I build my life on the tenets of Christianity. I build my life on the Bible and on the teaching of Jesus.
At least I try.
The Bible, in broad strokes, says that the world and time are in motion. That motion is not circular……it is linear. Time had a beginning and it will end. The world and time are not sustainable……they were never intended to be. There will be an end and it will be ugly. There will be an end for you and for me, individually. There will be an end……for everything. And we know very little about what follows the end. There is a part of us that will continue after the end, whether that end is our individual death or a global apocalypse. The part of us that goes on after death will experience either eternal joy…..or eternal pain.
Which?
And there is the rub. Who decides?
The decision does not fall to you. It does not fall to me. It does not fall to the preacher blasting us with fire and brimstone…….death and damnation.
God decides.
In the end……it’s all about God. It’s not about you or me. It’s not about our appetites or our identity.
I can only speculate on how God will make that decision. But, I believe that he will operate in a manner consistent with his identity and with his plan. He will decide based on who he is and on what will fulfill his long term goal.
What is God’s identity?
Love
What is his long term goal?
Relationship
So…..here it is…….my best guess.
God will populate paradise based on love and relationship………his love and his desire for relationship……our love and our desire for relationship.
All I can do…….all you can do…….is to pursue those ideals…….and trust in God’s love and in his desire to have a relationship……with me…..with you…..with every soul……unborn, living, and dead.
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
Imagine a sunny August afternoon. You are in an inner tube floating down a beautiful river. You have a 6 pack of beer. There are about a dozen of your friends, also in tubes. Everybody is laughing and cutting up. The plan is to float down the river, drink the beer, have a cook out, watch the stars come out, and then camp for the night.
Life is good…..couldn’t get any better.
Now add in the fact that the river is the Niagara river and you are a mile upstream from Niagara Falls. If you stay in the tube, finish your beer, and just enjoy the day……you are going to go over the falls and die. That is the path that you and I are on. The outcome is inevitable…….if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. But it doesn’t have to be. You can paddle to shore, finish your beer and wave at your friends as they float past. But, in order to escape the coming disaster, you must act. And time is short.
Life is like that. You have a default destination…….a place where you will wind up……..if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. And that place is not good. In fact it is unspeakably bad. Hell. We all have some evil in us. Some have a lot…….some a little. But, rest assured, the evil in me……and in you…..is enough to damn us. In a word, you can be as good as you want, you can do as much good as you want……..but it won’t be enough. Mother Theresa was not “good enough” to earn paradise. Neither are you and neither am I. Most Christians……in fact, most humans…….. believe that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That is not true. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what Jesus teaches. “NOT FAIR” you say! Welcome to the river.
I don’t know the details. But, I believe in a burning hell. I believe this because Jesus believed it. When a guy dies and then comes back to life…….you have to take what he says seriously.
And what Jesus says is this. Paradise is yours for the asking. But you must act. You must recognize the divinity of Jesus and accept his gift of salvation. That’s it…….that’s all.
Or
You can stay in your inner tube, down another beer, and enjoy the afternoon.
But know this……there are going to be a lot of people in paradise who are not nearly as “good” as you are, people who take the deal, paddle to shore and wave at you as you float by.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Jesus, explaining hell. Luke 16: 19-31, ESV
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
