Hell

For all of humanity, there are two destinations: an eternity in harmony with God or an eternity in disharmony with God. Does man have any influence on his destiny, and if so, how?

Disharmony is the natural state of every human being. Man stands with his back to God and does not acknowledge God's authority. In essence, man thereby makes himself an enemy of God. And even if man wanted to, he is unable to find God (1 Cor.1:21), to understand God (1 Cor.2:14), or to please God (Romans 8:8). Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, within you there is a great distance from God. Whether it sinks in or not, you understand absolutely nothing about God. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot get into God's good graces based on your own achievements.

There is only one salvation: Jesus Christ. He came to deliver people from their state of total lostness. To realize this, He was born as a Man to do as a Man what we all had to do: Love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves (Mathew 22:37-40), but which none of us has ever succeeded in - not even close (Romans 3:9-12). In this state of moral perfection, He walked the path of suffering on the cross. And on the cross, He took our state of failure upon Himself, and in that state of failure, He bore the judgment upon it: He died.

In summary: God gave his Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The perfection of His life and of His sacrifice has been demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:24, Romans 4:25), a resurrection to eternal life (John 5:29) that He will share with all who believe in Him. Through faith in Him, you exchange your own failure for His perfection, and harmony with God arises that can never be taken away from you. Your name is written in the book of life (Revelation 13:8).

The moment is coming when the dead will stand before the great white throne (Revelation 20:10-15). All have been raised to life again and are being judged, based on every detail of their lives, by the Son of Man, who is also God Himself. Books are being opened; these are the life stories of all these people. Heaven and earth have fled from the face of Him who sits on the throne. There is nothing left to hide behind. Are you among them too? Then there is another book, which is also being opened, a book of very great importance: the book of life.

Everyone whose name is not found in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. What is that, the lake of fire? Is it hell? Does God cast all people who have not believed in Jesus into hell? Is that not unnecessarily cruel? Creation is the outward manifestation of God's action, the intermediary between God and man. When God rolls up Creation like a robe and puts it away, there is no longer an intermediary between God and man. The moment will come when the elements will melt away burning. Then a new heaven and a new earth will come to light in which God will be ‘all and in all’. God will be present much more directly.