Q: What happens to people of other religions when they die? Do they automatically go to hell?

I answered this question already in this previous post. Please read it carefully. By "other religions", I assume you mean non-Christians or those have not received forgiveness of their sin by trusting in Jesus. The answer is YES: They will be separated from God in hell. I know this seems intolerant. And harsh. Yet, please consider what I wrote in this post about "being good enough." Also read the second half of this previous post which deals with the "exclusivity of Christianity." At the end of this post, this is what I wrote:

"Christianity is actually the most inclusive of all faith systems. Other religions assume our ability to secure God's favor & love by doing the right things. What is the implication here? You can be a "good person" if you follow certain rules. Listen to what Dr. Tim Keller says (read this carefully!):

'The universal religion of humankind is: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us. The gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him (Rom. 1:17). In short, to say a good person, not just Christians, can find God is to say good works are enough to find God. So the apparently inclusive approach is really quite exclusive. It says, 'The good people can find God, and the bad people do not.' The gospel says, 'The people who know they aren't good can find God, and the people who think they are good do not.' So both approaches are exclusive, but the gospel's is the more inclusive exclusivity. It says joyfully, 'It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. It doesn't matter if you've been at the gates of hell. You can be welcomed and embraced fully and instantly through Christ.' "

[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Many people have claimed to come back to life after dying and meeting people in heaven. Is this true? And if it is, why?

Indeed, there are individuals such as Don Piper (author of "90 Minutes in Heaven") and Bill Wiese (author of "23 Minutes in Hell") who claim to come back to life after dying. This is event is known as "revivification."Of course, I cannot verify or prove whether their claims are true. Likewise, I don't know WHY these events happened to them. Is it possible that God is taking people to heaven and/or hell, and then sending them back in order to deliver a message to us? Yes. This idea does not seem to contradict the Bible. The Apostles Paul and John both received visions of heaven and hell, in 2 Cor. 12:1-6 and Revelation 21-22 respectively.

As with any literature, however, be sure to test it according to Scripture. If you hear of an account of someone coming back from the dead, compare what the author says with the Bible (1 Thess. 5:21-22). If the vision is truly from God, it will not contradict the Bible. Moreover, different visions from different people should not contradict each other. My advise is to be skeptical of such claims, and focus on God's Word. Scripture is the primary way God has chosen to reveal Himself to us - not through visions of heaven and hell.

[Answered by Pastor HM]

Q: Good people with good hearts?

What happens to non-believers when they die? How about if they're generally "good people" (as in they have good hearts)?

Let me answer the 2nd question first. Since the dawn of time, human beings have tried to justify their lives (and earn their way to heaven/God) in one of three ways:

1. They assume they are living a good enough life to please God when they finally meet Him.

2. They work very hard at some social cause because they think that they are good people and need to overcome the evil deeds of bad people

3. They work very hard at keeping the rules of a particular religion in order to justify themselves as a good person in the sight of God*

While each of these "good people go to heaven" options seem reasonable, this theory does not make sense and is full of problems (read this post from last week for a full explanation, "Why isn't being good enough sufficient?").

Scripture tells that the biggest problem of all is that there are no "good people" out there. All human beings are sinful (Romans 3), meaning we are all bad people. In the Gospel of Luke (18:19), Jesus actually states that the only person who is good (perfect, pure, sinless) is God himself. Human beings are imperfect, impure and sinful. And the reason is because we do not have "good hearts." In fact, all of our sin comes from the very core of our being, or what the Bible calls the "heart" (Mark 7:21-23). Out of the sinful heart comes sinful thoughts, words, deeds and intentions.

This leads us to your second question: What happens to non-believers after they die? Simply put: They are condemned before God for their sin. They are subsequently sent AWAY from Him, which is a frightening thought because God is the source of all beauty, goodness and love. So when unbelievers are removed from His presence forever, they enter into a place absent of all beauty, goodness and love. Scripture calls this place Hades or Hell. Now this sounds harsh, but consider what C.S. Lewis said: "Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom. All in hell choose it." Lewis is saying that those who reject God's salvation in Christ freely do so. They choose NOT to be with God, so God respects that choice.

Friend, God is giving you a choice today. I implore you to choose God by choosing to trust in Jesus for you salvation and NOT your own works/heart/deeds/goodness. Christianity is different from all other religions because it says that we can't do anything to earn our salvation. The standards are too high; and we are too weak and sinful. The only way to be saved, therefore, is by trusting the only "good person" that ever lived: Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life we could not live. He died the death that we should have died. In doing so, Jesus takes away the sin of those who trust in Him and grants them access to God, i.e. salvation.

[Answered by Pastor HM]

*Mark Driscoll, Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009), 159-160.

Q: Is it inevitable that unbelievers will end up in Hell?

"John 14:6 states: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Is it undebatable here that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. However, is it inevitable that unbelievers will end up in Hell? Is it illogical to believe that God gives out second chances? I understand that God is just, but God is also loving, and it is difficult to believe that He would be willing to forsake us to eternal punishment. For example, to redeem us and keep us out of Hell He sacrificed His own son. Keeping in line with both His just and loving nature. Is it illogical to believe that God has a "get out of jail" card for all of us, that even when the most adamant of unbelievers die, Jesus will have a way of redeeming them (possibly by speaking with them like the man in the Relient K song "Deathbed")? Obviously this is not an excuse to sin, but rather a spark of hope for those who don't believe."

“There are only two kinds of people – those who say ‘Thy will be done’ to God or those to whom God in the end says, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell choose it.”

C.S. Lewis

The central question here seems to be "Does God give out second chances?" Let us examine two verses in the Bible to shed some light on this issue:

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27)

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9)

From Hebrews 9:27, we learn that people are destined to die only once and to then face judgment. From 2 Peter, we learn that God is gracious, patient, loving and does everything he can to give people a chance. There is no such thing as a premature death in which a person will say, "If you just gave me more time, I would have made another decision." Dr. J. Moreland once said:

God is fair. He isn't trying to make it difficult for people. I believe it's certainly possible that those who respond to the light from nature that they hav receive will either have the message of the gospel sent to them or else it may be that God will judge them based on his knowledge of what they would have done had they had a chance to hear the gospel.

Moreland goes on to state that even if Jesus would give them a second chance while they are in hell (separation from God), they probably wouldn't want to be with God in the end, because they are so used to living without him. He says:

People who would 'choose' in a second chance would not really be choosing God, his kingdom or his ways - nor would they be suited for life in his kingdom. They'd be making a prudent 'choice' to avoid judgment only...God maintains a delicate balance between keeping his existence sufficiently evident so people will know he's there and yet hiding his presence enough so that people who want to choose to ignore him can do it.

The song you mentioned, "Deathbed," (see video below) has an interesting line near the end:

And I've given up hope on the days I have left

But I cling to the hope of my life in the next

The point here is that this man is still alive. He has the opportunity, a second chance to make the most important decision that he will ever make - even on his deathbed, he still has the chance to be saved by Jesus.

Q: Psalm 139:8's hell

"Hey! I was reading my Bible the other night and came across Psalm 139:8, 'If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.' But isn't hell supposed to be void or anything good or God-related?"

To properly interpret this verse, we must understand that Psalms is a poetic book. In ancient Hebrew poetry, writers often used two pairs of opposites to illustrate a point. For example, in this verse, heaven and hell (the Hebrew word is שְׁאוֹל or "Sheol") are paired together. If you read the entire passage (i.e. Psalm 139:1-12), what the author is saying is there is nowhere in the universe that God will not be present to guide the believer (v. 7-10) and nowhere too dark for God to see him (v. 11-12). This includes everything in between heaven and hell.

Another way of understanding this verse is to understand that the word for hell here, "Sheol" has multiple meanings. According to The New Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.):

Sheol was below the surface of the earth (Ezk. 31:15, 17; Ps. 86:13), a place of dust (Jb. 17:16), darkness (Jb. 10:21), silence (Ps. 94:17) and forgetfulness (Ps. 88:12). Sometimes the distinctions of earthly life are pictured as continuing in Sheol (Is. 14:9; Ezk. 32:27), but always it is a place of weakness and joylessness.

What Psalm 139:8 is saying then is that God knows our activities, words and thoughts even if we are in the worst possible situations and places of weakness and joylessness. It does not mean that God's presence is in hell. In fact, the New Testament tells us that God's wrath remains on people while they are in hell (John 3:36). Read this article to find out more. The author answers the question, "What is God's relationship with people who are in hell?"

[Answered by Pastor HM]