“If there is a God, surely, He’ll just forgive everyone. The idea of judgment is just religion trying to scare people.” Ever heard that? Ever thought it yourself? It seems reasonable, right? Or does it?
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heaven
When people say that they think they’ll go to heaven because they’re a good person, not only do they think they can define what good is, but they assume they know how good is good enough.
Pascal’s wager is a famous idea that employs game theory to help people to think through the implications of countering the offer of Jesus’ good news with a response like, “I just don’t have the faith to believe.” The wager asks a person to think through their response to Jesus as they would a bet or any other important decision. He lays out a cost-benefit analysis for people to consider.
Everybody procrastinates. When we’re young, we learn to procrastinate with chores and homework. As we get older, we procrastinate about emails, exercise and taxes. So, it’s not surprising that we would procrastinate thinking about death and what comes afterwards. You may be putting off thinking about a will or your funeral planning, but let me explain why waiting until after this life to think about the afterlife is such a bad idea. Better yet, let me share how Jesus explained it and the reasons that He gave.
As more foreigners visit Japan, Japanese hosts have to negotiate the cultural differences around views of what’s clean and what’s not. As we welcomed guests from many different countries in our home in Japan, it was clear that they struggled with the Japanese rules. Some people explained to me that their shoes weren’t that dirty. Others were convinced that they could wipe off the dirt. And some people just didn’t like to put on other people’s slippers. It was humbling to be told that your shoes were too dirty to just walk in. Despite the differences, everyone seemed to concede that a guest must defer to the host. As I have reflected on the dilemma faced by many Japanese hosts with their foreign guests, I’m reminded of a similar problem confronting God as the host of heaven. In fact, a story that Jesus told sounds very similar to the problem of slippers and outside shoes in Japan. And it helps me understand what keeps many people out of heaven.
Some people live in denial about death. They just don’t want to think about it. Others have decided that it’s impossible to know and so they’re just going to wait until it happens. Those who care about what the Bible teaches, look to the Scriptures but can often be confused. This week, a person asked me to reconcile the verses that speak of death as “sleep” with those that describe other things going on after death. What really happens when die? And did Jesus teach that we just go to sleep?
It’s hard for some people to believe in heaven because they can’t touch it or see it. It can feel too far to grasp onto and too distant to find assurance in. Other people hope in heaven but go through life uncertain that they’ll ever get there. The doubts are too strong and the promises too abstract. Wouldn’t it be great if God gave us a down payment on heaven, here and now? Wouldn’t it help if heaven came with a guarantee for those who had truly put their faith in Jesus? Amazing at it sounds, the Bible says that, in the Holy Spirit, God has done exactly that.
People often assume that the temple is just an Old Testament church and essentially the same as the building Christians go to on Sunday, or they think it’s so foreign to their experience that they can’t relate to it at all. The temple is such a prominent theme in Scripture that having a sense of what it means and why it’s so significant helps in understanding the Bible's message.
What do you believe happens when you die? LifeWay Research uncovered some surprising contradictions in people’s views about the afterlife and salvation. Why are so many confused, and what does the Bible really teach?