!!" :)
Sounds good, I love books like this. I agree with him. Some of my family who are not believes can not accept it but since the God says it then it is true and the whole bible is true. So many churches and religions now are taking the parts out that they want to believe and not thinking about the other. Or the Oprah spiritual stuff, she is defiantly missing a lot.. So sad because she has so much power and seems to be a good person but she will be accoutable for telling people they are good and there are many paths to heaven. Not true. Thanks for the post, and I will see you in heaven girl (:
Post a Comment