HEAVEN OR HELL?

If someone were to ask you to explain some of the differences between heaven and hell, would you be able to? In other words, what do you really know about heaven and hell? Not the difference as presented by man, but the difference as taught from the Word of God. There is a difference! A natural and logical question then, is “What is the difference between heaven and hell?” As we seek to answer this question, we need an absolute, authoritative source to draw upon. II Timothy 3:16 says that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Bible, then, is THE source to which we look as the authority for determining the difference between heaven and hell. In doing so we find that:

Heaven - Is where God dwells; it’s His home. “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne...” (Isa. 66:1)

Hell - Is the place prepared for Satan. (Matt. 25:41)

Heaven - Is where all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour will spend eternity. “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6)

Hell - Is the destination of all the unsaved. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalms 9:17)

Heaven - Those who have accepted Christ as Saviour will be immortal and have a new body. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Cor. 15:53,54) “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (II Cor. 5:1)

Hell - The unsaved will be immortal, but not in the same way we the saved are, for they will be punished in hell. “...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; Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” (II Thess. 1:7-9)

Heaven - Those who are there will be conscious of being there. “...yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another...” (Job 19:26, 27)

Hell - Those who are in hell will be conscious of their affliction. “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments...and he cried and said...have mercy on me...” (Luke 16:23, 24)

Heaven - All of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as personal Saviour will be there with God, “and he will dwell with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there by any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 21:3,4; 22:5)

Hell - All those who have rejected Jesus Christ as personal Saviour will be cast into the lake of fire. “...adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation’s, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) Included in this are the UNBELIEVING (Revelation 21:8). Those who are in the lake of fire “shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20;10)

Friend, there is a difference between heaven and hell! If you won’t believe me, then please, for the sake of your soul, believe the Bible, for everything I have said is based on this Book.

The difference between those who go to heaven and those who go to hell is that to go to heaven a person must first come to that place in his life where he recognizes the fact that he is a sinner (Romans 3:23), repents of his sin (Luke 13:3), and turns to God (Acts 26:20) and is washed in the shed blood of Christ (Revelation 1:5), for it is by His blood that our sins are forgiven (Hebrews 9:11-14; 22). Jesus Christ has paid the price for our sins, and today sits at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 10:12).

Friend, you can be saved today, for all eternity! God does not promise you tomorrow, for it may never come. “...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (II Cor. 6:2). If you will receive Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, believing with all your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you can be sure that you are saved, for the Bible says, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (I John 5:11-13).

What will the difference be for you? Heaven or Hell?

-Richard A. Ciarrocca