What does the Bible say about the afterlife?

Q: My friends and I have been watching a television series on the afterlife. Religions have some pretty wild takes on it. What does the Bible say? – A.L.

A: Many answers about life after death are deceiving and will lead people right into Hell, the very place they are told does not exist. However, the afterlife is a very real thing; it speaks of life “after” death.

Some say that people in Hell will make restitution and then be allowed into Heaven; others counsel that perhaps the Hell bound will eventually be annihilated, put out of the misery of having to face the fact that they took the wrong road. “Hell,” some say, “is what Christians have used to scare people into converting to Christ.” But is this really true? Did Jesus use scare tactics? No. Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is truth. If the truth is scary, know that it is the guilty conscience reacting to Truth.

The world wonders about Hell every day. It is one of the most daunting and repeated topics seen in art, read in literature, debated among educators, and heard in music. David Clayton-Thomas of the 1970s rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears famously sang that Heaven didn’t exist, but still he prayed there wasn’t a Hell. But that was a futile prayer.

There are two roads to the afterlife: one leads to Heaven, the other to Hell. It is unbelief in the Lord Jesus Christ that shuts the door to Heaven and opens it to Hell. It is unbelief that rejects the Word of God and refuses Christ as Savior. It is unbelief that causes people to turn a deaf ear to the Gospel. Receive Him and the afterlife will be in the glorious presence of God.

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)

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