Often we have heard quoted 1 Corinthians 2:9 to answer the cry of our hearts for more insight into what is waiting for believers on the other side of the veil:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But the next verse is hardly ever referenced in connection with that hopeful declaration. It reads, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

Even so, we mortals have a difficult time graspi8ng just how it will be over there, where life is eternal and there is no sinfulness, no conflict of personalities, no lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes or pride of life that we continually struggle with in this physical world.

When my wife, Marge, passed away this past January 21, 2016, I was suddenly brought up short with some realities that I had never faced before. First, I realized that my horizons had suddenly become much closer. Then, I became aware that I had never quite grasped the fact that this physical life and physical world I am living in is actually temporary.

It will no longer remain at some point in the future. That eternal life beyond the veil is the real one, the permanent one! None of our imaginations can quite come up with all of what that means. If you can forgive my frankness, perhaps sharing some of these impressions and related Scriptures may provide some insight into how it will be in that coming transition that each one of us will one day embrace.

Marge was a wonderful wife and mother of our two children and grandmother to our four third generation youngsters. She was a true helpmeet for over 46 years. She suffered for 34 years with breast cancer that eventually went into her bones, yet she was conquering it with attention to keeping her immune system strengthened and staying away from the chemo and radiation treatments that so many  suffer from with great indignity.

At the beginning she had radiation treatments which apparently damaged her heart and brought her mortal body to its end. These, of course, are my opinions, and I am not a medical person. The point is that her heart was failing in its ability to maintain all of the functions it so wonderfully does with voluntary effort, and in total defiance of the theory of evolution! With all of these medical difficulties her testimony before many was her joy and hope, with an uplifting spirit, that came through without complaint.

In her last moments of struggle that voluntary effort of her heart was grasping for the ability to keep on functioning. Yet, her last audible words were a cry of “Help me, Jesus!” Her spirit was reaching out for the arms of Jesus, no doubt, for she could see what was over there and did not want that mortal body to hold her back any longer. One of her closest friends and spiritual companions was at her home a few miles away when those final struggles were going on with Marge, and she told me that she experienced a strong urge to pray for her. As she prayed, she came to another great sense to stop praying for her. Then she experienced a strange, yet wonderful sensation—she heard angels singing!

That testimony provides great closure to one who has had a person’s presence intertwined in his life for over 46 years, yet that “becoming one flesh” description of the relationship seems to penetrate to the very fiber of our being, and the adjustment to the separation takes on a whole new meaning.

Some scriptural truths have come to mind during these months since Marge has gone into the presence of Jesus.  In Luke 23:46 we are told this:

“And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”

That was the picture portrayed in Marge’s passing. As Jesus left His body to be entombed, so did she. Her spirit went into the arms of Jesus, and her body will follow in the resurrection that happens at the Rapture when “the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

Jesus’ body was there only three days, as the Scriptures prophesied. In Psalm 16:9-10, the psalmist voices the words of the coming Redeemer in prophetic language, not only as the Son of Man in the flesh, but also as deity, the second member of the Trinity:

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”

Paul writes with a forward look at what Marge has experienced already, and which we who remain will have waiting us as well:

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5).

The writer, or writers, of Hebrews speak of the hope which we have as an anchor of the soul, that hope which resounds throughout Scripture:

“Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:17-20).

That is our hope, our expectation, and thus, we say with Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Even so, while we have hints of what we will find over there, it is like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” And John further amplifies the thought with his input in 1 John 3:2-3:

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

In processing through my physical loss of Marge, I have come to realize some realities. She is no longer a mortal person; she is not coming back. And one other more striking realization is that our marriage is also over. Here is what Jesus said about that issue: “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:24-25).

Paul also confirms this, in respect to the rule of law on marriage, in his discussion about the power of the law until the death of either of the marriage partners in Romans 7:1-6.

Thus, there is no marriage in heaven. Sorry to disappoint the Mormons and the Muslims in their anticipation of great satisfaction of their fleshly lusts in their lives beyond. Those respective doctrines are creations of mortal men whose desires are of the flesh and not of the Spirit.

However, for the believers, the unity we have with our loved ones in this life will be enhanced, no doubt, by the fulfillment of the goal of oneness that Jesus spoke of in His prayer in John 17:21, “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us….”

As we struggle through the grieving times, it would not be an uncommon question, “Why am I left here?” As we were reflecting on this issue recently, my son recalled a portion of his pastor’s sermon a few weeks earlier. It went like this: The pastor looked out upon the congregation and stated, “If you are still here, then God has something more for you to do, or He has something He wants to do for you or in you!”

That seems to adequately answer the question of “why,” and it is a rather stimulating thought as to what God’s purpose might be. At least one directive comes to mind that Jesus voiced in a parable in Luke 19:12-14, “Occupy till I come.”

Once I was attempting to comfort a young couple upon the loss of their young child, referring them to the Luke passage where he writes of having treasures in heaven, “for where your treasure is there will be your heart also” (Luke 12:34). Now I must take my own counsel, for I know that Marge is there now, enjoying the fulfillment that can only come when we are in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We cast off in rejection the ideas, intentions, considerations, even sympathy many times with the flippant remark, “You can go to hell!” It is not given serious thought, generally, for we, mankind in general—continually deny to ourselves that we will not live forever

However, that is an empty commitment that no human can make for another. Change the word “can” to “will” in that statement and it will be closer to the truth—unless a certain action is taken that will reverse that direction of life forever.

What Jesus had to say about that region of existence should be enough to erase any desire to, or even unintentionally end up at that ultimate eternalhabitat. Some rationalize their plight with thoughts that tell them, “It won’t be that bad; after all, I have a lot of friends who will be there, too—drinking buddies and girlfriends that I can party with. We’ll have a great time.” Hello out there—there is a problem!

Here is how Jesus described that place:

“But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:27-28).

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly uses that phraseology, “in outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” to describe the conditions of that place. The location of “outer darkness,” along with the descriptive actions of the individual person there—“weeping and gnashing of teeth”—indicates abject aloneness of solitary confinement. On the other side, we are told in Revelation 7:17 that God will “wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

The account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-30 amplifies the situation there. The whole story is important for its implications and applications:

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’

And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

Apparently, there was no one there who could cool the rich man’s tongue, and his cries for help could not be answered from the outside. When Jesus introduces an account like this one, saying, “a certain rich man” and a “certain beggar,” it is describing a real-life situation, not a parable that illustrates a principle. Here, the phrase, “in outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” takes on new meaning, along with the implication that it will be forever and ever!

And it is also as certain that Jesus did not imply that all rich people go to hell and all poor people do not go there. So we now come to the question of why do people go to hell. What is it that brings that awful predicament upon them?

This article started out discussing that statement, “You can go to hell,” that is often flung out resentfully or jestingly. It is not, however, a viable option for the speaker of that statement. Scripture tells us that it is already a fixed issue, unless a person chooses the option that is mentioned in these verses:

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

How can that be so; it seems so unfair and not like a loving God. Right? No, not right. It goes back to the very beginning when Adam followed Eve’s lead and disobeyed God, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a choice to reject God and take their own way. To their dismay, it was not a good choice. They died then, spiritually, and later, physically. Paul tells us in Romans 5:12 that the death continued in all the offspring of Adam:

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

And Man began to show his belligerence toward God, starting as early as Cain’s incident that led to the murder of Abel. Romans 3:10-18 describes the depth of rebellion that has permeated the race of man since those days:

“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is nonewho does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

So often, and perhaps consistently, the Scriptures make known the predicament man is in and in the same context the solution is plainly given. An example is Romans 3:23-24:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Man desperately needs a new nature and 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us how that can be and the means for it to happen is in verse 21 of that context:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The Scriptures verify that Jesus earnestly desires to be in every person’s life, as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “For God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” So, He is constantly knocking on each person’s heart door:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

Then John writes, in his Gospel, what can happen when a person opens that door:

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Jesus said, in Matthew 25:41 that the everlasting fire of hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It is not for man, if he chooses to open the door of his life to Jesus Christ.