Think of heaven as you’d like it to be, then think again. What will your idea of heaven and life after death look like 100 years from now? Will people understand the Biblical message on what heaven and life after death are today? Will humanity have moved on by then? Will it even matter?

The Nature of God

Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”

God is holy, and His holiness shows up in His righteousness. We cannot look at God and not see His righteousness (righteous attributes). “The Bible’s description of God is rooted in the knowledge that He is totally other—different from anything we experience in this world of sin and evil.” God created a perfect world (Heaven) for humans, and He made His perfect, unspoiled image in their likeness (humans) to live in it. Those humans were not born yet to sin and evil (there was none in the world). Therefore, they could not know of them through experience. God’s nature wasn’t influenced by sin, which means human’s weren’t influenced by it.

Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Titus 1:2 “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began”

God is a God of justice and mercy. Yes, He gives His grace to those who do not deserve it and whose sins He has condemned to death. But this doesn’t change His standards and laws of righteousness. He couldn’t lower His standards (heaven) to save sinners or give them eternal life. God could still be holy and just while giving His life blood to die for sinners if He chose to. He didn’t need to lower His standards when He saves sinners. Rather, God raised sinners to His standard so He can dwell among them in Heaven. The promise of eternal life is not a promise of lower standards; rather, it’s a promise that He will raise sinners to meet His standards. We were raised from the dead with Christ, and therefore, we’re seated with Him in heavenly places. Seated with God implies His standard. Heaven is a place where teh righteous go, and we must pass the test of the Saviour to get there.

The reason people think heaven is a place where God is going to lower His standards is because they don’t know His nature. They don’t know who He is. God isn’t about to lower His standards. God is seeking for mercy and not sacrifice. The best we can come up with is love, but His love is exceedingly greater than ours. God is everlasting, but even that’s not enough to describe His character because His name is immutable. Let God be true, and every man a liar.

Sin and Death

James 1:15-16 “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

Sin is the lawlessness of our nature and death is its consequence (fearful prospect). Sin is anything that violates the law of God, not the person’s ability to recognize or follow the law of God. Sin is the cause of death. Sin and death are two things that God hates with a burning passion. When God creates something, He usually puts a mark on it as a seal of approval. In Genesis, the animals had the breath of God in them, and that’s how God accepted them as clean, so they would be a sacrifice for atonement. These animals carried no sin. But Adam, a free morally responsible being created in His likeness, rebelled against God, gave way to sin, and brought death into the world. That rebellion was part of Him when God created him, and God cast his soul out of Paradise as the curse for it. Without the covering of God’s grace, the original state of man was death.

Romans 8:6 “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That’s why death and sin are bound together.

Deuteronomy 32:20-22 “they were deceived; their destructive ways deceived them. Their repulsiveness was like the stench of an open grave; their tongues were as treacherous as the open grave. Their mouths were full of curses and bitterness. Their feet were swift to shed blood.”

Death is the most horrible thing God created. When it comes to our nature, God considers even murder worse than prostitution. Death is like a stench, and the fruit of death is cunning and deceitful. This is where God’s righteousness comes in. He has to judge those who practice death, and everyone has at one point or another practiced it in some form or the other. But some people could not resist the stench of it and decided to wear it as a crown. Such a person is pure evil, and his life is worthless in the eyes of God.

“The sinful deeds of the wicked ensnare them, and the cords of their sins hold them fast. All who make them become prisoners. The snares of death entangle them, and they are caught in the cords of Sheol.” – Proverbs 5:22-23

God judges sin. He must, as He is holy. If He did not, He would not be holy, and that would mean He didn’t exist. As we stand on the side of death, in the midst of the stench, God stands on the side of life and righteousness, without the stink.

Final Judgment

Psalms 119:158 “I see that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God works in history, and we cannot change the past or the future. God’s work will last forever. That’s why God’s rules never change.

Revelation 20:11 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled away from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

Revelation 20:13 “And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.”

“Several decades ago, a huge majority of Christians in the United States believed in hell—roughly 95% of Catholics and 74% of evangelicals. Today, that number has fallen off to 30%. On the other hand, 70% of atheists believe that hell doesn’t exist. In 1985, 20% of Christians believed Jesus was only a human being; today, that number is up to 38%. There are various other statistics showing that Christian teaching in general has been slipping over the past few decades, but the low view of hell and a high view of Jesus as a man are two good examples of the damage that has been caused. That is devastating. It is a tragedy that the truth about Christ and the message of the gospel has been so perverted.” – John Piper

Why are people ignorant about heaven if God is trying to tell everybody about it? Is it possible that people are choosing to be ignorant about heaven, and we’re making it difficult for ourselves to know the truth about this topic? Is it also possible that people who want to hear the gospel about heaven are losing patience and resort to a poor understanding of God to satisfy themselves? The truth is there is so much information around that we want to find the one that suits our religious beliefs and political views, forgetting that Scripture is the basis for all these views. Is it not?

A time is coming when the truth will change all of our views about heaven and life after death. If we don’t change today, we will change tomorrow.