some questions.

[nattsie]

Hey guys, i wouldn't say i'm a "new christian" because i've believed in God my whole life but only recently have i become quite interested in religion and everything to do with it.

I have lots of questions and no one to ask. I don't attend church and none of my family are heavily religious and some don't believe at all.

first off. what is heaven? what happens in heaven?
this confuses me alot. Is heaven perfect? Is heaven the same for everyone or is it something in our mind of what we want it to be like?

secondly, what is hell? what happens in hell?

i know that know one knows for sure what happens, but yeah.
any help would be great.

thanks.
nat

 

[WashedClean]

Hi Nat,

Welcome to CF!

Heaven is where we will spend eternity worshipping God and His Son, our Lord and Savior. We will be with the angels singing his praises and doing his work. But it won't feel like work! We will have glorified bodies, not like we have here. There will be no more pain, suffering, hate, etc. Just love.

Hell was originally created for Satan and his angels (fallen angels/demons). Those who are not saved by the blood of Christ will end up in hell, which is eternal separation from God. Once there, you cannot ever get to heaven.

So God gives everyone a choice. Heaven with him for eternity or hell without him for eternity. Sadly, many choose hell without even realizing it

Have you committed your life to Christ and made him your Lord and Savior?

PM me if you want.

God bless,

WashedClean

 

[Arriving]

Once there, you cannot ever get to heaven.

I've always wondered about that. Is there a scripture that says you can never get out of hell once you're there?

 

[rogsr]

The truth is that no one really knows what heaven and hell are like. The bible paints a picture of "hell" as a place for people who reject and rebel against God and "heaven" as a place for people who accept and love God.

We are human beings and think on the level of human beings, thus we ponder the amazing wonders of heaven and the horrors of hell in human terms, yet no one knows what lies on the other side. The best thing to do is to accept the mystery of the afterlife without attaching any fabricated human images like devils with pitch forks or angels with harps on clouds because this will only warp your understanding of God.

 

[nattsie]

Hi Nat,

Welcome to CF!

Heaven is where we will spend eternity worshipping God and His Son, our Lord and Savior. We will be with the angels singing his praises and doing his work. But it won't feel like work! We will have glorified bodies, not like we have here. There will be no more pain, suffering, hate, etc. Just love.

Hell was originally created for Satan and his angels (fallen angels/demons). Those who are not saved by the blood of Christ will end up in hell, which is eternal separation from God. Once there, you cannot ever get to heaven.

So God gives everyone a choice. Heaven with him for eternity or hell without him for eternity. Sadly, many choose hell without even realizing it

Have you committed your life to Christ and made him your Lord and Savior?

PM me if you want.

God bless,

WashedClean

I don't know if i have? I believe in God but i don't go to church, read the bible, ask for forgiveness and i hardly know anything about all this stuff.

 

[Dondi]

I don't know if i have? I believe in God but i don't go to church, read the bible, ask for forgiveness and i hardly know anything about all this stuff.

The Bible tell us that we can know for sure about going to heaven:

"These things have I written unto you...that ye may know that ye have eternal life..." - I John 5:13


Would you like me to share you how?

 

[snoochface]

I've always wondered about that. Is there a scripture that says you can never get out of hell once you're there?

The Bible speaks of "eternity" in hell. That means that once you get there, you are there forever.

To the original poster: Believing in God is where you need to start!

But there is so much more - you can have a real relationship with God and spend eternity with him in heaven, and it's so easy! You just have to believe that God sent his son, Jesus, to earth where he willingly sacrified himself in our place.

See, if we sin, God can't have us with him. His punishment for sin is death. And since we all sin, we are destined for death - not just the dying at the end of your life death, but eternal death, never to be with him in heaven.

The great part is that God sent Jesus to take that punishment for us. HE died so that WE don't have to. If we believe in Jesus, and accept the free gift being given to us of his death in our place, all we have to do is ask for forgiveness of our sins and ask Jesus to help us live our lives God's way. Be sincere about that, and the gift is given to you. You can have eternal life in heaven with God.

There's a story in the Old Testament about Abraham, and how God asked him to sacrifice his only son for him. Just before Abraham was about to commit the death-blow, God interceded. He wanted to test Abraham's faithfulness to make sure he'd be obedient to God, but he didn't want him to kill his own son. Instead, God provided a ram for Abraham to use as the sacrifice.

It's the same thing with us. God doesn't want us to sacrifice ourselves, so he provided another sacrifice to use in our place - Jesus. He gives the gift to everyone. It's just up to us to decide to accept it.

In heaven, we will have perfect bodies. He will have completed his ongoing work with us, and we will be perfected too. We'll be sinless. We'll live in mansions that Jesus said he is preparing for us. We will be like the angels and will praise and worship God forever. There will be no sin, and no darkness. God will wipe every tear from our eyes so there will be no more sadness. It will be an eternity of love and fellowship with God and with Jesus.

In hell, there will be torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth (sounds painful!). There will be eternal separation from God.

If you want any help in getting started with reading the Bible, feel free to PM me. I can show you a great online Bible and help you find a good place to start reading, where you can begin to learn a lot more about what it takes to be a Christian. If you have a Bible already, start with the Gospel of John (it's the fourth book of the New Testament, right after Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

Let me know if I can help at all!

 

[bethdinsmore]

I believed in God until I was 18. I was attending a liberal "Christian" college, where I was told there were mistakes in the Bible. So I tossed the whole thing out (without checking out their claims) and became an atheist.

Years later, a book on Christian Evidences convinced me that the Bible had to have been inspired by a supernatural person, because it contained no errors, even in the prophecies that were fulfilled hundreds or thousands of years later.

Then I read the Bible's plan of salvation, and made the decision to rely on Christ alone to pay for all my sins and to get me to Heaven one day -- without relying at all on my good works or promises.

Please excuse me if you have already made that decision, but I don't want to take anything for granted. Even if you have, this might help others you know:

Here's the plan of salvation
1. God loves us and wants us to be with Him forever--John 3:16
2. We are all sinners (missing the mark of God's perfection) Rom. 3:23
3. The wages of sin is death (eternal separation from God) Rom. 6:23
4. We cannot do enough good works to make ourselves perfect in order to get to Heaven--Ephesians 2:8-9
5. Therefore, God sent Jesus, God in the flesh) to live a perfect life and to die on the cross to pay for all sins. Since Jesus was sinless, it was our sins He was paying for--I Peter 3:18
6. If we simply believe Jesus did that for us, and make the decision to rely on Him alone to pay for all our sins and to get us to Heaven without relying on any good works of our own, we have eternal life. John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31, I John 5:13. Have you made that decision? If not, I pray that you would do so now.....

7. And eternal life is eternal. We cannot lose it and we can't take ourselves out of God's hand--Romans 6:23 with Romans 11:29, and John 10:28-29.

It was the best decision I ever made. God bless you, friend.

Aloha in Jesus

 

[nattsie]

I believed in God until I was 18. I was attending a liberal "Christian" college, where I was told there were mistakes in the Bible. So I tossed the whole thing out (without checking out their claims) and became an atheist.

Years later, a book on Christian Evidences convinced me that the Bible had to have been inspired by a supernatural person, because it contained no errors, even in the prophecies that were fulfilled hundreds or thousands of years later.

Then I read the Bible's plan of salvation, and made the decision to rely on Christ alone to pay for all my sins and to get me to Heaven one day -- without relying at all on my good works or promises.

Please excuse me if you have already made that decision, but I don't want to take anything for granted. Even if you have, this might help others you know:

Here's the plan of salvation
1. God loves us and wants us to be with Him forever--John 3:16
2. We are all sinners (missing the mark of God's perfection) Rom. 3:23
3. The wages of sin is death (eternal separation from God) Rom. 6:23
4. We cannot do enough good works to make ourselves perfect in order to get to Heaven--Ephesians 2:8-9
5. Therefore, God sent Jesus, God in the flesh) to live a perfect life and to die on the cross to pay for all sins. Since Jesus was sinless, it was our sins He was paying for--I Peter 3:18
6. If we simply believe Jesus did that for us, and make the decision to rely on Him alone to pay for all our sins and to get us to Heaven without relying on any good works of our own, we have eternal life. John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31, I John 5:13. Have you made that decision? If not, I pray that you would do so now.....

7. And eternal life is eternal. We cannot lose it and we can't take ourselves out of God's hand--Romans 6:23 with Romans 11:29, and John 10:28-29.

It was the best decision I ever made. God bless you, friend.

Aloha in Jesus

Thank you.
no. 4 really opened my eyes, seeing my Mum always says "if you do enough good things in life then you will go to heaven" but yeah, that's not the case. It's NOT enough.

 

[bethdinsmore]

Amen, friend. Our good works won't get us to Heaven. For the best person that ever existed (other than Jesus), it would be like an Olympic gold medalist swimmer deciding to swim all the way from Hawaii to the Mainland. Even he wouldn't make it.

I hope you have made the decision to rely on Jesus alone to pay for all your sins on the cross and to get you to Heaven one day. If you have, we'd love to hear about it so that we can rejoice with you, and then we can give you some hints on how to live a victorious and contented Christian life.

I'm praying for you, friend.
Aloha in Jesus

 

[Sketcher]

Hell:

"A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.'" - Revelation 14:9-11

"And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." - Revelation 20:10-15

Heaven:

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'" - Revelation 21:3-4

"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life." - Revelation 21:22-27

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever." - Revelation 22:1-5

 

[JPPT1974]

The Bible tell us that we can know for sure about going to heaven:

"These things have I written unto you...that ye may know that ye have eternal life..." - I John 5:13


Would you like me to share you how?

We have eternal life in Jesus Christ
If we repent and confess our sins
And that He is Savior & Lord