I Want To Go To Heaven

By Kent Heaton

Anyone of any spiritual consciousness realizes the joy of living for an eternal home. Heaven is a central theme for those who seek to live with the Father after this life. Paul wrote in Phil. 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:”

Our commonwealth and our conversation are resting on the hope of a place where “death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more,” for God “shall wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:4).

I want to go the Heaven to enjoy a life without pain and sorrow. Through the agency of rebellion (Gen. 3), man has suffered the pains of sin. The glory of a heavenly home is to enjoy the communion of fellowship lost in the Garden of Eden. Man was driven from the garden because of sin but is allowed to return to the garden of Heaven through the sacrifice of the Lamb (Rev. 4). The author of sin and damnation will have been cast into the “lake of fire and brimstone” (Rev. 20:10) and those saved in the glory of God will no longer battle evil as the final victory is given in Jesus Christ (Rev. 19; 1 Cor. 15:50-57).

I want to go to Heaven to end the struggles of pilgrimage. The Hebrew writer describes life for children of God as those who confessed that they were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland” (Heb. 11:13-14).

Living in a foreign country is very difficult. The language is hard to understand, the customs are not as we learned from our childhood, the sights and sounds of the foreign land are strange to us. There is a strong desire to return home where there is comfort, security and our family.

In this life spiritually, it is very difficult to live in a world foreign to the ways of God. The “language of Ashdod” (Neh. 13:24) is hard to live with as the wickedness of man is great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually (Gen. 6:5). The customs of the world are in accordance with the “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” and the custom of the world “is not of the Father” (1 John 2:15-16). I want to go to Heaven to be with my family (Eph. 3:14-15) and enjoy the company of saints and angels.

I want to go to Heaven to see God. The scriptures teach that no man has seen God save the Son (John 6:46). We have not seen the Son face to face as He is now enthroned on high at the right hand of God (1 Peter 3:22). When we are ushered into the hallowed halls of our eternal home, the face of God, the face of Christ and the face of the Holy Spirit will be greeting us with words of welcome.

“There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:3-4).

The more one reads the words of God the more desire they have to see His face. We learn of His character, His love, His compassion, His mercy and grace through the testimony of the revealed word but to see Him face to face is to behold all His glory. The greatest reward in Heaven is to be able to stand face to face with Him who loved me to give me His Son (1 John 4:10); to see the one “who made Himself of no reputation” becoming man to die for me on the cross (Phil. 5:5-11); to witness the Spirit who led me and guided me in my life (Romans 8:14-17); to stand before the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14).

Are you going to Heaven? (Matt. 7:21-23; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:37-40) &

I Want To Go To Hell

By Kent Heaton

That is not a very happy title. I imagine it alarms the inner decency of most people and their feeling is dismayed at such a thought. Truth be told, it is a difficult subject to write about and talk about. However, if truth is to be told, the subject of Hell is just as important as the subject of Heaven. Why? They are both very real.

It is easy to talk about going to Heaven (everyone wants to go there) because of the beauty, grace, mercy and love of God is fully expressed in the images of an eternal life. Heaven is a place where there is no pain, no sorrow, no tears and no death. Hell, on the other hand, is a place that is nothing but pain, sorrow and tears. Who wants to talk about a place of torment anyway?

First, we must understand that Hell is real. If you believe in Jesus Christ (and you must to be saved – John 8:24) then Hell is real. Jesus taught an eternal punishment.

“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels … And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matt. 25:41-46).

Jesus speaks about the “danger of hell fire” in Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 18:9; the “damnation of hell” in Matt. 23:33; the rich man “lifting up his eyes in torment” in Luke 16:23 showing that punishment is real.

The New Testament writers speak of the punishment of God upon disobedience as in 2 Thess. 1:7-8

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peter writes, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). John declares that there will be a lake of fire (Rev. 20).

Anyone who denies there is a Hell denies the word of God. Most people deny there is a Hell for two reasons: First, they cannot fathom a loving God punishing anyone. The scriptures show that God will destroy the wicked. He did in the Flood (Gen. 6-9); Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 13:13; chapter 19); even Israel (Deut. 28; Amos 4).

Paul reminds us “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God” (Romans 11:22).

The second reason people deny Hell is the way they live. We saw in 2 Thess. 1:7-8 that God will punish “them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Most people deny God and most people do not obey the gospel. Jesus affirmed this when He said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt. 7:13).

Why is it that no one wants to go to Hell but most people live as if they do? We cannot live anyway we want but only in the will of the Father. It is not my will but the will of the Father that must be followed.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord … then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21-23). &

Consequences of Atheism, Agnosticism and Deism

By Bob Myhan

Atheists believe that God does not exist. Agnostics do not know if God exists or not. Deists believe that God exists but that He has not spoken to man—in the Bible or any other book.

But if God does not exist—or if God exists but has not spoken—there is no right or wrong. One need not feel—in such a case—that there is anything he ought or ought not to do. There is no explanation for why humans are civilized while dogs, cats and horses, etc. aren’t. One could no more judge another person morally than he would judge a dog, cat or a horse to be immoral.

An atheist, an agnostic or a deist cannot say that you ought to honor father and mother or ought not to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness against your neighbor or covet your neighbor's wife, etc.

In short, an atheist, agnostic or deist cannot say you are wrong, no matter what you may choose to do. He cannot say you are wrong even if you murder your father and rape your mother. A true atheist, agnostic or deist would be a sociopath, “a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience” (Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary).

Thus, one cannot trust a true atheist, agnostic or deist to do what is right. Such a person cannot be trusted to do what is right because he knows no right or wrong. He sees no reason why he should comply with the “two commandments [on which] hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mat. 22:35-40).

Men, such as John Wayne Gacy Jr. and Jeffrey Dahmer, may have broken the law but they have done nothing morally wrong if there is no God or if there is a God but He has not spoken. Nor may Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler be judged to have done anything immoral.

If God does not exist—or if He exists but He has not spoken—there is nothing wrong with child pornography, child abuse or child molestation. And pedophilia and necrophilia are not aberrations but mere sexual preferences.

Micah 6:8 reduces the number of the Lord's requirements to three.

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

A true atheist, agnostic or deist may “do justly” and “love mercy” but he has either no God with whom to “walk humbly” or no means of knowing how to so walk. &