Do all go to a better place?

I recently read a story where a father asked his young son, “ Do you know where you are going when you die?” The son replied, “Yes. I would go to heaven.” The Father asked his son a second question, “If you were to die tonight and God asked you why should I let you into my heaven what would be your answer?” The son answered immediately, “Because I’m dead!”

Do we see the logic in the child’s response? From his understanding of these questions, he believed that a person automatically goes to heaven when they die. Why did the son respond the way he did? It would be safe to say the reality of hell had never been taught to him.

This boy like most people (this includes many in the church) believe in what someone called Justification by death.  A more popular way to say it is Universalism – meaning that everyone is automatically saved when they die.  This is a novel idea, an emotionally comforting one especially when loved ones and friends die. It makes us feel better to believe that they are with their maker because we are now bereaved of them in this life. The pain of their loss is tragic so we take comfort that they are now in the arms of Jesus (we believe/hope).

Those loved ones who have passed on that genuinely professed Jesus Christ, loved him, and loved God’s people, and served the Lord in Spirit and truth, remained faithful to the call of God in their lives, bore visible fruit are definitely in heaven casting down their crown(s) before God Almighty and their Messiah Jesus Christ (Rev 4:10). Praise God for those warriors!

But, this will not be the testimony of most people who will ever walk this earth. Let me prove it.

These are the words of Jesus when preaching his sermon on the mountain, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few  who find it” - Matt 7:13-14 (italics are mine).

In laymen’s terms, Jesus is giving us two pictures here. The first picture is the person that tries to get to heaven on their own. They go to church, they feed the poor, visit the sick, they are in the choir, they tithe. They are what some would call a religious fanatic. Others would say they are a dedicated Christian. So what is their problem? They appear to be doing all the right things. They are kind to people, they have a smile that lights up the room.

Their problem is that they are a modern day Pharisee. Everything they do is for the praise of men (Matt 6:5-8a). They love to be seen by men and love their adulation (praise of men). They are self righteous. They have no humility. All their activity is religious externalism. They are deed-oriented. They figure if they do enough “good deeds” as juxtapose to their sins, they will earn God’s favor and make it into heaven (i.e. the wide gate that’s marked “heaven”).

This person’s heart is not right before God. We can’t see it, but God does. What is important to realize is that not everyone going to hell is as rotten as they can possibly be. Multitudes go that are law abiding, caring, generous, thoughtful souls who wouldn’t harm a butterfly. Some of these people have better ethics than some Christians sad to say. It even seems disrespectful to describe them in these terms; that they will be eternally lost.

                This will be most of the world. We just heard Jesus tell us (Matt 7:13).

As much as we may hate to humanly admit it, “good religious people”  go to hell everyday, and irreligious, scandalous, adulterers  murderers, thieves, liars, prostitutes and homosexuals go to heaven.

                Now that doesn’t seem fair at all does it?

Obviously I am not advocating that all the people mentioned above always fit into these same categories in the way I described them, but what I am trying to show is that those who we believe are “good”  are  often evil in God's eyes. And those who are actually evil definitely are not good, but they have been declared righteous by their faith in Jesus Christ ( 2 Cor 5:21). Those wicked people mentioned above know they are wicked, sinful, and lost and are in need of salvation so God saves them and forgives them of their sins (Eph 2:8-9).

They are that tax collector who went to the temple broken and contrite in spirit and said, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

                These like the tax collector are the few (i.e. that enter the narrow gate).

Simply put, in Jesus own words, there will be more people headed to hell than those headed to heaven.       

                Tragic yet true.

                                                                   In the final Analysis

This idea of everyone going to heaven when they die is untrue. As we read in scripture most people will go to hell. Very discomforting thought.

Why even write a morbid article like this especially at this time of the year? Some may see this as extremely offensive and insensitive. That certainly was not my intent. The Bible commands us to speak the truth in love which is what I have endeavored to do with all my articles (Eph 4:15). Often times the truth hurts, it cuts like a knife, but the truth of the Word of God is what sets men free (John 8:32).

The antithesis of this is bondage and lies. When someone believes in justification by death, then they are bound by the lie of Universalism; believing that all will go to heaven. Only those that truly put their trust in Jesus Christ will see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).  Those that put their trust in their own abilities will  NEVER get to heaven for  by no works of the law will no man be justified in His sight (Gal 2:16-17; Rom 4:2; Titus 3:4-6).

Concluding, the scripture plainly tells us many do not go to a better place when they die. Why? “Because men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19b).

It’s also a fallacy  I believe that those loved ones who have actually gone on to glory are looking down from heaven watching over us. There is no biblical support for that type of belief. Think about it? If they are in heaven where there is perfect bliss, why would they want to look down on the life of sin they just left? They are in the very presence of the Father and Jesus Christ! There is nothing they can do for their living relatives anyway. If you are in Christ, you will definitely see them again (I Thess 4:13-18).

Women saved in childbearing

Yet she will be saved in childbearing – if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control.

  -I Timothy 2:15

 

To understand the aforementioned passage we need to start at verse 8 to verse 15 to get the whole flow of thought.

The Apostle Paul speaking says, “I desire that in every place that men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling (some versions say without wrath and doubting); likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper of women who profess godliness – with good works. Let the women learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather she is to remain quiet.[i] For Adam was created first then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor (of the command of God not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil; Gen 3:6-7). The key verse, Yet she shall be saved through child bearing – if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control or sobriety (I Tim 2:8-15).

Paul here is explaining to Pastor Timothy his son in the faith the conduct and roles of men and women in the church. Paul was giving instructions to Timothy who was the Pastor of the church in Ephesus in Asia Minor which is modern Turkey today.

When Paul says women will be saved in childbearing, he is not talking about salvation of the soul. Because if he were, we run into two problems. 1) It would undermine the clear teaching  of justification by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 5:1; Eph 2:8-9). 2) It would mean that some women could never be saved because not all women bear children. Salvation by childbearing is a human work, and no human work could ever merit the grace of God (Rom 3:19-20).

So what is Paul talking about here? The woman (Eve) committed the first act of sin in the earth when she ate the forbidden fruit. It must be pointed out that several things led up to this:

a.       She was tempted by the serpent who caused her to doubt God’s word (Gen 3:1).

b.      She listened to the lie she was told by the serpent; by listening to the enemy she focused more on the prohibition of God than his provision. The serpent deceived her into thinking God was not benevolent. We could imagine the devil saying to Eve, “ Why would God put this tree with this beautiful fruit in the garden if He didn’t intend for you to eat it”(Gen 3:5).

c.       By harkening to the serpent she usurped and ignored the authority and protection of her husband who ate with her thus plunging the entire human race into sin (Gen 3:6-7).

 

 As a result of her disobedience God pronounced a lifelong  punishment  upon  Eve and all mothers. God said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16).

So Paul is using the Genesis 3 account of Adam and Eve and their roles; how they were misused, and linking them (Adam and Eve), to the role of the man and woman in the church. Although the woman sinned first in the garden, God has not abandoned her. She is the vessel God has chosen to bear godly children through provided she continues in faith, and love and holiness with self control. Paul reminds the woman in 1 Tim 2:15.

So in that sense women are saved, delivered  or preserved by God in bearing children. It is His perpetual covenant with the woman that although she will deliver with tremendous pain due to Eve’s sin, she will soon have great joy because she has borne a child from the Lord (Gen 4:1).  Psalm 127:3 says, “Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward”.  This is the role of the woman, to bear children; for this is a perpetual reminder; of original sin because of the  pain, but  also God’s grace due to his preservation of women with the blessing of child bearing.

 

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[i]Regarding the matter of women speaking in the church read my article on “Men and Women roles in ministry to get  detailed explanation of this subject

Imputation Bad vs. Good

Imputation by definition means: the act of placing something into one’s account. To lay something to one’s charge.

 Imputation is the effect of a prior cause; some act someone has committed.

In the Bible we deal with imputation negatively and positively.

            Let’s begin with the negative.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their act of sin was imputed, reckoned or charged to everyone of their descendants, the entire human race. Since we were all in the loins of Adam when he sinned, we in God’s eyes are guilty and condemned before we were ever born!

            Guilty by association to our father Adam.

Remember God told Adam specifically, “the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, you will die” (Gen 2:17).  Death was the result of disobedience to the command of God. The scripture says when Adam died (spiritually and eventual physical death), we all died (Rom 5:12). We were born dead as a result of Adam’s sin (Eph 2:1; Col 2:13).

David realized this truth when he confessed his sin of adultery and murder to the Lord in Psalm 51. David said, “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). David recognized that he was a sinner by nature even before he sinned experientially.

We are not sinners because of what we do, we are sinners because of who we are – by nature. As a result of our sinful nature inherited from our parents all the way back to our first parents Adam and Eve, we commit sin. This proves that we deserve condemnation; we do the same things our first father did, we disobey God.

In Romans 5:19a we read, “For by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…”.

What this verse explains is that Adam’s sin was charged against us by God due to the fact we were in  Adam when the sin occurred. Seems like a raw deal, all of the human race being made guilty by the act of one man’s trespass, but that is how our sovereign Lord decided He would punish sin – by imputation.

           Don’t despair reader, their is a wonderful solution to this horrific dilemma.

As we look at  imputation positively, we go back to Romans 5:19 and look at the second part of the verse which reads, “by the act of one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19b).

Obviously the act of obedience being discussed here is the loving act of the Lord Jesus dying on the cross and shedding his blood for sin. In Philippians 2:8 it reads, “And being in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

In Romans 5:19 the writer Paul is explaining to his readers just as one man’s disobedience made all sinners, one man’s obedience will make many righteous once they believe. Imputation is a double edged sword, cutting to the soul both negatively and positively. Those of us who are in Christ righteousness has been imputed, reckoned or deposited to our account. Our sins are no longer counted against us thanks to the obedience of the last Adam.

We read some wonderful truths in the following passages of scripture regarding imputation:

“For since it was through a man that death came into the world, it is also through a man that the resurrection of the dead has come. For just as (because of their union in nature) in Adam all people die, so also (by virtue of their union of nature) shall all in Christ be made alive” (I Cor 15:21-22) Amplified.

Further along in the chapter we read, “The first Adam became a living being (an individual personality), the last Adam (Christ) became a life giving Spirit (Restoring the dead to life)” (I Cor 15:45) Amplified.

 Another account of imputation we read is in Isaiah 6. When Isaiah sees the glory of the Lord he is overcome with the shame of his own guilt and sin, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for" (Isaiah 6:5-6, Esv).

                                                            
                                                                  Conclusion

 

Being that Adam was our representative in the earth, we received the benefits he received such as dominion over the earth, the benefit of a will, emotions, companionship etc,  and we had to receive the punishment of his sin which is death. Many have debated the idea that the rest of mankind should not have to suffer for one man’s sin. We cry “THAT’S NOT FAIR!” If we are honest if Adam and Eve had not sinned, one of their descendants would have down the line once the devil tempted one of them with another lie and plunged the world into sin and death anyway.

The message then turns evangelistic due to the fact that Jesus Christ reversed the curse of death, and now has provided the way to everlasting life to those who choose to believe in Him. We can now partake of a divine nature to replace the sinful nature (2 Peter 1:4).

There is a incredible contrast with these two men. With the first Adam sin was imputed due to natural birth. With the last Adam righteousness was imputed to due re-birth. With the first Adam humiliation due to sin, with the last Adam exaltation due to cleansing of sin.

With the first Adam we were written in Hell’s most wanted list, with the last Adam are names are written in heaven’s list (Luke 11:20).

The writer’s proverb: “The righteous can approach the throne because of the blood, the wicked are despised because of the blood they shed.”