The Truth About Heaven

Listen to the MP3 of "The God Solution" show #18 - "The Truth About Heaven" below! Get all our previous shows here. We are on the air Sunday mornings at 8:30 am. "The God Solution" is an interactive show that will discuss answers to humanity's questions about God and God's answers for Humanity's questions. I really hope you'll tune in and listen and share the program with friends as well. If you live in the area listen to the show on 91.9 or 93.9 FM. If you don't live in the area, feel free to check out the show online at http://kdur.org/. If you like the show please let the wonderful folks at KDUR know. You can contact them by clicking here. Thanks a ton and tune in every Sunday at 8:30 am!

John is Dead

This is an unbelievably sad story but one that we can all learn a lot from. My dad, John Herbst, has been a bus driver for the city of Grand Junction for about a year now. He has always been a great example of evangelism to me. He was even put in jail, in Las Vegas, in the 70s for sharing the Good News and led our family for 13 years in full time ministry. He has been taking the initiative to share the gospel with different people he meets riding his bus and he'll often go to work early just to get some extra time to share the gospel with them (in fact he went to work early today to share with a homeless man that rides his bus). He had been sharing with a different homeless man, also named John, for quite a while. Last week he tried to give the man a Gospel of John but John said he wasn't ready for it yet. My dad said, "no problem," and spent a few extra minutes just going through the gospel with the man. Just yesterday my dad learned (from the homeless man he's witnessing to this morning) that John passed away during the night this past Sunday.

We never know how much longer we or those around us have and this story reminds me of the importance of making the most of every opportunity (Col.4:5). The reality of life and death should give us an eternal perspective that motivates all we do and say. Eternity is so real!

Dad, I am so proud of you for taking the initiative to share with John and even though he wasn't ready to trust Christ a week ago I hope he came to that place before he died Sunday night. If you're reading this today, please pray for the man my dad is sharing with right this moment; pray he would come to know Jesus as his Savior.

Before you go, check out these ideas for sharing your faith over the holidays and get even more ideas here - then apply them and tell us how it goes. I can't wait to hear the stories. Finally, for a Biblical perspective on the reality of Heaven and hell, check out this link or just watch the video below:

Heaven, Hell and Purgatory

(That picture is actually from last April - we forgot to get one this weekend). An eternal perspective based on scripture will radically effect how we live this life and how we reach the lost. Because of that, we spent our retreat this past weekend on the topics of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. Of course, scripture doesn't talk about Purgatory, we just listed that as a theme because we were a couple of minutes from the Purgatory ski resort (and we wanted to clear up misconceptions people had about eternity). It was a great time. Watch the videos, listen to the MP3's and get the notes below. The talk on hell clears up a ton of misconceptions many of us have been hearing lately. The heaven talk will leave you so excited for heaven you'll hardly be able to wait (you'll probably find yourself with Paul's attitude in Phil.1:23). We challenged students that the reality of a heaven and hell should encourage us to live with an eternal perspective and concluded Sunday morning by watching "the Bema" (if you haven't seen it, order it here). Get a video of what retreats are like below and check out the talks and student stories below that.

What the Bible really says about Heaven - Erin summarizes Randy Alcorn's book (listen below or get the notes here):

What the Bible Really says about Hell (listen below or get the notes and video here):

Dakota's story:

Ashlie's Story:

Hell No!

The video below will play automatically. If you don't want that, press pause in the bottom left hand corner. Check out the video below for a thorough analysis of what the Bible has to say about hell. You'll find other notes below the video as well.

Fewer and fewer Christians believe in a literal hell. Heb. 6:1-2 says this is an “elementary teaching.” Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Heb.9:27), going either to eternal punishment, or eternal life (Mat.25:46).

The Bible describes hell as a real and eternal place of wrath where people will be tormented day and night forever in gloomy dungeons where both the body and soul will be judged with blackness, darkness, destruction, torment, weeping, gnashing of teeth, anguish, trouble, sorrow, shame, contempt, anger, trouble, distress and a raging, consuming, unquenchable and unending fire. You can see the references for those descriptions below.

I talked with a student this week who said their main issue with Christianity is that they hate the idea of hell. I replied, "So do I and so does God!" God is not willing that anyone perish (2 Peter 3:9) and He wants every person to be saved (1 Tim.2:4). You have to read this post for more on God's heart about this! The reality of hell is one reason I'm in full time ministry and it is the reason Jesus came to this earth, lived, died and rose again. Not liking something doesn't make it any less real. I hate the idea of children getting cancer, I can't stand the thought of babies being murdered and I cringe when I hear of women being raped and abused but all those happen every day all around us.

Hating hell doesn't make it any less real. If you really hate hell, there are only 2 things you can do about it. First, make sure you have trusted Jesus Christ for your salvation. He will save you from both the hell described in this post and the hell of life without Him here on earth. Then, live your life to share the Good News with others so they won't have to spend an eternity in hell.

We need to quit sitting around wishing hell didn't exist and start doing something with the short time we have on this planet to make a difference. C.T. Studd had the right perspective, saying, "Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell."

One last note: Fear should not cripple the believer (1 Jn.4:18) and it is not the primary motivation for the unbeliever to trust Christ (Rom.2:4). But it is real. I should not over or underemphasize it, nor should I ignore it.

I hope these verses challenge you as much as they do me. Please check out the MP3 below (it's probably the most famous sermon in history) for a great perspective on this issue. Finally, if you are a student here at FLC, don't miss the retreat next weekend - we'll be talking in depth about heaven, hell and living this life with an eternal perspective. Have an amazing day guys!

Descriptions of hell: Dt. 32:22, Ps. 116:3, Pr. 27:20, Dan. 12:2, Mt. 5:22, 5:29-30, 8:12, 9:44, 46, 48, 10:28, 13:40-42, 18:8-9, 25:41, 46, Lk. 12:5, 16:22-28, Jn.3:36, Rom. 2:8,9, Heb.10:26-27, 2 Peter 2:4, 3:9, Jude 1:6-7, 13, Rev.20:10, 14-15, 21:8

Encouragement: Heaven and Hell

"Hell" is used 13 times in the NAS, 14 times in the NIV, 32 times in the NKJV and 14 times in the ESV. "Heaven" is used 436 times in the NAS, 404 times in the NIV, 501 times in the NKJV and 460 times in the ESV. The differences arise from different translations of a couple different words and both hell and heaven have different meanings in some of these verses (ex. hell sometimes refers to the grave and heaven sometimes refers to the skies). I don't want anyone to read more into this than we should but it is interesting to note that scripture, on average, talks about heaven 25 times as often as it does about hell. I think the main idea is that God doesn't want any to perish (2 Peter 3:9) and He does want everyone to come to know Him (1 Tim.2:4) - that is the desire of His heart! He is passionate about heaven and He is passionate about saving the lost (Lk.19:10, Mt.18:12-14). I want to share His heart for the lost and I want to share His passion for seeing them saved. What we do today will make a difference for eternity! I hope you get a chance to share the Good News with your whole town this week. They didn't put my letter to the editor in the Herald today - I hope they will tomorrow. I will link it as soon as they do. Enjoy sharing your faith today!

As a side note, the NT uses the phrase eternal life 44 times and similar phrases that refer to heaven (ex. eternal salvation, eternal redemption, etc) a handful of other times. Eternal punishment is only used twice.

Check out this message for an encouragement on being 100 times more fruitful!

For a great perspective on heaven, check out Randy Alcorn's book.