Yikes! Great question! The Bible doesn’t say outright but we do get a slight glimpse of the possibility of being able to see Heaven from Hell from the story of the rich man and a man named Lazarus. In the story, the rich man dies and ends up in Hell and sees Lazarus in Heaven with Abraham. The rich man asks Abraham to give him some relief because he is in agony and Abraham say that he cannot because, “…Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross from there to us.” (Luke 16:26) In this story, we know that the rich man can see towards Heaven and can see partially into Heaven but we cannot know for sure that he can see all of Heaven. What we do know is that, once you are condemned to Hell, you are stuck there for eternity.
So, how can a person avoid the same fate as the rich man and live in Heaven with God like Lazarus? Honestly, there is only one way to get to Heaven and the great thing about it is that it doesn’t involve you or me having to be good! The truth is: Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He makes this quite clear in John 14:6, when He says, “I am the truth, the way and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s not about being good because we can never be “good enough.” It’s about being forgiven and being saved through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Friday 9 December 2011
Thursday 8 December 2011
Where do animals go when they die?
Wow! That is an awesome question! And I believe what you are asking me is if animals go to Heaven when they die. I get this question a lot because when kids lose their pets, they want to know if their pet gets to go to Heaven.
The truth is we don’t really know and this question has been debated among Bible scholars for a long time. It is one of the mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us.
Some Bible scholars claim that animals, however smart they can be, have no souls so they cannot have an immortal spirit that can survive after death. They also argue that animals were created inferior to human and they are not equal to us. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Still other Bible scholars make the argument that there are animals in Heaven and reference Biblical passages such as Isaiah 65:25, which talks about the new Heaven and new Earth and describes all sorts of animals living together, and Revelation 19:14, which describes Jesus and his army returning on horses.
I tend to believe what it says in Matthew 19:26, “…with God, all things are possible.” I also know God’s character and I personally believe that God, in His infinite love and wisdom, created a Heaven that is a place of perfect happiness. For me, perfect happiness would include all of God’s beauty and creation, including animals.
Is my hope based on complete Biblical truth? Nope. I’m just hoping that I’m right!
The truth is we don’t really know and this question has been debated among Bible scholars for a long time. It is one of the mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us.
Some Bible scholars claim that animals, however smart they can be, have no souls so they cannot have an immortal spirit that can survive after death. They also argue that animals were created inferior to human and they are not equal to us. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Still other Bible scholars make the argument that there are animals in Heaven and reference Biblical passages such as Isaiah 65:25, which talks about the new Heaven and new Earth and describes all sorts of animals living together, and Revelation 19:14, which describes Jesus and his army returning on horses.
I tend to believe what it says in Matthew 19:26, “…with God, all things are possible.” I also know God’s character and I personally believe that God, in His infinite love and wisdom, created a Heaven that is a place of perfect happiness. For me, perfect happiness would include all of God’s beauty and creation, including animals.
Is my hope based on complete Biblical truth? Nope. I’m just hoping that I’m right!
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