In this article, I want to express to Jack Kinsella, that he did an awesome job on his article, “Death and Dying.” He does my heart good to read his articles. At the same time, I want to add to what he wrote, something that I see inside my head every time I come across someone that is loosing or has already lost someone they love.
At my age and that of my wife, we have been through way too many deaths of our loved ones. As a matter of fact, my wife and I no longer have any family members left that are older than us. We are the remaining living, at a time when the world is going (literally) to hell in a hand basket. At times it seems like there is so little left of those older folk we loved so very much and it’s a little sad to look around; they are not here.
My Mom and Dad have been gone for better than twenty years. Thankfully they were both saved to the Lord. My wife’s parents were saved individually a few years before they passed. Yet, a few years or a hundred makes no difference, as a long as they got saved. My wife had a brother a few years older than she and he died of melanoma and was saved to the Lord about six months before passing. We are so grateful to the Lord, that HE called them when HE did. They are simply on vacation at the moment. One day very, very, soon, my wife and I will be in the Rapture and meet up with them once again and together we will praise the Lord for HIS awesome goodness and love toward us.
As I have said before, I am a very black and white sort of person. It is either up or it’s down, inside or outside and there is never any in-between or gray area. Having read the Bible, I agree with Jack Kinsella that there is NO “soul sleep.” You are either with the Lord in heaven or you are in hell─awaiting the Great White Throne judgment. So many people have some very strange ideas about hell, which can be translated equally about heaven, thus, the reason for my article on the subject.
I used to see things differently than I do today. In my mind I would see a single, narrow bridge (if you will), very short and about wide enough for a single file of people to move on. There was no “Saint Peter” standing there to greet you or to decide in which direction you are headed. The narrow road or the wide and broad road, are the paths you choose for yourself while you are alive. Yet in my minds-eye, I saw the wide and broad road ending in a cliff (again, if you will) and everyone falling over the edge. Of course we know this is the road to hell. Again this was in my minds-eye, though the truth of the matter is that this image was incorrect of me to have, according to Scripture.
If I look at the Scriptures and then see how everything really is, conversely to my image, I see much more and it is easier for me to grasp today, than at any other time. I am as much a human as you, therefore I must keep my wits about me, when writing and engaging others with the Word of God. In that regard, I now see how things really are.
As I have stated in other articles, I worked diligently in the medical field for almost fifty years, mostly on hearts and I have witnessed many people pass away. There was never any hollering or screaming, they simply stopped living and there was never anything we could do to change that, it was not in our hands. I look at the Lord calling everyone home, but I must state, your eternal home is one of your own choosing, heaven or hell.
Somewhere along the way, probably by virtue of Hollywood, this subject has been deemed verboden! No one, wishes to discuss this in any form whatsoever, even though it is as much of a fact of living as being born. The fear in people is palpable and I must admit it is most difficult to deal with in terms of those of us left behind. From my experience, it is usually very quiet and defined, one moment you are alive and the next you are not. As a matter of fact, I used to find it awe-inspiring, a moment to be humbled, the Lord being there to take the Spirit. Yet this concept is wrong as well and I have learned a great deal since being born-again and delving into the Scriptures.
One very special second, the person’s spirit is there and the next, they are either in heaven or in hell. And yet the body of the person shows no detail of which direction he or she has gone. That special second and their destiny in eternity, is only for that person and the Lord to know, it is enough for you and me to be aware of our own eternal destiny. This process is faster than a second. As a matter of fact, I do not believe we would be able to measure that time frame of change, suffice it to say, the spirit steps out of the body and steps into eternity. I realize this is a difficult thing to envision, especially for those of us that have just lost a family member or very close friend.
It is because of Hollywood and it being such a Harbinger of doom and gloom, that I am making these points, as written in Scripture. I must also state, that Scripture is for those of us that wish to believe in them, as the exact Word of God Almighty. For the unsaved individual it is nothing more than foolishness. How sad it must be to live, having been told of the wonderful gift of Jesus Christ, yet never once taking it or anything of it to heart; to be conscious of everything going on around you and then to step into eternity…in hell.
As with the story that Jesus Christ told of the “Rich man and Lazarus,” we see that no one passes into eternity and is unconscious. In the vernacular, they are wide-awake and very aware of where they are at that very moment. There is not so much as a skipped step and you witness your presence with the Lord or the torment of hell! I find it so difficult, to think that someone would choose an eternal existence in hell, awaiting the Great White Throne judgment by Jesus Christ and then thrown into the lake of fire.
There is NO excuse, there is NO “doing-it-all-over-again” hoping to get it right. There is NO purgatory or waiting period, NOT even a Milli-Second of pause! There is NO WIGGLE ROOM! You had your chance to accept Jesus Christ, you either accepted HIM or you did NOT. After your death it’s all over as far as making the decision. It is YOUR decision…YOU make just for YOU…where YOU want to spend eternity! That is the one thing that YOU will KNOW for all of eternity!
This is why John 3:16 has to be one of the most profound verses in the Bible: “For God so loved the world [you and me] that HE [God] gave HIS only begotten Son [Jesus Christ on the Cross] that who-so-ever believeth on HIM [Jesus Christ]…should NOT perish…but will have eternal life.”
Everything having to do with salvation is bound up in one sentence. It is the epitome of the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Another verse spells it out for all to read and KNOW, John 14.6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: NO MAN cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Again we see one sentence, that there is ONLY one way to heaven and Jesus Christ! Being that the Bible is better than 3000 years old, It has never had one mistake, the evidence is right there in black and white!
As Jack Kinsella has stated, I also say, the Bible is exacting, to the point, it is black and white─irrefutable, undeniable, the greatest truth there has ever been. Read your Bible and then read it again. Believe what is written, because these are the Words of Almighty God to you and me, and there is NO other!