Heaven & Hell. The Bible teaches that there are 2 alternatives: eternity with God and eternity separated from God, often referred to as Heaven and Hell. From an eternal standpoint, to be present in one is to be absent from the other. Eternity with God is safe, peaceful and void of all evil. Hell is the terrible alternative where God and all the good things that come from God are completely absent.

Many people think that as long as your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, or as long as you make a good effort and do not do anything too bad, you will go to Heaven. In reality, God’s standard is much higher. He requires perfection. But Romans 3:23 says “Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Because everyone falls short, how can anyone go to Heaven? The answer is in the next verse: “Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins” (Romans 4:24)

The natural consequence of choosing to live your earthly life apart from God is that God will respect that choice and not bring you into an eternity spent with Him. Jesus’ death paid for our sin, creating a way for us to come back into the relationship with God we were designed for. Jesus altered our eternal fate, but we still have to choose our eternal destination.

So, how will you respond? You can choose to accept God’s invitation to spend eternity enjoying His love and forgiveness, or you can reject Him. It is no longer a question of “Why would a loving God send people to Hell?” Instead, the real question becomes, “Why would you choose not to receive the free gift of Heaven?” None of us knows how many days we have left to live, so we cannot know how long we have left to accept God’s offer of eternal life.