Tag Archives: Jonathan Edwards

Is heaven your default destination?

 

I remember seeing a “man on the street” interview with numerous people in a big city, including some coming out of a prominent church building. The person behind the microphone asked, “Do you think you’re going to heaven or hell…and why?” The vast majority responded they thought – or hoped – they would go to heaven because they lived “pretty good” lives, that they hoped the list of good generally outweighed the bad (as if that were the criteria). Other national surveys also show most people think they are going to heaven. Interestingly, this seems to contradict the conclusion of the bible: the gate is narrow and few enter that path to heaven,  but wide is the gate to destruction and many who will pass that way.

 

Scripture indicates heaven is not our “default” destination when we finish life here.  “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10) “The punishment for sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) According to scripture (which matters more than what you and I fancy or imagine to be true), Hell is the self-chosen/default destination for the majority of people on earth. God doesn’t send anyone to hell. It’s our chosen destination when we choose pleasure and treasure on earth overly heavenly pleasure and treasure – unless we choose to turn and submit to God. John Lennon wrote down one of the most beautiful melody lines with some of the most terrifying lyrics:

“Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…”

 

We may think it useless to ponder heaven and hell now and that we’d be better off living for today. But denying their existence doesn’t change their reality. We don’t want to envision others going to hell because if they do, so likely will we if our faith is not real. But the astonishing thing about God’s nature is that he offers us undeserved grace and also heavenly reward. His plan is to save us and provide for us an abundant life. On the other hand, Satan’s plan is to snatch us from God’s hand and to steal, kill, and destroy God’s joy and power from our lives. If you’re a true follower of Jesus, Satan has lost his first battle. And he can only win the second one if we let him.  God shows us a way to become victors and overcomers in life. Satan wants to live miserable, defeated, powerless and joyless lives.

 

So we see our default destination also becomes our default journey and present day course; living intentionally for Jesus or living absent mindedly without him.

 

Hell will not be as humorous as we see it depicted in cartoons: all Oreos and no milk. God describes it as as an everlasting place of unimaginable suffering and despair. We won’t be hanging out with our buddies. The darkness will separate us from them. We will be all alone. I don’t think it’s unloving to warn people about the reality of hell. In fact, the most loving thing you can do is to warn them of pending dangers so they can choose which will be their default destination. In the end, the decision is theirs.

 

Jesus says there are two real eternal paths: a wide one that leads to destruction and a narrow one that leads to heaven. For us it is a choice…either we believe Jesus when he says he is the only way to heaven and devote our lives to following him, or we throw out the rest of scripture as false and try to imagine it away.

 

God desires heaven for you. (John 3:16) Let’s follow the path that makes heaven our default destination.

 

“Resolved that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die…as if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and the torments of hell.” – Jonathan Edwards