From the Bible, we learn in Genesis 1.1:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

These are the very first words of the Bible. Two distinct places, heaven and earth. This tells us there are two distinct places we can BE, either on earth or in heaven. This should prove that God is telling us today that everything in our lives is one way or the other, incredible…right?

This is the Holy Word of God, HIS words coming from HIS mouth to our ears and we need to be cognizant of each and every one of them! That is, IF you so choose to live a long and prosperous life, you must conform to how HE has set things up and that HIS perfect will is in everything, including you and me.

Now…we live each day according to “choices” we make and then follow through with actions according to the decisions we made. Examples are: If your are, walking, then you are NOT standing still. If you are eating then you are NOT starving. If you are on top of the mountain, then you are NOT in the valley. If you are here, then you are NOT over there…Pretty simplistic right? What you probably don’t realize I that the Bible is full of examples, a decision to made and actions to follow suit.

The gospel of Jesus Christ says, that IF you choose to follow Jesus Christ, you will go to heaven when you die. Conversely, if you follow Satan, you will die and go to hell, and then to the lake of fire. AGAIN…I am emphasizing, IT IS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER! There is NO gray area, no sitting on the line and there is definitely NO OTHER GOD!

I am also saying, that according to the Bible, God’s Holy Word to you and me, there is one way to live (according to God) and then there is one way of living that is AGAINST God! It is the exact same thing with the fact that there is SIN or there is NOT! God also saw the SIN of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and sent them out of the garden. Therefore SIN exists in each and every one of us─that includes you and me.

Here is another known truth from God’s Word: God will NOT allow SIN into heaven. God hates SIN! You and I are born with “original SIN” because of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden…against God. So where does that leave you and me and every other person ever born on this planet…as far as God is concerned?

We are tainted with original SIN just by being born on this planet. Therefore we are not able to be with God, who lives in heaven, if we have SIN in our lives!

Matthew 26 and 27 tells us the event of the crucifixtion and death of Jesus Christ, the sole Son of God. This is the “sacrifice unto death” that Jesus Christ made, so that our SIN is covered by HIS blood. If we choose to believe it, when we die as humans, we go to heaven to be with Jesus Christ. This is the SINGLE most important event of the Bible. It is a choice we must make, to either believe it or not. Everything in the Bible hinges on this one event!

The proof of this is found in John 3:14-18:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (emphasis added)

This is where the road meets the asphalt, this is the greatest single event anyone could ever know in their life. It is also the dividing line for those going to heaven (those who believe) and for those that will not believe, they will go to hell! This single most important decision MUST be made by each and every person that has lived, and lives today or in the future. There is NO other way around it, it is as God has made it to be!

Many times, I have given the advice to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the actual gospels. Now I tell others to start in those chapters so that they will know the love of Jesus Christ for them. But I now say, afterward, read the entire Bible. I truly believe it is important for everyone to know the promises of our God; the prophecies, the lineage, the reason for why life is the way it is…In essence, by reaind te Bible we learn the perfect will of God for our lives.

The Word of God was given to be “rightly” divided, to be read and studied with a thirst and passion like no other because this life here on earth is not the life God has meant for us to live. Our citizenship is in heaven! As the Bible puts it, it is either living for eternity in heaven with God or going to the lake of fire forever. The one, the single most important thing to understand is that everything is one way or the other, and that is according to the choices God gives us through Jesus Christ.

One other aspect among so many is that God tells us everything: Why life is what it is and who made it so. God tells us what the future is going to be, through HIS prophecies and HE also tells us the final outcome. We are given all the: Where, when, who and what is going to happen and each and everytime. HE gives us a way out of the bad and every way into the good.

Here’s what is so remarkable: It is a single decision, it doesn’t require anything to be done, because we can’t do anything to save ourselves. Everything is in God’s hands!

I must surmise that for the majority of people this is too simple…to be true! God simply wants a people that will love HIM and give all HIS love to; the very best of everything imaginable! It simply boggles my mind, when I hear someone giving excuses for not following Jesus Christ!

HE…GOD…wants to give you…everything imaginable… for all eternity! All HE asks of you is to honestly and truthfully accept HIS Gift of love and follow HIM and HE will take care of everything!

Now that is incredible!

This life we are living is for only one goal, to accept the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ! How is this so difficult for anyone to understand? How in the world could anyone choose to make a conscious choice NOT to accept that gift of Jesus Christ and heaven for all eternity? The Bible expressly says that Satan is a liar…of the first order…that Satan hates you and wants to see you destroyed, simply because God created you in HIS image. Satan hates God that much, but being the coward that he is, he chooses to take it out on you and me and everyone else.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:1-6, emphasis added).

Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings!

I truly enjoyed reading the late Jack Kinsalla’s, “Weekend in Hell” article. It was awe- inspiring and so truthful, according to the Holy Scriptures! Many a Bible student forgets the Hebrew expression of Gehenna. This underscores the reason why to study the Bible according to the Hebrew Language.

Gehenna (Greek γέεννα), Gehinnom (Rabbinical Hebrew: גהנום/גהנם) and Yiddish Gehinnam, are terms derived from a place outside ancient Jerusalem known in the Hebrew Bible as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom(Hebrew: גֵיא בֶן־הִנֹּם or גיא בן-הינום); one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City.

Originally, it was believed that this was a location where children were sacrificed to Moloch, hence from the perspective of the authors of the Hebrew Bible, it was deemed to be cursed.

In Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture, Gehenna is a destination of the wicked. This is different from the more neutral Sheol/Hades, the abode of the dead, though the King James Version of the Bible translates both with the Anglo-Saxon word Hell. [1]

If we continue to look at other words like “Sheol” we understand this word to mean the “grave.”

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And inhell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”(Luke 16:22-23, emphasis added).

Taking these words as spoken in the Scriptures, we can now see that hell was two separate places, depending on whom you chose to follow: Jesus Christ or the other guy. Of course we must also understand, that was the case PRIOR to Jesus Christ dying on the cross at Calvary and descending into hell and retrieving those that belonged to HIM. Hell, before the Lord’s descent was Gehenna, and the holding place for the righteous was Paradise, hence the Lord’s statement to the crucified criminal: “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” This is absolutely fantastic!

It is now, heaven, where we who love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ go to when we pass on, from here on this earth. It is then conceivable that one moment we are in a hospital bed dying and the very next we are walking with our Lord. What could be more fantastic than that promise? This is the ultimate promise for us on each every day of our lives. Of course many live it only at Easter…sadly. This opens another verse that we readily accept as believers:

“Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:5-9, emphasis added).

Consistently throughout the Word of God─the Bible─we are reminded to give the Lord thanks and blessings for the FACTS cited in the Scripture above. It is inconceivable to any who loves the Lord how life could ever be any other way. This alone, through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary makes these verses possible, not as simple words but more as a promise to each one of us.

For non-believers this is really difficult because they are not attuned to study the Scriptures. This is one reason why we as believers must be reading our Bibles and studying to be approved. We can explain these promises to those who are lost. It makes it clear to believers why we must read and hold dear the Word of God, because we must pass on the knowledge we have to those whodo not have it. Are you able to see how the Bible “moves and shakes?” It is unending and walks through the lives of all men.

The truths here are to be had by all, if we are willing to listen and then study. It requires “thinking” and then action. The Bible─the Word of God─then moves from YOU to ANOTHER! And the progression of these events continues, as the next believer is born-again to our Lord and Savior.

So the question is this: “Why would any believer NOT be willing to tell others about Jesus Christ? This line of thinking brings to life the gospel and the truth Jesus Christ gives us every day and then guides us into the life we are meant to live. That life we live is to show the Word of God to the lost and help them find that “narrow” road to heaven and our Lord and Savior. It is the Lord God Almighty that calls them and saves them and it is for you and me to point and show them where to find the Lord God Almighty.

I am aware that I should be explaining the Rapture and the Tribulation according to where this article is published, but how does one speak of these things without first bringing people to Christ in the first place? Eschatology and Apologetics (the end-times and defending the truth of Jesus Christ) are wrapped-up together. You can’t have one without the other. Apologetics (defending the truth of Jesus Christ) comes first and brings the lost to Jesus Christ and then eschatology, the end-times — show how we are spared the wrath of God through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross on Calvary. Is me alone or do others see the “perfection” of the Word of God?

I am constantly amazed, to say the least. Reading the entire Word of God builds the picture of our Lord and Savior like no other! We see the actions of those before us and we then see the results of those actions, showing you and me how we should be living everyday.

We know that life is not like a map. The shortest distance between two places is a straight line. But life has never been a straight line. Therefore, we need a good map to follow. We are then able to move from place to place, good, bad, or indifferent by the use of this map because the roads are squiggly and full of turns. There are way too many side roads that will ultimately keep us from our final destination.

Roads that are pitted and difficult, roads that end-up with you and me falling into temptation. Roads that will lead us astray if we are not paying attention! What if we had a “guide,” someone that would save us from making wrong decisions, someone that knows all the roads and is with you and me? The entire trip would that be a lot easier, without a doubt! Life is that map and the land we must cross through. Jesus Christ is not only our Guide but our Savior as well. Someone we can trust for everything!

“As for me and my House, we will serve the Lord!”

Endnotes [1] Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehenna