There are many things in life in which we can be completely wrong, and the consequences will be short-lived for our lifetime, or for a few generations that might follow. But when it comes to your eternal salvation, the consequences are eternal, so you need to get it right.
It’s more important that you get things right about going to heaven than you stay on this earth any longer than today. “As God’s partners, we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God’s great kindness. For God says, ‘Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered.’ Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2 TLB).
We spend far too much time agonizing over the relatively inconsequential decisions of life and barely a minute considering the eternal consequences for our souls and for the souls around us. You need to get it right and spend more time considering those things that will last for eternity.
When it comes to your salvation, it’s not enough to just say Jesus is Lord. You have to believe it. “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NKJV).
There are many who live in opposition to God, and He will not make them go to heaven. By their own choice, they are separated from the Lord on earth, and unless they change their hearts, they will be separated from the Lord for eternity. God will not force a soul into heaven.
We wouldn’t know we were in darkness unless there was light to show us. “And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants” (John 3:19-21 NLT).
The saddest thing in all the world is the unsaved Christian, floating in the false life raft of religion and thinking themself saved for eternity when they are not. No harsher word will ever be spoken than the words of Christ when He tells them, “Depart from Me” (Matthew 25:41 NASB).
Salvation is a free gift, but unless you receive it, then it doesn’t yet belong to you. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV).
Often, we think that unsaved Christians are those who are far from church and living in opposition to the ways of God. Yet there are some who are in ministry to the Lord and look good to men, but who will hear the other dreaded words from Christ, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23 NASB).
Applause is the most addictive drug known to mankind. “What sorrow awaits you who are praised by the crowds, for their ancestors also praised false prophets” (Luke 6:26 NLT).
It doesn’t matter how good you look before men, but are you really saved? If you have not asked yourself this question, why not? Do you fear the answer you might hear? If there is anything you ever do on this earth, make sure it is getting it right with the Lord.
Stop regretting your past and just learn from it. “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT).
Too many preachers peddle a prayer of salvation as the recipe to follow, which only leads to a half-baked faith that won’t by itself get anyone right with God. Where is the prayer of salvation in Scripture? It is not there. Jesus doesn’t ask for a single prayer but for all of your life.
It’s one thing to call yourself a Christian and another thing to be one. You cannot be the Christian without the cross. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways.’” (Matthew 16:24 TPT).
When you get instructions to assemble something at home, you will follow them from the first step to the last. If you only do one out of twenty steps, you have not reached the end. Stop camping on one verse as your recipe to save you while ignoring the rest.
Good works are not the cause of salvation but the result of salvation. “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works” (James 2:26 NLT).
People will focus on a single verse as the only test of their salvation. They read “whoever believes” in John 3:16 and yet ignore “demons also believe” in James 2:19. Beware anything less than “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 NKJV).
You won’t change directions until you turn. “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” (Matthew 3:8 NLT).
If you want to know all of God’s plan, then you need to read all of God’s plan. Getting saved is not by your work but by your surrender. The test of a surrendered soul is a changed soul. Jesus did not say to go make converts but “Go therefore and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19 NKJV).
The authentic Christian is not perfect but forgiven. “But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God [revealing His plan of salvation], and righteousness [making us acceptable to God], and sanctification [making us holy and setting us apart for God], and redemption [providing our ransom from the penalty for sin]” (1 Corinthians 1:30 AMP).
Set your priorities in life based on the importance of each priority and how much it will impact your life and the lives of those around you. And what greater impact can there be on your life and those around you than that which would go on for all eternity? Get it right.
If we have a life-changing experience, then there should be a changed life. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]” (2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
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The subject of the duration of hell is a controversial concern. Such is certainly not why I direct our attention to it. Rather my motivation is for the divine love of the Spirit of truth and souls and the eternal glory of God.
The unfailing, uncompromising, ceaseless compassion of Christ for all creation, temporally and eternally, is heavy on both my heart and mind. Is hell never-ending conscious anguish, agony, and pain of spirit, soul, and body?
Was it not Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century who gave us that wildly rampant doctrine? During the first few centuries, the early church did not mistakenly believe the heresy that hell is never-ending.
Teaching that hell never ends but is eternal massively misrepresents the character, nature, and attributes of our ceaselessly compassionate Creator.
Study the words ‘forever’ ‘everlasting’ and ‘eternal’ in Hebrew/Greek & their usage in various other passages not referring to hell or heaven, such as the mountains in Psalms and Jonah in the belly of the whale. In those two examples, even in English the words everlasting and forever cannot carry the definition commonly ascribed to hell.
Know that the Greek word often translated as “forever” or “everlasting” or “eternal” (aion) MORE LITERALLY means “age”, referring to a lengthy but limited period of time. WHEN the adjective aionios, meaning everlasting is used in Greek with nouns of action it has reference to the RESULT of the act, NOT the PROCESS. The phrase (1) everlasting punishment is comparable to (2) everlasting redemption and (3) everlasting salvation, all Scriptural phrases. All three according to the correct usage of Greek are in reference to the result, not the process. The lost shall not be in punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal RESULTS.
I humbly hope that those erroneously, egregiously exercised as though hell is never ending, conscious, excruciating anguish and agony will get this sorted out to the praise of the glory of the uncreated Creator Who Is Truth triumphant, Love unformed, Mercy undeserved, and Justice sovereign and supreme, in perfect proportion for all His creation, during each and every movement, matter and moment of our being.
Beloveds, to somehow accommodate the populist, but egregiously erroneous view, a person must be blindsided (1) ignoring the actual history of that which the church believed in the first few centuries, (2) Augustine’s historically recorded heretical role in the 4th century of introducing into the church the corrupt concept that hell as never-ending, (3) the ceaseless compassion of the character of Christ coursing through the complete New Testament writings, and (4) the correct application of the original languages in which sacred Scripture was written. The Truth remains everlastingly unchanged, regardless of the frequency, length and widespread scope of the diabolical deception.
Burning blessings of Jesus’ beauty in your being and every intimate blessing of affection from His holy heart as King of heaven.
Oh yes, I completely agree with you. One cannot argue that our Father is loving and merciful and also argue that there will be eternal suffering for the soul who rejected Him. When I speak of eternal consequence for the unbeliever it speaks to the eternal result, being separated from God, and that separation is finalized with the second death. I have heard this saying: born once, die twice; or, born twice, die once. Thank you for your wonderful and most needed discussion on this often misunderstood doctrine of hell.
“When the adjective aionios, meaning everlasting is used in Greek with nouns of action it has reference to the result of the act, not the process. The phrase everlasting punishment is comparable to everlasting redemption and everlasting salvation, both Scriptural phrases. No one supposes that we are being redeemed or saved forever. We were redeemed and saved once for all by Christ with eternal results. In the same way the lost will not be passing through the process of punishment forever but will be punished once and for all with eternal results. On the other hand the noun ‘life’ is not a noun of action, but a noun expressing a state. Thus life itself is eternal.”
Basil F. C. Atkinson, Life and Immortality. An Examination of the Nature and Meaning of Life and Death as they are revealed in the Scriptures (Taunton, England, n. n.), p.101.
Thank you for this most important message. I am going to paste in what I wrote on the other similar post: Oh yes, I completely agree with you. One cannot argue that our Father is loving and merciful and also argue that there will be eternal suffering for the soul who rejected Him. When I speak of eternal consequence for the unbeliever it speaks to the eternal result, being separated from God, and that separation is finalized with the second death. I have heard this saying: born once, die twice; or, born twice, die once. Thank you for your wonderful and most needed discussion on this often misunderstood doctrine of hell.
At least thrice, I attempted posting this entire text because I thought it crucial to credit that paragraph I had included in my comment with the actual author and his work, but in each instance, I did not see it appear. The reason it shows presently posted as Anonymous instead of Shulamitefire, I do not know. Perhaps I was logged out. Anyway, lol
Sometimes technology helps us, other times it conspires against us!
Paul, esteemed and beloved brother, I thank you with all my God-graced heart for the affirmation and enormous encouragement you have been to me on multiple occasions. What that shall look like, and the celestially conscious experience of same playing forth in eternity for you and I and precious others, to our Lord’s infinitely deserving glory, is presently indescribable, in even approaching adequacy with natural language. Such a grand gift beautifying the bride of Christ you really and truly are. Thank you!
Thank you, Brother. You are such a blessing to me!