We had some great questions Sunday night re: heaven. Here are answers to two biggies....
The following come from Randy Alcorn's ministry Eternal Perspective Ministries. Randy is the writer of Heaven, a text I am using heavily in this series.
Question: Do people who commit suicide go to hell? Where can I find scripture dealing with this topic?
Answer: Suicide is the unjustified killing of a human being, and is therefore forbidden in the commandments not to murder. Scripture says very little directly about suicide. However, it says much about God's character and we can certainly trust in his love, fairness and judgment.
If a man truly knows Christ,
then regardless of what he does, he cannot be snatched out of his
Father's hand (John 10:27, 28). Ephesians 1:13 and 2 Cor. 1:22 speak of
believers being sealed in Him.
God has already forgiven our sins, past, present and future when we trust in Him as our Savior and Lord. But he wants us to confess our sins to restore fellowship with Him, as 1 John 1:9 says. A person who commits suicide, if it is instantaneous, wouldn't have opportunity to confess that sin before dying. Presumably that would mean having to confess and repent upon meeting God after death. Christ died for sins of suicide, so suicide is forgivable—but it is also tragic, unnecessary and cruel and debilitating for loved ones left behind.
In my book Heaven, I include this:
A Word to the Depressed
The fact that Heaven will be wonderful shouldn't tempt us to take shortcuts to get there. If you're depressed, you may imagine your life has no purpose—but you couldn't be more wrong.
As long as God keeps you here on Earth, it's exactly where he wants you. He's preparing you for another world. He knows precisely what he's doing. Through your suffering, difficulty, and depression, he's expanding your capacity for eternal joy. Our lives on Earth are a training camp to ready us for Heaven.
I know depression can be debilitating. Many godly people have experienced it. But if you are considering taking your own life, recognize this as the devil's temptation. Jesus said that Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44). He tells lies because he wants to destroy you (1Peter 5:8). Don't listen to the liar. Listen to Jesus, the truth teller (John 8:32; 14:6). Don't make a terrible ending to your life's story—finish your God-given course on Earth. When he's done—not before—he'll take you home in his own time and way. Meanwhile, God has a purpose for you here on Earth. Don't desert your post. (And by all means, go to a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church, and get help to find a wise Christian counselor.)
If you don't know Jesus, confess your sins and embrace his death and resurrection on your behalf. If you do know him, make your daily decisions in light of your destiny. Ask yourself what you can do today, next week, next year, or decades from now to write the best ending to this volume of your life's story—a story that will continue gloriously in the new universe.
By God's grace, use the time you have left on the present Earth to store up for yourself treasures on the New Earth, to be laid at Christ's feet for his glory (Revelation 4:10). Then look forward to meeting in Heaven Jesus himself, as well as those touched by your Christ-exalting choices.
Answer: "Universalism holds that everyone will eventually go to Heaven—all will be saved in the end. Even though universalists appeal to biblical passages to support their view, this belief is in direct opposition to the teaching of the Bible. Let us examine the so-called 'universalist passages.'
"Universalism originated in the Garden of Eden when Satan said 'you will not surely die' (Gen. 3:4). The appeal by Universalists to God's desire to save all is unconvincing because the same God who reveals that He desires for everyone to be saved also reveals that not everyone is saved. Additionally, we must distinguish between God's sovereign will (which God infallibly brings to pass in the world), and His permissive will (what He does not want in and of itself, but wills to occur in light of all of history considered together).
"Universalists often appeal to Romans 5:18 to support their position:
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.' But in the next verse Paul says 'For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.' We cannot press Paul's use of all in verse 18 any more than we can his use of many in verse 19, for if we do we make Paul contradict himself. Why take the all in opposition to the many, causing them to contradict each other?
"The word 'all' in the Bible is not always to be taken in the absolute sense—meaning every individual without exception. Mark 1:5 has 'all' of the people of Jerusalem going out to see John the Baptist. Obviously Mark doesn't mean every single person in Jerusalem. The word all often means 'all of some kinds' or 'some of all kinds.' So when Paul says that Christ brought 'justification that brings life for all men,' he is making a reference to both Jews and Gentiles being saved—some of all kinds and not just the Jews, God's first chosen people.
"Therefore we see that Paul's point is that the effects of Adam's sin and Christ's righteousness reach 'all men,' meaning that the effects do not apply only to Jews, but extend to Jews and Gentiles alike. This is in accordance with what Paul has been saying since 1:5—that all men, Jew and Gentile alike, stand on equal level before God because of their sin, and all must come to God in the same way—through Jesus.
"Verses like 1 Corinthians 15:22, which say 'As in Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive,' are also appealed to. But the all who are made alive in this passage (and others like it) is equivalent to all who belong to Christ, not all people without exception. This is because 'In Christ all will be made alive' qualifies the expression 'each in his own turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to Him.' This expression clearly defines who the all is that Paul is talking about—all 'who belong to Christ.' Paul is describing the manner through which death and life came—death through Adam and life through Christ. All who die, die in Adam. All who live, live in Christ. When we look further at the context, we also see that verses 1:18; 5:13; 6:9 are clear that everyone does not belong to Christ. Universalists do not acknowledge the Bible's teaching as a whole, but attempt to argue from only a portion of the biblical data that has been taken out of context.
"Sometimes it is argued that the Bible's promise that all things
will be reconciled in Christ entails the salvation of all. This is not
what the Bible means by the phrase. When the Bible talks of reconciliation
of all things in Christ it means that the rebellion of God's creatures
against Him will be crushed and everything will finally be made to conform
to the perfect plan of God. If we take the reconciliation of all things
to mean the salvation of all things, then we must conclude that Paul taught
that even the fallen angels would one day be saved. Furthermore, we would
have to reject a significant body of data which says that there will be
people in Hell for all eternity (Rev. 14:9-11; 20:15; Matt. 5:21-22, 27-30;
23:15, 33; 25:41, 46)."
(Above by Matt Perman, in Universalism Briefly Explained)
"Some could get the impression that Christians do not want everyone to go to Heaven. That is not true of Christians or of God. Ezekiel 18:32 God says, 'For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!' Yes, we would like everyone to 'choose life' and live eternally joyfully serving God. However wanting something does not make it so. It is childish to think that what you want is always the way it is.
"God values our life, but above that He values us and our ability to choose.
"For whatever reasons, God chose to give us the ability and responsibility to chose whether to follow Him or not. God wishes us to follow Him, but for whatever reason, God chooses not to take away our choice to serve Him.
"To sum things up, truth is not created by our feeling about what
we would prefer—fantasy is. The Bible teaches that God set up one
way, through a relationship with Himself, to go to His Heaven. C.S. Lewis
said in The Great Divorce, 'Never fear, there are only two kinds
of people: people who say to God, 'Thy will be done', and the other kind,
whom God says to them, 'thy will be done'.' People can accept God's way
and go where the others who accept God's way go. People can reject God's
way and go to the same place as the others who reject God's way."
)
(Above from http://www.biblequery.org/
Comments