How did I get on this topic? I was writing about heaven! As I wrote, I ended up on this topic in a post that was already too long…so I made this into part II. If you didn’t read part I, read it first. This will make much more sense after that. It will definitely put this article into context!
More importantly, what will Hell be like?
Parties, fun, happiness? Not likely. The presence of God or any of His attributes will not be there. Not one of them. There will be no light. It will be a dark place in many senses of the word. It will not be a fun place!
Loneliness. Sadness. Alienation. Depression. Sickness. Pain. Suffering. Evil.
These are attributes that will be there in abundance, to name just a few. And there will be no end to it all!
There will be no let-up from this misery like we have here on earth. It will go on forever. Understanding what Hell will be like, helps us picture heaven better as well.
Heaven is indeed a wonderful gift. To have the assurance of heaven is not something for which to be proud. It is something for which we can be humbly grateful. Why?
Because there is nothing about the gift of salvation and forgiveness that we did to deserve it. It is purely a gift of grace and mercy!
We didn’t deserve it. In fact, we deserved just the opposite. It is only if we are “in Christ” through faith in the work Christ did on the cross, that we can be forgiven and have the “credentials” to enter heaven. The cost was high.
Jesus Christ, the God-Man had to die to pay for sin and satisfy the wrath and justice of a holy God.
But, I’m getting way ahead of myself. We’ll be talking about this God in the coming months. He has given us an opportunity to know Him. It is true. But the concept that we are buddies is far from our situation! This is not a friendship of equals.
As we get acquainted with the true God as revealed in the Bible, we find…
Someone who is vast, eternal, holy, jealous, changeless, just, loving, true and merciful.
(And I’ve only just begun describing Him.)
To quote C.S. Lewis re Aslan: “He is not safe, but he is good.”
