Category: Salvation

Why Judgment Day Waits

The Bible describe three things which factor into the arrival of Judgment Day. They are the spread of the Gospel to all nation, a complete number of martyrs, and God wanting all to be saved.

The people of the first generation of the Christian Church were getting antsy. Jesus had not come yet. Some of their brothers and sisters in faith had been killed as martyrs. Others had even died naturally. Where was Jesus? He had said, “Yes, I am coming soon.” (Rev. 22:20). What is “soon”?

“Soon” is a relative word. Usually, it is a brief period of time by our accounting. In this case it is not. There were clues that this period of time before Jesus’ return was going to be protracted. As Jesus prepared his disciples for their work before Judgment Day, He shared the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14). While the Master in this story is on a journey, the servants were to work. It doesn’t say it, but it seems implied that this could be a long journey. There is work to be done first, a lot of work. Judgment Day isn’t delayed, but why hasn’t it happened?

First, you like me, we should be glad it hasn’t happened. If it had happened in the first century, we wouldn’t be a part of the Kingdom of God. We live at a time when there are more people on Earth than ever. In fact, some argue that there are more people now and there has been cumulatively. That means there is a lot of work to do.

The Bible does give some metrics for when Judgment Day will come, but these metrics do more to explain the work than they do to give a date. The first and most well-known is that the Gospel must be preached to all nations.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14 (ESV)

This whole mission of spreading the Gospel started among a completely Jewish crowd. Then, quite controversially, it spread out among the Gentile peoples of the Mediterranean basin. The disciple Thomas, traveled a long distance to get things started in India. That was the reach of the first generation. People in my family tree maybe were exposed to the Gospel by 1000AD. Here we are still working at it. We are still working on people groups in India! When God said, “all nations” he meant all. How does He define “nations”? I don’t know. Maybe by language. Maybe by genetics. We will find out. The important thing is that it included you. Whoever you are. The New Heavens and New Earth were not going to kick off until you had a chance to get in on it.

There are other parallel metrics. Here is one you may not know.

10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Revelation 6:10-11 (ESV)

The full number of martyrs is not so much a goal, as is Gospel to all nations. It is more a parallel statistic that speaks to the nature of the Gospel mission. It is dangerous. Not everyone will receive you with open arms. Many will see the bringing of the Gospel as a threat to culture, or family tradition, or economic opportunity, or governmental control, or cherished worldview. They will deal with this perceived threat with death sometimes. Those who give their lives for the sake of others receiving salvation will be highly honored. It is as Christ-like as you can get.

Does the Gospel threaten the things mentioned above? Yes, some of them. Culture is formed by many things, including religion. If the religion within a culture is transformed or replaced then culture changes. It still can remain unique. God loves certain aspects of cultural diversity. There would be growing pains for families. Some would have to repent of their cherished ways. Worldview is radically changed and people resist that. I don’t see Christianity as a threat to government unless it dictated religion like North Korea or Rome, but in combination with other forces a governmental change could be facilitated anywhere.

There is one other Judgment Day metric that I overlooked for a long time, and it is so obvious.

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:8-10 (ESV)

God’s timeline is not ours. We think He is slow. He is working quickly. It says God doesn’t want any to perish. How does this work? With successive generation more are saved, but even more are lost. I have to bring this passage along side of my most disliked passage:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

Where is “destruction”? There are things to suggest that this is a reference to Gehenna, the lake of fire, Hell. A similar word is used to talk about the Antichrist as the “son of perdition/destruction”. Is that the son of the place or the son of process or condition? He destroys. I don’t feel like a word study of the Greek (apoleion) gets us anywhere. Jesus is saying most people will not experience life but will experience destruction. My question is where and is this permanent? If this is Sheol and before Judgment Day, is there some process that closes the gap that makes the 2 Peter 3 passage make sense?

The early Christian church fathers all taught about posthumous salvation in connection with Jesus’ descent to Sheol. Some (i.e. Origen) took it too far. We can see from other passages (like Matthew 25:31f) that there are people being eternally damned at Judgment Day. So if there is posthumous salvation it is not comprehensive. The percentage suggested by Matthew 7 for those saved during life seems small. “Few” is a relative word, too. But it seems below 50%. Is the delay of Judgment Day in order to give time to Christ’s work in Sheol? I hope so. I don’t know so.

In the end, we have our mission. We want people to avoid the ultimate judgment in Gehenna. We want them to avoid a more immediate judgment in Sheol. We want them to experience Heaven at their death. That is a worthy mission, even if it is dangerous. When God had established us with a place in eternity with Him through what Jesus did, then we have little to lose and people to gain. Judgment Day will come at just the right time. I won’t worry about it. I will worry about the salvation of others.

Judgment Day As the Final Reckoning

The article explores the concept of Judgment Day and its biblical implications, emphasizing that death serves as a preliminary judgment. It discusses interpretations of scripture surrounding judgment, the idea of Sheol, and the potential for the gospel to reach the dead, raising questions about the fate of those who never heard it in life.

The awareness of a judgment day runs deep in the Bible and in our culture. Romans 12 says, “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God”, and “each of us will give an account of himself to God.” There are important details of this day that I have shared in other articles (search “Judgment Day” in the box above). For this article I would like to focus on what can be modified before the final day.

Most of us will not live until Judgment Day. Our physical death will come first. I reject the idea that we jump to Judgment Day at our death. This collides with Revelation 6:9-11 and others. Death, however, is a type of Judgment Day. It is a small version of the actual thing. There is serious judgment that happens at death. We do not stay in this world but we go somewhere. Either Sheol if we do not have a solution https://afterdeathsite.com/2025/07/22/sheol-as-a-waiting-room/for our sinfulness or Heaven if we have been connected to Christ.https://givingchrist.com/2024/02/06/what-makes-a-person-a-christian/.

Is that the final judgment then? It would seem that Judgment Day would be a bit perfunctory if this is so. Yes, there is movement on Judgment Day from Sheol to a resurrected body to formal judgment to lake of fire for the damned. The period of time from death to Judgment Day is just waiting in discomfort and without hope in that case.

Maybe that is it. That model of understanding does combine strangely with this:

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:8-9 (ESV)

It is hard to see how delaying Judgment Day would help “all” to come to repentance. It would help some who are still alive. The long “delay” in Judgment Day would only fill Sheol faster than it fills Heaven since Jesus made it clear that a minority “find” the gate to life (Matthew 7:14). This irony and relegating Judgment Day to a perfunctory role adds weight to the understanding of 1 Peter 4:6.

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)

This passage is in the larger context of a discussion of suffering for the faith. Within that discussion Peter recalls Jesus’ suffering which culminated with Jesus’ death. He then interjects a brief reference to Jesus’ “descent into Hell”. I use the phrase from how we speak the Apostle’s Creed. I make a distinction between “Hell”, which is what I would call the post-Judgment Day destination of the damned, and “Sheol” which is where I think Jesus went.

We are very conditioned to think of our death as the end of opportunity to be saved. Yet, can you point to a Bible verse that says that? Hebrews 9:27 is all that I have seen in this regard, and I don’t think it works. The context is not about this it all. It is talking about Jesus atoning for sin once with his death. To draw a conclusion that “just as it is appointed for a man to die once, and then comes judgment” means our judgment is sealed at our death adds to the verse and takes it from its context. We die once just like Jesus who died once. That is the meaning.

Does 1 Peter 4:6 in context speak about the gospel being preached to the physically dead rather than the spiritually dead? If 1 Peter 3:18-19 where not in the conversation, I would accept this as a reference to spiritually dead. Is the “preaching” in this passage past tense? That is so from the verb. Is it past like when they were alive or is it past as when Jesus did it to those in 3:18-19?

It is a tough passage. One would wish to have more to work with. If Christ still proclaims the Gospel in Sheol or if he doesn’t, our task doesn’t change. We want people to benefit from the promise, preferably sooner than later. If Jesus did respond to a need with a saving Gospel to those disobedient in the days of Noah and if he still does to other groups, then 2 Peter 3:8-9 makes sense. This is not to say that people don’t manage to be damned. It is pretty clear that they do. But it would explain God’s response to those who never heard the Gospel in life. It would also explain the purpose of an intermediate period between death and Judgment Day.

Fear God

God has been my friend and my mentor since childhood. God has never done me wrong. Even in His seeming inaction, I have found hindsight eventually as to why He didn’t act. With that said, it is hard for me to have fear of God in the classic way we understand fear.

As part of a summer Bible reading program that I am doing in my congregation, we have recently read Luke 12 which has provided the topic for today:

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Luke 12 :4-5 (ESV)

Because I know what Jesus did and why, and have a firm belief in the promise of God and God’s character, I don’t think of my future as potentially including Hell (here the word is Gehenna, a reference to post-Judgment Day punishment), but it would be wise to do so at least in theory. People fall away from grace. It happens. They can mangle the Gospel until it is ineffective (see Galatians), fail to forgive when required, wilt under difficulty or choke out because the temptations of the world. I don’t think about that happening to me. I don’t ponder it. But I need to respect that God sticks to the letter of His Law even when it costs Him. I don’t want my connection to Christ to become compromised. I have only Christ’s righteousness as my hope.

The context in which Jesus speaks these words is one of the original disciples potentially being afraid of what Jewish leaders might do to them. It is scary to confess Christ in an environment where that is not going to be accepted. Worse, if it will probably be persecuted. I don’t live in a family or society where being a Christian is actively persecuted, but I would like to think that, if I did, I would be brave enough and certain enough to not be afraid to confess Christ. My confession would be based on a love of God, not a fear of God. But fear of God wouldn’t be without reason.

8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Luke 12:8-9 (ESV)

Here is a picture of Judgment Day that I don’t often ponder. People are separated to Jesus’ right and to His left. Some of those put on the left feel like they should be on the right. Before the angels of God, they are denied by Jesus. “I don’t know you”, is how it is expressed in a different passage. “I don’t believe/know Jesus”, is what got them there.

Denying Jesus is exactly what Peter did three times. Peter dared to hope for forgiveness, and he found it. Jesus gave Peter the chance to confess him three times a bit later. It was a chance to do things in reverse. There is forgiveness for being cowardly. It is tougher when the denial is adopting a different worldview that excludes Jesus as your Savior. Usually, people in that situation don’t seek forgiveness, but even in that situation, there can be hope.

All of these brushes with a Judgment Day disaster can be avoided with a healthy, non-surreal, fear of God. How can one get to that point? I think a great place to start is to ponder these words of Jesus and visualize being brave before you actually have to be brave. If you know that you are in a dangerous situation, ask God for bravery. Peter just thought he had it. There is also a difference between genuinely denying Christ and being clever enough to serve another day. God is not looking for people to invite martyrdom. Take comfort in these words if you are potentially in such a situation:

the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Luke 12:12 (ESV)

We are saved by God’s grace in the end, and not by being brave. Being brave may be pivotal in remaining with Christ. A healthy fear of God and the power of the Holy Spirit can provide these things.

Entering Through the Narrow Gate

The author reflects on a passage from Matthew 7:13-14, expressing concern over the “few” who will find the narrow way to life compared to the many destined for destruction. They discuss the implications of this truth, emphasizing the urgency of sharing the Gospel, and contemplate the meanings of destruction and the challenges of faith in Christ.

Perhaps one should not dislike a passage in the Bible. Yet, I cannot like the message of what I am writing about today. It is good to know. It is a regrettable truth. I doubt that God is happy about it. The passage that I am speaking about comes from the mouth of Jesus toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount. It says:

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

The last word really bothers me, “few”. Few is a relative term. This indicates a minority when compared to those headed for destruction. If indeed that is what is being compared. The best I could hope for is that those saved are few compared to those who could be saved. The death of Jesus is enough for all mankind to be saved. No extra works are required, there just needs to be a connection made with Jesus. If 98% were saved, that could be construed as “few” compared to 100%. I really don’t think that is what is being said here, however.

Unfortunately it is way too easy to understand how you get to below 50%. Using the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) as a model of understanding, many people end up being a hard path. Billions are confirmed adherents of other world religions that exclude Jesus from the role of savior. Access to the Gospel is not a problem. You can find it on the internet, hear it on the radio, come in contact with some Christian. But many have not had any real exposure to the Gospel. They do not seek what they do not know. That should bother us and motivate us to get the Word out there. It is likely that a large group will have their first real exposure to the Gospel in Sheol. I don’t have much information on this, but it aligns with Jesus’ apparent mission when he descends to Sheol after his death (1 Peter 3:18-20)https://afterdeathsite.com/2017/04/11/christs-descent-into-hell-part-5/

Other people will have plenty of exposure to the Gospel, but it is like seeds on a hardened path. They understand the concepts and it perhaps occupies their mind for a while, but the birds (Satan) snatches it away before it can take root. With those two groups alone, we are probably past 50%. Then there are the groups described as people who believe but are too shallow to have a resilient faith that can endure hardship or are those choked out by the cares of life, love of wealth, or love of the pleasures of life. With them we are probably way past 50% leaving only a relative few.

Another bothersome word in Matthew 7:13-14 is “destruction”. It is not a place name like Sheol or Gehenna. It is a description. I think “destruction” could describe either. Other descriptors for Sheol are “fire” and “worm” which are classic destroyers. If this is Sheol then it gives a dim hope. The hope is that the “many” enter the gates of Sheol but not necessarily the final judgment of Gehenna post-Judgement Day. But if I am honest, “destruction” sounds more like Gehenna. Little is said about Gehenna directly, but Jesus’ experience on the cross informs it. The spiritual punishment Jesus must endure under the Law is being forsaken. That will fall on the individual who is not connected to Christ.

When God completely pulls his presence from a place or person what should happen? Physics might suggest an increased rate of entropy at all levels. Does destruction come to an end when you are destroyed? Maybe. The Bible speaks of eternal punishment, but in what sense? Time needs to be understood as part of our reality and not transcending it. Time itself could be destroyed for the forsaken.

Finally, why describe the route to eternal life as “narrow” and “hard”? It is narrow because there is only one way to receive it, and that is Jesus. If Jesus were one choice among many, it would seem that the Father would have allowed Jesus to skip the misery of crucifixion, flogging, and forsakenness. But he did not. Those who don’t like the idea that Jesus is the only way deride it as a bigoted teaching. Unfortunately, I think it is a logical teaching that clearly is expressed in the Bible.

“Hard” seems out-of-place because we are saved by grace. We would not come to Jesus unless the Holy Spirit does the hard work of getting through to us with the Gospel. It is hard as humans to make the Gospel available to others. It was hard for Jesus to fulfill the Law and still suffer the ultimate punishment for sin. It is also hard to persevere in faith from the moment we are “in Christ” to the time of our death. As noted above, people fail to do so.

At the end of it all, what do you have? “Few”. The only consolation is that the relative few still constitutes millions if not billions of people.

Do You Feel Hopeless?

At some point in your life the future might have seemed full of possibilities. You had dreams and they seemed reachable. But as time ran on life got in the way. You had troubles. Things didn’t pan out. It became obvious that your vision of the future was not going to happen. Perhaps you can add to this your concerns about the world in general. The promise of unending human progress seems fenced in by unfixable problems.

It is hard to live when all you have is the routine, and the problems of life seem entrenched. Without hope it seems that life is not worth living. Too many people reach this point and then act on it. In fact, very few people live their dreams. There is only so much room to be famous athletes, entertainers, or great leaders. That doesn’t mean that only those people get to have hope. In fact, these roles aren’t as great as might think them. If this is your dream, then in some respects you are shooting too high and in others too low.

In it sinfully natural to want to set your own agenda for life. In the end, your personal agenda won’t count for much. God has a plan for each of us. This plan may not be recognized by other people. Currently, it may not be recognized by you. Rather it is recognized by God. It may not change the world as a whole, but it will definitely change a part of it. It may not be rewarded in this life with money and ease, but it will be rewarded on the Day.

God-given hope starts with something that we did not have the right to hope for. It is a whole tapestry of things that are the true meaning of life. It starts with the right to call the Creator of the all things, “Father”. Normal people are far too sinful to be this presumptuous. This relationship allows us to navigate any set of problems. It is true that aging and illness moves us closer to death, but even that isn’t negative. God’s grace to us moves into having a God-given role in life. We can count on having a purpose even when all health has failed us. We only have to be faithful in what prepares for us. We do not have to compete with the world. These things make some space for hope that life will remain purposeful and do-able, but the big payout is yet to come.

The gifts of God are heavily back-loaded. This life is important, but it is nothing compared to what comes after it. Without Jesus this would not be hopeful. God’s Law requires sinners to forever banished. When God forsakes a person all good things are gone and so is hope. Jesus get us past this Law. Because Jesus fulfills the requirements of the Law, and we can be connected to Jesus through faith and baptism, we have a promise of eternal life.

The Apostle Paul, who went through some serious stuff in life, says this:

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)

Energizing hope comes from being able to see what is “unseen”. That means that God has had enough time to marinate you in His love and promises so that you have a clear grasp of what is coming to you when you leave this life connected to Christ. This blog is for sharing with you what God has shared about this through the Bible. It is exciting. Because of God’s Word and his action throughout history and in my life, I have hope. That hope will carry me through anything that may happen from today until my death. I can do anything because it all is temporary. I know that my life purpose will change, but it will always be something. After that the true living will commence.

Would I ever consider taking my own life. Nope. Not even to cut the corner and get to Heaven. I have things to do here for God. Do I get discouraged. Not really. It is short-term discouragement at best. In the end I know that I win.

Is this hope a form of self-delusion? When you consider that the whole construction of the universe down to the tiniest detail of life is clearly designed by a vast intelligence, no. When you consider the prophecies pointing to Jesus from deep in time, and the eye-witnesses of Jesus willing to suffer for their testimony, and the giant emergence of Christianity in an environment of persecution, there is plenty of evidence that this hope stands on fact.

I have also had plenty of experience of God teaching me and changing me, encouraging me through prayer and people, working through me in ways that I cannot take the credit, that tells me my hope is well placed.

Is this hope just for me and not for you? God loves the whole world. God wants all people to be saved and come the knowledge of the truth. God wants you. I have hope that He can reach you no matter of how far away you have been and no matter how hopeless you currently are. If you have lost hope, take a look at what the Bible has promised to people in general and to you specifically. Read through the other articles in this blog and get the lay of the land. It is a very hopeful message.

And This Is Eternal Life

Eternal life, as defined by Jesus, emphasizes knowing God and Him as essential to true life, beyond mere existence. Jesus’ sacrificial glory on the cross enables Him to grant eternal life to believers. This connection with God begins when faith is recognized and culminates in baptism, leading to a fulfilling existence in Heaven.

Eternal life can be seen as a conscious existence in an ideal place with an ideal body without end. Jesus, at the beginning of His “high priestly” prayer in John 17, gives a different perspective.

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:1b-3 (ESV)

While Jesus would speak later about the “glory” He had with the Father before the world existed and His desire to return to that, the glory He speaks of here is His victory on the cross. Being crucified and forsaken by God is about as inglorious as it comes, but in Jesus’ situation He is doing it out of love for the Father and for us and for obedience to the Father’s plan. There is great glory in that.

Jesus will do this because He has been given “authority over all flesh”. Jesus has ultimate right to judge all humanity. That is part of His authority. But here it is the authority to give eternal life. He is in position to be the sacrifice for sin and thus bestow eternal life because: He is human, He has been sinless, and the Father has chose Him for the role. At the time of this prayer, Jesus is ready to get it done.

Verse 3 is an enlightening observation. To have eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus. Eternal life is not just eternal existence or consciousness. Those who find themselves in the final punishment of Hell will also exist and be conscious. You can’t call that “life”. That is eternal death because you are forsaken by God at that point. Life is being in connection and relationship with God. All good things come from God. Any joy of living comes when you have some degree of knowing God.

Are you alive in that sense when you are physically alive on Earth but don’t have any connection to God? The Bible would say no:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked,

Ephesians 2:1-2a (ESV)

In this situation we are still physically alive on Earth, we are not forsaken by God, but we do not “know” Him either. The same is true for those in Sheol. They are not forsaken yet, but clearly they are not living. They merely exist.

Life truly starts when Jesus “connects” us to himself. I use the word “connect” for lack of a better term. The connection is not a cognitive belief, because people who are too young or brain damaged can have this connection. It is not something that you can will for yourself. God gives it. For people of normal cognition, this happens when God breaks through whatever barrier exists in the human mind and/or soul or spirit and gives us a recognition that the story of Jesus is real and that the promise of God to give eternal life is true and that we now trust it. The next step is baptism, which is where Jesus promises to make this connection. At this point we are “in Christ”. We also “know” Him at this point. The actual mechanics of this at God’s level are not explained to us.

This life will carry over seamlessly through death and into a conscious existence in Heaven, unless we somehow separate ourselves from Jesus.

Heaven and the New Earth will be characterized by many joys which are all the creation of God. Chief among these joys is our ongoing and expanded interaction with God. It will be life to speak to Jesus face-to-face. It will be life to experience every way that the Holy Spirit and the Father manifest themselves in us and in our space.

As a Christian you are alive right now. Greater levels of life will be evident once we get rid of our sin-damaged flesh. That is something to look forward to.

Dying Well: The Stewardship of Our Health and Time in Our Final Years

The post discusses the inevitability of death and its acceptance as part of God’s mission. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining a connection with Jesus for eternal life, the stewardship of one’s body, and living a life dedicated to God’s work. Balance is crucial, as is navigating decisions around health and end-of-life care thoughtfully.

It is tough to accept that dying is something we have to do. I would go so far as to call it part of my God-given mission. God has kept me on this planet for a long list of things that He wants to do through me. Eventually it will be enough, and the remainder of God’s mission will be carried on by other people. All I have to do at that point is to let this sin damaged body go to the grave.

If I have my sins forgiven by God, then my destiny at death is eternal life with Him starting in Heaven. That is a great thing for me. I can have that only by being connected to Jesus.

The connection to Jesus is something only God can do. Jesus made it the way to eternal life by fulfilling God’s Law and paying the spiritual punishment of my sin by being forsaken by God on the cross. The connection to this is done by God too. Only He can get through to a person and make the connection usually through baptism. Once connected (saved) priority one is remaining connected. Keep feeding the faith by Word and Sacrament, surround yourself with other supportive believers, be a person who knows God through prayer, always have your radar on opportunities to do the work of the Kingdom of God. That is what you can do. God will keep you from falling.

When you finally physically grind down to the point where you can die, it will be an emotional balance between wanting to do more, but knowing you’re done, and being eager for what comes next. Dying well, means looking forward:

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (ESV)

How should we manage “grinding down”/”wasting away”? There is the stewardship of our bodies to consider. On the one hand, I want to get out of here. This life on Earth doesn’t compare favorably to Heaven. On the other, the work of the Kingdom of God is a good thing in a place that really needs it and I want to be of service. With this tension in mind, I believe we do our best to a point.

To be considered good stewards of the body, we definitely don’t cut corners to hasten our death: no suicide, no medical non-compliance, no clearly bad habits, no unnecessarily risky behavior. There could be situations where we risk martyrdom, but we don’t go looking for it.

We are not asked to extraordinary things that prolong our lives into an artificially extended period where we will be of little use. I knew one man whose lungs were severely damaged by COVID. It was determined that he could never get off of a vent, so he stopped it, and died. I support that decision. That isn’t suicide.

Sometimes the decision isn’t so black and white. Family discussions and family prayer are necessary then. People tend to error on the side of doing too much, because they are not ready to grieve. You are not doing the person a favor, if they are in Christ.

Now I am going to really meddle. What about diet and exercise? If you have a clear medical diagnosis, like diabetes, where you need to be strict about diet. I would consider that to be not just a personal but also a spiritual obligation. We can all follow theories about how best to eat or care for our bodies, but the fact is that many extreme regimens often prove to be wrong in the end. I think the best stewardship of the body at any point in our lives is moderation in everything. If you follow conscience on this, you are doing well.

You may say that God determines the day of our death, and there is nothing we can do to change it; but the Bible says God knows the day of our death. Its date is not pre-determined, it is contingent. God just knows everything. With this in play it is possible to miss out on some of what God plans for us.

0 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

Living, aging, and dying well is to complete that which God has prepared beforehand for us. He doesn’t give us a printout so that we can be prepared or look ahead. We can only be formed for service and ready to do it until the end.

The Bible’s Bad News

The text discusses the dual nature of the Bible, presenting both bad and good news. It argues that all humans are born with a sinful nature leading to eternal separation from God, but offers hope through Jesus Christ. Belief in Him is essential for salvation and eternal life, forming the crux of the Christian faith.

Before we are exposed to the Bible, a person’s view of themselves and probably of other people is that we are basically good. Similarly, most people want to believe in existence after physical death. We also want it to be good. So many passively believe that there is some sort of Heaven or other favorable existence awaiting them. It is very natural. I want to believe it too.

The Bible is meant to be extremely good news, but getting to the good news first requires hearing and accepting some very bad news that we don’t want to be true. The problem is that the proof of the bad news is all around us. The bad news is this: every human being is born with a distorted, sinful nature that did not come from God. That nature is probably resident in our DNA. It came from our common ancestors, so everyone is impacted. The distorted coding of our DNA produces a body, in particular a brain, that cannot believe the words of God on its own, it does not retain the ability to know and communicate with God that we had, it produces a personality that basically selfish, it creates desires for things and actions that God forbids, it creates a tendency to follow the ways of its designer and the designer is Satan.

Who wants to believe that? I don’t. The bad news gets worse. The condition of having a sinful nature, if unchecked, produces a sinful live that can be wildly dysfunctional and short.

Worse than that is the news about the default, eternal destiny of a human being. Sinners who do not and naturally cannot keep God’s laws perfectly will be permanently cut off from God and will suffer a horrible existence permanently. That is certainly something I would rather reject as unthinkable and false.

Then I look at humanity’s track record. It isn’t pretty. I look deeply at myself, and even though I was saved in my infancy, I see it. I see selfishness. I see the difficulty of believing God’s Word. I see the tendency to sin. I can’t argue against the accusation. I also am cornered into believing that the Bible’s presentation of the default destiny of a human is true.

The Bible, however, isn’t done after the presentation of the bad news. It is good news. The news is that God foresaw the problem we would have and produced a plan to counter it before the problem actually came to be. Objectively, it is a strange plan. Many are not inclined to believe it. There seems to be simpler ways to go about it. In a way it seems too good to be true. It is counter just about every other way the world works.

God will follow His demand for perfection. He does not deviate from His original requirements. That is how He is, so there is no “easier” route. He creates instead a way for naturally imperfect humans to have perfection.

This is what Jesus is for. The proof of Jesus’ historicity is strong. There are clear, specific prophecies about Him that can be shown to have existed before His birth. He did a slew of clearly miraculous things before eye witnesses who later went to their premature deaths as believers and vocal witnesses. He won over His own brother who initially did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the one prophesied about (who would?). He appeared to and won over a sworn enemy in Saul/ Paul. Outside of the biblical evidence are mentions of Christ and Christians dating to the first century. You have to want the narrative of the Bible to be untrue to write this stuff off.

The good news is this:

6 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16-18, Jesus speaking (ESV)

It works out this way. We can’t keep God’s demands perfectly, so Jesus (the incarnated as a human Son of God)keeps the Law without error. He isn’t born with the same genetic sinful nature because of His unusual, virgin birth. Then, for the legal condemnation that we have earned, He voluntarily dies on the cross during which He is forsaken by the Father (i.e. damned) temporarily, probably three and one half hours. This fulfills half (the big half) of God’s requirements for sinners. The other half is that we physically must die. It is our only “contribution”.

The way that Jesus’ accomplishments get applied to an individual is not God just declaring it so. It isn’t even that we believe God’s promise and God takes note of it and writes our name in a book, though that happens too. It is that God somehow unites us with Jesus through something He does in the background when we are baptized in the name of Jesus. The fulfillment of the Law, the required getting through our sinful nature to create faith, and the uniting us with Christ is all done as a gift to us–a very valuable and costly gift. It is complex. It is different from “you get what you deserve or pay for”, which is the general rule of how the world works. It does seem too good to be true, because this mechanism can theoretically forgive even some terrible sinners. It depends on God getting through to them somehow.

Another thing that I would rather not believe is that the majority of mankind won’t benefit from this historical and generous opportunity.

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

That means that some pretty nice people will still die in their sins because they rejected Jesus. Please don’t be one of them. Please don’t be a part of the “”many. Be a part of the “few”. The eternity spelled out for us that I have tried to describe in this blog is both terrible and beautiful. Jesus is the key to being a part of the beautiful. I know that the number of the few will be a large number of people. That is good. It can be more.

Is There Such a Thing as Purgatory?

This article examine the origin of the doctrine of Purgatory, which is unique to the Roman Catholic Church. It looks at Scriptural, Apocryphal, and human reason and understanding. It also examines the question of where sin resides in our being.

Yes. But we call it “seminary”. That is just a joke. The doctrine of purgatory, which is unique to the Roman Catholic Church is no joke. I think it is somewhat dangerous. But let’s look at the origin, andthe proof, which is very thin.

The idea is that there is a place and a period in your existence where you have been saved by the grace of Christ but to reach your Heavenly state of perfection you have to go through some suffering in purgatory. How long this will take varies from person to person. It is also something that might be shortened based on the actions of others on your behalf. It is not punishment, per se, it is more polishing.

The doctrine of purgatory does not arrive on the scene until the 12th century. It doesn’t get endorsement until the 13th at the Council of Lyon (1274AD). That is long ago, but awfully late. Could the Holy Spirit wait to reveal a truth until nearly 1300 years after Christ. Sure. Is that what happened? I personally doubt it.

The source of this teaching comes from two things that are owned by the Roman Catholic Church, a likely third thing, and I expect a dangerous fourth.

First, this:

11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (ESV)

I love quoting this verse. They see this event as something that happens immediately upon death. I would argue that this is our Judgment Day experience. Judgment Day is described in a couple of places as a judgment of our works, and here you have detail. The fire is a way of revealing our acts and motives. It is not a means of purging our sinful acts and motives. Consider the end of this one:

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:10 (ESV)

This is clearly of Judgment Day description with the “works that are done on it” being exposed. That is what 1 Corinthians 3:13 is describing. The person whose works are “burned up” is still saved. Why? Because we are saved by Jesus, not our works. We are rewarded for our works.

One other thing gets dragged into the reasoning for the teaching of Purgatory, and it is from a source that wasn’t even considered Scripture in the 13th century.

43 And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection,44 (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,)45 And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them.

46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.

2 Maccabees 12:43-46 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

2 Maccabees is a part of the Apocrypha which isn’t included in the Roman Catholic canon of Scripture until the Council of Trent (1563). The reasoning is that someone is praying for the dead in hopes that they might “rise again”. This story’s context is that some of the Jews who lived in the 2nd century BC prayed for some of their men killed in battle. Would these people be in Purgatory? No. This brings me to the third likely source of the doctrine of Purgatory. Purgatory is a misunderstanding of Sheol. https://afterdeathsite.com/2025/07/22/sheol-as-a-waiting-room/. (There is more about Sheol/Hades on this website. Use the search box to look it up or click “Sheol” in the topic section and scroll down)

Sheol is not a place of purging. For the Old Testament righteous, it is a reasonably nice place to wait for the atonement of sins which will happen with Jesus. They are in the “good neighborhood” of Sheol. The Roman Catholic Church has this. They call it “The Limbo of the Fathers”. Some church bodies just use the term from the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man and call it “the bosom of Abraham”. For the damned, Sheol was and is a place of suffering waiting for Judgment Day.

Why pray for the dead? First, I don’t recognize 1 Maccabees as Scripture. Then, I think you have to be careful about how you interpret a narrative, even in Scripture. Just because they did it, doesn’t make it right. That said people in the Limbo of the Fathers really wouldn’t need prayer nor sacrifice. They just needed Jesus to arrive and do what he did.

Is it wrong or pointless to pray for the dead? A person in Heaven doesn’t need it. What about the bad neighborhood of Sheol? Are they judged and damned and beyond hope? That all comes down to the meaning of 1 Peter 4:6.

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6 (ESV)

The context of this passage is Jesus’ decent into “Hell” (which should be “Sheol”)https://afterdeathsite.com/2017/03/14/christs-descent-into-hell-part-1/. (There are five parts to this). Does this say that the currently damned in Sheol might still be redeemed by Christ? It would explain why Jesus preached to people from Noah’s day (1 Peter 3:18-20). This is not nullified by Hebrews 9:27, which seems to be the one proof text for those who want to say otherwise.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Hebrews 9:27 (ESV)

The context of this verse does not suggest that final judgment comes immediately on death. It is simply talking about Jesus only needing to die once.

The idea of needing to be purged raises the question of where sinfulness actually resides. Is it in the earthly body, our spirit, or both? “Sinful nature” seems to suggest the body; even specifically our DNA which is the source of our nature. Paul blames the body in Romans 7. Jesus’ virgin birth also points to the need for a body without the starting contamination of sin. What about our “will”? Using the definition of what we are as body, soul, and spirit. The soul seems to be the interface of spirit and body. That is where I would surmise the “will” resides. Its connection to the body is why we don’t have a perfectly free will.

The body is the problem. We purge the body by dying. There is no need for something further.

A final reason, and a dangerous one, for the teaching of Purgatory I fear is a misunderstanding of grace. It is tough to accept salvation as a gift. It feels like we need to add something or experience something to complete it. This idea gets close to the error of the Galatians. The Galatians believed in salvation through Christ but requiring circumcision. That was enough to invalidate the Gospel.

2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Galatians 5:2-4 (ESV)

This is why the teaching of Purgatory, even holding to it as tradition, seems dangerous on top of erroneous to me. It does not pass the scrutiny of Scripture and falls into a category where people come up with it via bad logic. The Judaizers appealed to tradition to argue for circumcision being added to grace. Their understanding of the value of tradition was fatal.

Will Good People Be Lost?

The text discusses challenging biblical concepts, particularly the harsh consequences of sin and the unpredictability of salvation. It highlights that both minor and major sins lead to damnation unless atoned for by Jesus. It explores divine love and justice, emphasizing God’s plan for salvation, the unique role of Jesus, and the urgency of sharing this message with others.

There are a couple of things that God reveals in the Bible that are tough to accept. One is the severity of the punishment for sin. Sin can manifest itself in people in ways that are not that destructive. Still, unless it is atoned for by Jesus minor sins are as damning as major ones, and damnation is serious and permanent.

The other difficult thing is that some fairly serious criminals can come to faith and be saved, while other nice people never do and, yes, they are lost. That doesn’t seem fair to us, but we have the wrong perspective on the situation. It is almost inherent to our being to feel that good people deserve good things and bad people deserve bad things. Other world religions fall in line with this tendency. But that is not how it always works in this situation.

If I were to add a third difficult thing to accept it would be that a God of love would accept this arrangement. To sort this out, we have to take a deep dive into the character of the being who has created all things and who is the ultimate judge of what is good and evil.

The first thing to note is that God didn’t create any being in order to damn them. He foresaw that certain individuals would rebel against His primacy and that sin and evil would be a real thing, but rather than scrap Creation God had a plan from the beginning.

4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Ephesians 1:4 (NIV)

The plan wasn’t for every creature. It doesn’t have a way to save or reform Satan, a cherubim/seraphim. It doesn’t have a way to save rebellious angels/demons. Their rebellion is different in a way. They choose out of a completely free will to reject God. Adam and Eve did not conceive of evil on their own. Satan deceived them. The rest of us are deeply influenced by our “sinful nature”. This is some sort of genetic abnormality created by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3) and passed along to everyone. Other creatures are dragged into this cycle of sin, death, and decay unwillingly.

The plan shows the primary characteristics of God, which is love and justice. He is willing to make to ultimate sacrifice to save. The Son of God becomes a human and absorbs the main penalty for sin Himself. But God doesn’t just forgive because He can. He keeps His law in tact. Jesus even asked if this could be done a different way as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Father’s commitment to not arbitrarily change His own law led to Jesus going through with the plan.

25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:25-26 (NIV)

He is “just” (i.e. He won’t change the Law), and the justifier (He makes a sacrifice out of love to save.)

A further statement about God’s intent is found in the most famous passage in Scripture:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16-17 (NIV)

Because of the nature of the plan, Jesus is not an option. He is the only way to stand before God as sinless. Even very good people are sinful. We all do something contrary to God’s will every day. We are all modified physically from what we are meant to be. When we call somebody “good” or think of ourselves as “good”, we are speaking relative to others we have known or heard about. We don’t meet that criteria relative to God.

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good.”

Matthew 19:17 (NIV)

Even knowing the interplay between God’s love and God’s justice, the situation of those who are not connected to Christ can be disturbing. Especially if we know them personally. It is not a bad thing to be disturbed. God is disturbed. It should move us to do what we can. We can tell people of the pertinent parts of Jesus’ story and urge them to read it if they can. We can tell of the promise and the Bible’s description of our human situation. We can even share the rational proofs for the reality of the Bible’s revelation. (Please look at my other blog: http://givingchrist.com for some of these.). We can also demonstrate the love of God through action. God must do the rest. If there is a chance of connecting them to Christ, God will do whatever He can during life and possibly beyond it until Judgement Day. But people will be lost, and some of them will be “good people”.