Questions about life after death: 1. Don’t the good go up (to heaven) and the bad go down (to hell)?

Don’t the good go up (to heaven) and the bad go down (to hell)?

What are we really like inside?

There is a fundamental problem with this question. Quite simply it is that assumption that there are good people in this world! I wonder how you make your judgements about who is good and who is not. Is Nelson Mandela good in your mind? What about the charity worker labouring in Bangladesh? Perhaps it’s the local Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator who is good in your eyes? Are you and I good … all the time?

The Bible answers those questions very starkly: ‘There is no one who always does what is right, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who looks to God for help. All have turned away. Together, everyone has become useless. There is no one who does anything good; there is not even one.’ (Romans 3 v. 10-12) While from time to time we may do kind things, that doesn’t make us good. Again, the Bible teaches that we have all been infected by sin, which spoils every area of our life.

It is for this reason that God has to punish us for our wrongdoing. It is palatable to say that heaven is a real place but we find it less comfortable to believe that hell, too, is real, where real people exist, experiencing real judgement for personal sins committed.

The Bible says that we will all stand in the dock before God in judgement. God makes a judgement on each of our lives and the problem is we all fall short of His standard, because it is perfect.

The great news of the Bible is that God came to rescue us from what we deserve so that we may be rescued and brought from death and darkness (hell) into His wonderful light and life (heaven).

Go to: Surely, when you die, that’s it?