He would descend into the lower parts of the earth and remain there until He was resurrected three days later. Jesus did this to preach to those who had died before He had completed His sacrifice on the cross, confirming that all God had promised concerning the Messiah, would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was resurrected, all of the Old Testament believers who had died waiting for the coming of the Messiah were taken back to heaven, where they remain today. Today, when anyone dies, who has trusted in Jesus as their Savior, they are immediately taken to heaven to be with the Lord. These are the saved who will remain in heaven with the Lord until the moment arrives for Him to return to the earth, at the Rapture.
The place of torments described by Jesus, remains, to the present day, at the center of the earth. When anyone dies without receiving Jesus sacrifice for their sins, they descend into this place that was describe by Jesus in Luke Chapter 16, as Hell. The unsaved will remain in this place of torments until the Lord resurrects their body at the end of His 1,year reign upon the earth.
At that time these persons will stand before the Great White Throne Judgement and be found guilty of rejecting the only plan of salvation that God has provided for mankind. The unsaved will suffer a second death that will last for eternity in the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. Jesus describes the two compartments at the center of the earth; one a place of comfort, the other a place of torments. Before the Messiah completed His sacrifice, both the saved and the unsaved were kept in one of two chambers at the center of the earth.
Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And being in torments in Hell he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Jesus describes both men, alive and conscious: The unsaved feel pain and are fully conscious, being aware and regretful of their decision to reject Jesus as their Savior, which placed them in this eternal despair.
The saved are seen in a place of comfort, waiting for the arrival of the Messiah—who will complete His sacrifice for their sins and set them free upon His resurrection. The rich man is not in Hell for being rich , but for his apparent rejection of the requirement that God has made; that all men must receive a pardon for their sins by the coming Messiah. What we learn from this story about Heaven and Hell and life after death, is that all men have an eternal soul that live on past the moment of their physical death.
He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. We learn from Luke Chapter Today, when a person dies, believing that Jesus is his Savior; they immediately ascend into heaven. The saved do not remain on earth as a spirit, nor do they descend into the center of the earth, as in former days before Jesus made His sacrifice for sins.
Paul described the death of the believer in Jesus Christ, by the words: These two are instantaneous. At the end of the one thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth as the Messiah, the unsaved will be resurrected, to face judgement. Having no acceptable method to remove their sins, they remain under the wrath of God and are sentenced to an eternal separation from God. The judgement of the unsaved, takes place after the one thousand-year reign of Jesus on the earth:.
They stand before God at the Great White Throne, to be judged for their sins. And there was found no place for them. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
It was pretty nice, epcext for the part where he almost burnt his hand on the raclette. David writes that when the Messiah is crucified and raised from the dead, He will take back to heaven, all those who had died waiting for His salvation. It was at this passage that, after his death, they found two short phrases handwritten in the margin of Martin Luther's Bible. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. Why we should all be prepared to answer the question. Quinn From Expository Files 9. Today, when a person dies, believing that Jesus is his Savior; they immediately ascend into heaven.
And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. And they were judged, each one according to his works. All those who appear before the Great White Throne will be found insufficient to inherit eternal life, because their sins remain. John describes the people who have rejected Jesus as their Savior, as having no other place for them. The Book of Life will be opened and every person who has rejected Jesus as their Savior will be found absent from the pages of this book.
They will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire, where they will remain for eternity. Both the reward and the punishment, are equal in eternal duration. The consequences of these actions, remains under the control of each individual person. God does not send anyone to hell; they send themselves there by their unwillingness to obey the gospel and be saved. If we reject the only plan of salvation that God has provided for us to be saved, then there remains no other place for us.
Every person who has received Jesus as their Savior, has no future judgment awaiting them. All of their sins have been judged at the cross where Jesus died and fully paid. These individuals will face their final judgement as described by the Book of Revelation, Chapter And there was found no place for them the unsaved. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.
The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. The unsaved are judged according to their works, while the saved are judged according to the works of Jesus. Those who come to Jesus for salvation, understand their imperfections, and instead—rely upon Jesus perfect sacrifice for their sins, as the basis for their salvation. Verse 12 describes these people as arriving at the Great White Throne, because there was: For this reason, they are lost and have no hope of eternal life with God.
This does not have to happen.
God has done everything that is necessary to make certain that no one is lost. The only barrier to Heaven is the will of a person to surrender themselves to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We cannot blame God if we do not make it to heaven. He has told us what we must do; the decision is ours.
Those who were alive, before Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, were saved by looking forward to His coming.
Those who live, after Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead, are saved by looking back to His completed sacrifice. All who look to Jesus for their salvation will be saved. In the prophecy from Psalms These believers were assured resurrection by the promise of God—through a Messiah who would come at an appointed time, and make their entrance into heaven a reality.
As those who believed in the promise of a coming Messiah, before His arrival, were taken with Him to heaven, at his ascension; so also will all of us who have believed in Him, after His resurrection.
Whether we are alive at His return, or we have already died—we will all rise to meet the Lord in the air. Then , together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. It is interesting that there are many people who claim to know that God does not exist, Jesus is a myth, and there is no heaven or hell. All this, in spite of the massive evidence that is presented to us from the historical record that states that one person lived, died, went into hell, and ascended to heaven.
He returned to earth to tell us that these places exist as our final destination when we die. For those who disobey and reject the only method whereby God has offered to save us, Hell. Jesus tells us that these things are true and then validated His own resurrection from the dead by more than eye witnesses who saw Him alive after He was crucified.
He was crucified, died, and rose again after three days. Both the Romans and the Jews were unsympathetic to Jesus and had no interest in preserving a record of His presence here on earth. By writing their negative comments about Him in their own records, they preserved evidence that proves that Jesus really did live, die, and rise.
Jesus said that He came into the world. We are all sinners. All of us have lied, stolen things that do not belong to us. Some have murdered, denied God His rightful place, and coveted the material things of this world. Yes, we are all imperfect and we are all sinners. Just as there are two births, the Bible teaches there are two deaths: Jesus warned that we are to fear the second death more than the first one. This is the second death. One commentator wrote, "The second death is the continuance of spiritual death in another and timeless existence. Another wrote, "Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset.
Eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise. Jesus spoke of hell in a very specific way. He warned of the fire of hell see Matthew 5: He warned about our bodies being thrown into hell see Matthew 5: And He spoke of the soul and the body being destroyed in hell see Matthew The Bible teaches that all Christians-defined as sinners who have been converted by putting their faith in Jesus Christ-will be in heaven.
And that offer of forgiveness is for everyone. Your eternal destination is really your choice. Not everyone will be saved in the end-only those who put their faith in Jesus Christ.