Doctrine
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."
Matthew 25:46
Every person who reads these words will one day step out of this life and into eternity. It is the one appointment none of us can avoid or postpone forever. And the Bible teaches, plainly and soberly, that there are only two destinies awaiting the human soul — two, and only two. Where you will spend forever is the most important question of your life, and it is a question that can be settled today.
Many live as though death were the end of everything. It is not. The Bible teaches that death is a doorway, not a wall — and beyond it lies judgment.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)
The body returns to the dust, but the soul lives on and must give account to God. This is why the question of eternity cannot be brushed aside; we shall all meet our Maker.
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is love incarnate, spoke more of the two eternal destinies than anyone else in the Bible. He set them side by side in a single sentence.
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matthew 25:46)
Notice that the same word — everlasting, eternal — describes both. If heaven is eternal, so is the punishment; the one is as lasting as the other. The prophet Daniel taught the same twofold end.
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2)
There is no third place, no waiting-room of purgatory, no second chance beyond the grave. There is everlasting life, and there is everlasting punishment. Every soul goes to one or the other.
The Bible does not permit us to soften or explain away the doom of the lost. It describes a real, conscious, and unending separation from God in what it calls the lake of fire.
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)
Some teach that the lost are simply snuffed out of existence — that punishment means extinction. But the Word of God says otherwise, using words that cannot mean annihilation.
"And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night..." (Revelation 14:11)
Extinction has no torment, no smoke that rises, no restlessness "day nor night," and certainly none "for ever and ever." The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of it as a place where the suffering does not cease.
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." (Mark 9:44)
And He told of a man who died and found himself in conscious torment, in full possession of his memory and his senses, longing for a single drop of water.
"And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." (Luke 16:23)
He cried out, not for release, but for one drop of water to cool his tongue.
"And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." (Luke 16:24)
And he learned that no one can cross from that place to this, nor back again — the destiny is fixed the moment death comes.
"And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." (Luke 16:26)
A great gulf fixed. This is why the matter must be settled now, in this life; there is no crossing over afterward.
This is a solemn reality, and we dare not treat it lightly. It is precisely because it is real that the warning is an act of love.
Some ask how a God of love could allow such a thing. But God does not delight in it; He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
"...As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live..." (Ezekiel 33:11)
God is not only love; He is also holy and perfectly just, and sin against an infinite God is an infinite wrong that justice must answer. Yet in His love He has done everything to provide an escape — He gave His own Son to bear the punishment in the sinner's place. No one need ever perish. Hell was never prepared for men, but for the devil and his angels; those who go there go because they refuse the salvation God freely offers. God warns precisely because He loves, as a father shouts a warning to a child running toward the fire.
If the doom of the lost is beyond our worst fears, the joy of the saved is beyond our brightest dreams. Heaven is a real place, prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ for His people, where sorrow and death are gone forever.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
But the crowning glory of heaven is not its golden streets or its freedom from pain; it is the unclouded presence of God Himself, dwelling with His people forever.
"...Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Revelation 21:3)
What that joy will be, no words on earth can tell.
"...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Heaven is no vague dream; it is a definite place, and the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to make it ready for His own.
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2)
Yet the Bible is equally plain that nothing sinful shall ever enter there — only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
"And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth... but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Revelation 21:27)
It is a prepared place for a prepared people — and the only preparation that fits a soul for heaven is to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What decides which destiny is yours? Not whether you have been good enough or bad enough — for by that measure none could enter heaven. The dividing line is the Lord Jesus Christ: whether or not you have trusted Him as your Saviour and have your name written in His book of life.
"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:18)
The believer already has everlasting life; the one who refuses the Son remains under the wrath of God.
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)
Hear the heart of God toward you. He is not willing that you should perish; He is longing that you should be saved.
"...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
Long ago God set the choice before His people, and He sets it before you now with the same tender urgency.
"...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19)
You will spend eternity somewhere — in the joy of God's presence, or in the darkness of separation from Him. There is no third possibility, and there is no better time than now to settle it. The way to heaven is not a religion, a ritual, or a lifetime of good deeds; it is a Person — the Lord Jesus Christ, who died and rose to save you. Trust Him today, and the moment you do, your name is written in the book of life, and heaven is your certain home forever.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."Revelation 21:4