My final on this LOOONG topic. 

So, let’s get into the heart of the question.  Remember when we dug into John 16:7-11 it told us that the Counselor will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.  Upon further study we need to ask ourselves a question.  Why should the ‘Spirit’ go all over the world working to give the good news of the gospel if we don’t need to make a decision before we die?  Why, waste time and energy when it could be done all at once in heaven? More importantly, why the need for Jesus to even come?

Jesus spoke many times on hell.  Why?  There is a very interesting statement that Jesus spoke on the ‘Sermon on the Mount’.  He spoke that few would get to heaven and many would go to hell.  In Matthew 7:13-14 he said, ‘Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.’

If ‘good people’ make it to heaven and not hell, why didn’t Jesus say that?  If we all go to a ‘learning ground’ as Mormons believe or to ‘purgatory’ as Catholics believe; once we die and ‘many’ eventually get to heaven and not hell, then why did Jesus say it backwards?  Or in other words, LIE.  Why did he specifically say that ‘few’ were going to life and ‘many’ were going to destruction?  The Greek word for ‘destruction’ is apoleia which means: destruction, ruin, waste or perish.  Another scripture which uses the word apoleia  is used in Revelation 17:8 which says, ‘The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction.’

Could it be that Jesus was speaking exactly what he meant and that many would go to hell and few would go to heaven?  This is not God being unfair, but man distorting scripture and turning it into something they can achieve.  Like I said, every world religion (even some ‘Christian’ denominations) believes that ‘works’ is involved to gain salvation.  That would be a majority or ‘many’.  While on the other hand, born again Christians who know they could never do anything good enough and rely completely on Christ for their salvation, are a definite minority, ‘few’.

This is hard for many to hear.  Before I was a Christian, I did not want to hear any type of ‘truth’ that interfered with what I believed, but bringing out scripture and asking many questions in a loving way will hopefully get them thinking (maybe not right then, but later) or start a nice dialog of explaining why Jesus is our only hope.  The finality and narrowness of Scripture offends many, but Jesus did say to enter through the ‘narrow’ gate.  Jesus did not mince words when it came to the finality of death.  Jesus said in Luke 11:23 ‘He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.’  We have many religions that differ with Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14, so according to Luke 11:23 they are against Him.  Unfortunately many in false religions or teachings do not realize that they are against Jesus.  We need to lovingly show them this.  Truth is always narrow.  But, anything besides the truth is always… false.

It is interesting because right after Jesus tells the people that finding ‘life’ is narrow and going to ‘destruction’ is broad or wide; He immediately tells them and us as we read Matthew 7:15-27 to ‘watch out for false prophets’.

The next question would be for those who do not believe that we need to make our eternal decisions before we die… ‘why would he warn us about false prophets if we will learn the ‘truth’ once we die’?  And further more, why didn’t He reassure us, that even if we follow false teachings, we will hear the truth when we die?  Jesus says, in Matthew 7:22-23, Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Those are hefty words for those who say they know Jesus.  What we see here is that ‘many’ may say that they know the ‘true’ Jesus, but they really did not.  This proving once again that ‘truth’ is very important no matter what.  Another thing I notice, that I might ask is, ‘why did Jesus say away from me?’  Why did He not say… ‘Away from me, until you learn the truth’?  We see a defining point for MANY.  In fact we see confusion from the ‘MANY’.  They thought they knew the true Jesus.  We have many teachings on Jesus.  We have the new age version of ‘Christ consciousness’.  We have the Jesus of Mormon’s ~ which is not only a created being but also Lucifer’s half brother.  Many believe that Jesus was a good teacher, Islam believes He was a good prophet, but only Christians believe that He is the Creator; God with us – Emmanuel; the Glorious Savior of all mankind, in other words God!  These are some major differences.  We can not all be right. So what and who we believe in is vitally important!  Universal truth comes from God and cannot be subjective truth, or opinion by experience.  We can’t go by feelings when it comes to eternal matters, we must go by what God has said!  The Bible becomes vital in your witnessing.  It is the lifeline!

In Matthew 7:22-23 when Jesus says he never knew them; that means all those prayers sent to ‘their Jesus’ was not going to the ‘true Jesus’.  Jesus already came and declared the truth, there are no new teachings that are needed.  We have the complete truth in the Bible.  We are warned by Paul in  2 Corinthians 11:4 to watch out for another Jesus, a different spirit and another gospel.  In fact all the way down to verse 15 Paul warns us about false Apostles.  Verses 14 and 15 also tells us of Satan masquerading as an angel of light.  In other words, Paul does not say that what someone (Joseph Smith)saw was not true, but that the message sent, if contradictory or different from what the original apostles (eye witnesses to Jesus) were proclaiming and teaching or what Jesus himself spoke, then to not follow them.  In fact in verse 3 Paul says that he is ‘afraid’ that just as Eve was deceived, so will others be deceived by the cunning serpent and be led astray from the pure Jesus.  

Aren’t these great things to get an unbeliever to ponder.  And because we believe the whole Bible, nothing it says can go against what we believe.  What we are finding is that this ‘hard’ question posed to us… is something we can explain with Scripture and then pose other questions to the unbeliever, encouraging them to reason through scripture and praying that the Holy Spirit would open their heart to this truth!!  How exciting, but I’m not finished.

What we find is that people do not want to talk or think about hell.  In fact many don’t even believe there is a hell and others wave their hand of it, saying that not many will go there.  In light of Scripture we have been pouring through, they should begin to question.  The next scripture is powerful.  I remember showing it to my sister once and I could see her get uncomfortable and read through it as though she had never seen it before.

The verse is Luke 16:19-31.  We have heard some speak that Jesus was speaking a parable.  In fact that might be an excuse that the unbeliever brings to you.  I disagree.  Jesus was very specific as far as naming the name of Lazarus and also naming true people from history.  We don’t see this in other parables… it was always a ‘man, women, father’ and so forth.  We see ‘common nouns’ being used in all other parables and not ‘Proper nouns’ like in Luke 16: 19-3.  There are many things we learn about hell from this description, that Jesus gave us. First, the ‘crime’ that sent the ‘rich man’ to hell was being rich, greedy, and maybe mean.  Wow, does that fit today’s standard of who’s going to heaven or hell?  Today many tout the ‘good’ go to heaven and only evil murderers will go to hell.  In fact, many work and spend their lives trying to acquire wealth!  In, I would imagine, the same way that the ‘rich man’ did.  We see that God’s view of good and our view are polar opposites.  Jesus said, ‘No one is good – except God alone’ Luke 18:19.  It is also interesting that when the rich man died and was buried, the next words are… ‘in hell (or hades)’ verse 23.  This man sees, talks, remembers, can taste and feel the agony and terrible reality of hell.  He is not crying to God to save him, does not say ‘can’t wait until I do a million ‘hail Mary’s’ to get out of here’ – or – even ‘Boy, am I ready for my missionary to come and tell me the ‘real’ truth so I can get out of here’ -or- ‘can’t wait to be reincarnated into a butterfly.’  No, he knows this is final.  Abraham even explains that no one can cross back and forth through a chasm that is placed there. Sorry, no missionaries or anything else~ this is final!  The rich man does know that he doesn’t want his family to come to hell.  He asks that someone from the dead should warn his family.  Abraham explains that it won’t help.  God has already sent the truth.  Through the gospel being proclaimed, but more importantly the Holy Spirit opening the heart of the individual and impressing upon them the truth of the real Jesus and what He has done for them.

Death does not bring about ones chance to change – it only solidifies what they have already chosen to believe.

So, if you ever get asked this question, we know that God is a God of love and He is just and fair.  We know that He knows the hearts of all people and will know exactly what to do.  And if the person is using it to trap you, you have those answers and then scripture and questions to pose to them.  I know that what I’ve brought up only scratched the surface, but hopefully this will help for any of you who have run across this same question.