“Knowing The Terror of the Lord – We persuade Men”

I do not know much about suffering in the next life except that it will be horrible. This is not a subject one likes to dwell on except that it has value in terms of the seriousness of living life correctly. We are not going to exist as we do now in a physical way but in a spiritual way. God describes the horror of being lost in a way we might understand being physical creatures. For example, the gnashing of teeth due to great suffering. The eternal aspect of being lost, existing forever in the most unpleasant way is a terror. God recommends that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. The pictures below are frightening and potentially a position you may find yourself if you choose to deny God, to deny God as the God of the bible and miss out on the only thing that really matters. Of course, these are depictions SINCE in the next life you will likely not have a physical existence or live in a time world. The warnings from God are frequently used as a reason to deny God because, “I am being threatened.” However, if the warnings are actually coming from God and not from some man trying to scare you into believing something, then you should take it seriously. God has let us know that failing will be incredibly unpleasant and eternal and thus the representation below may be helpful to understand the seriousness of getting it right. Certainly, the cry from those that are lost following their death will be, “Why did not someone tell me, Why was not many someone’s relentless in telling me of the seriousness of living in accordance with God’s will?” God provides an answer to that question in the story of the rich man and his brothers. One should read all of Luke 16 but below is the part of interest for one who thinks God could have done better to convince people of the seriousness of life.

Luke 16.27-31

27 “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house,
28 for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
29 Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

This parable of Lazarus and the rich man was given by Jesus before the law of Christ was in effect so Jesus indicated they needed to hear Moses and the prophets. Today, under the new covenant people need to “hear” the doctrine of Christ. You should not expect any miraculous means guiding you to the truth but the word of God as you read, and as you hear is God’s way, God’s power to save you.

I was Misled – God does not enable your excuses

I can predict from understanding God (as He has revealed Himself) that one thing bringing great anguish to those who fail in life will be how easily they were misled, albeit usually because we wanted to be mislead. The height of stupidity or being “just plain dumb” will be the rejection of God’s existence. In some way, I suspect each lost person will know the eternal nature of the loss they have suffered. The difference between their lost state and the eternity God designed for His children will make your eternal existence unbearable. The lost will also realize with 100% certainty that there is no way to recover. There is no suicide, you are an eternal being.

An Eternity Contemplating Your Foolishness?

Modern man looks out and sees science teaching a creation that required no intelligent being. Out of nothing came something, and eventually life and eventually intelligent life. Man has progressed a great deal and discovers the building blocks of life – DNA. Researchers study genes in hope of changing many life’s for the better, for instance finding cures for disease. There is progress but much, much needs to be done and there have been many set-backs. Scientists worldwide work many times together on this important and noble work. As time passes science will gain better understanding of life but any reasonable reflection on life by science should indicate that even given billions of years, life exists because there was incredible intelligent design.
Putting a car engine back together is a daunting task even if all the parts are supplied. Creating the first car is even much more difficult. Somehow, out of nothing life came into existence and through some non-intelligent process the building blocks of life appear. We cannot given all the parts (like DNA) figure out how “life works” using our best scientific minds. Yet with all its complexity and without intelligence, life just happened from nothing. This is just nonsense but behind it is pride. The pride that says, no one tells me what to do and I can prove there is no God and no rules. So, what do you know – you have created theories and successfully convinced yourself and perhaps others. Man is just a permutation in time that evolved from, well most recently and most plausibly man concludes evolved from apes. Men have an appearance like apes (sort of) and along with some bad science with similarly plausible at-a-distance-logic they convince men. The big picture for the theory of organic evolution is that living things evolve as a result of various reasons such as environmental but evolving across “kinds” is unproven and evolving into intelligent beings is unproven and of course evolving a living, eternal soul would never be explainable. Of course, those who follow this doctrine either deny God or strongly doubt His existence and thus the eternal nature of man is not viable to them. People believe what they want but God’s people seek the truth and not their own will and along these lines according to God’s plan one achieves a fabulous ending to life.

The world is filled with evidence of God’s existence – it is overwhelming and “just plain dumb” not to see God in creation. I suspect a person may spend eternity regretting their foolishness, their hope that there was no God, and their trust in various men/women who now spend eternity with them – although loneliness may very well be part of their fate.

Religion of Little Help

This life is much more serious than you presently realize. This is the time, the only time for you to come to grips with the truth about life. There is amazingly just as much evidence as there is of a creator, even more indicating that God is the God of the bible. It seems many men dread that possibility. Realizing God is the creator is just the beginning and critical to get you to the next step of finding and living the truth as the God of the bible has revealed. It is “just plain dumb” to follow after anything man teaches regarding God if it is different than God revealed. There is just as much deceit in religion as there is in those who claim there is no God. Ironically, religion, religious teachers have driven many away from God but here is the distinction, few in religion represent God correctly. They are indeed an abomination to God because people need THE TRUTH and religion seldom provides truth.

The Bible Versus All Other Religions

It is just plain dumb to believe any religion other than the truth of the bible has any connection with God. This may be hard to comprehend because you see any one singular belief as too narrow and you also see a vast majority of the world not following the bible. You see an issue with fairness and you can make a reasonable case for the argument that God is not fair. However, God is perfectly fair and that fairness aligns perfectly with His purpose.This may be hard to believe because you have never studied the bible and compared it with many other religious beliefs. I would suggest if you did so you can easily make the distinction. Most of the people who claim the bible as giving direction to their life do not follow its precepts but pick and choose as they wish. They are not following God and so the number of persons distant from the truth is even greater than you imagined. I would suggest if those who proclaimed to be Christian indeed followed the bible there would be many less religions in the world. This is because the bible is the only solid, perfect, “all-things-fit-perfectly-together” religion in the world and nothing else is close. Practically speaking, most of so-called Christianity is really just a pile of man-made religions – not Christian. “Just Dumb” refers to how people will look back on their life’s after missing heaven and realize how their pride, their desires, their excuses kept them finding the truth. Adding to that “Just Dumb” feeling will be the realization of how easy, how available the truth was to every person who seeks God. You would have made a different set of choices but in comparison to the magnitude of the gain or the magnitude of the loss it would have been incredibly insignificant. Paul alludes to this in Romans 8.18:

Romans 8:18

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Recommend looking at EXISTENCE
Also look at God’s Plan For You
Finally, “How To Get To Heaven” may along with other helps at my Heaven Coach website get you on the road to a great ending.