If you are looking for yet another article on the upcoming elections, and who is good, bad or even ugly…… then move on to another piece categorized under “politics.”

But if you fear death because you know that physical death is not really the end, and you are frightened about where you will be after you leave this earth, then please read on. There are some things you need to know.

Hell is real

Maybe you’ve been told all your life that hell is a fictitious place, made up by fire and brimstone preaching pastors to scare the life out of you.  Actually, these pastors were not attempting to scare you to death. They have been trying to scare you to LIFE eternal.

From Gotquestions.org

Question: “Is hell real? Is hell eternal?”

Answer: It is interesting that a much higher percentage of people believe in the existence of heaven than believe in the existence of hell. According to the Bible, though, hell is just as real as heaven. The Bible clearly and explicitly teaches that hell is a real place to which the wicked/unbelieving are sent after death. We have all sinned against God (Romans 3:23). The just punishment for that sin is death (Romans 6:23). Since all of our sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4), and since God is an infinite and eternal Being, the punishment for sin, death, must also be infinite and eternal. Hell is this infinite and eternal death which we have earned because of our sin.

The punishment of the wicked dead in hell is described throughout Scripture as “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), “shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2), a place where “the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44-49), a place of “torment” and “fire” (Luke 16:23-24), “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), a place where “the smoke of torment rises forever and ever” (Revelation 14:10-11), and a “lake of burning sulfur” where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

The punishment of the wicked in hell is as never ending as the bliss of the righteous in heaven. Jesus Himself indicates that punishment in hell is just as everlasting as life in heaven (Matthew 25:46). The wicked are forever subject to the fury and the wrath of God. Those in hell will acknowledge the perfect justice of God (Psalm 76:10). Those who are in hell will know that their punishment is just and that they alone are to blame (Deuteronomy 32:3-5). Yes, hell is real. Yes, hell is a place of torment and punishment that lasts forever and ever, with no end. Praise God that, through Jesus, we can escape this eternal fate (John 3:16, 18, 36). – source

You cannot earn your way to heaven!

Now that we have established that hell is indeed real, any sane person would NOT want to wind up there.  Many people believe in heaven – many more than believe in hell.  I’ve heard people say “A good God would certainly not send people to hell!”  They are actually right; God does not send anyone to hell. These people choose hell over heaven!  God has made a way for people to be in heaven with Him when they die. The Bible says that He doesn’t want anyone to perish (go to hell).

 ^“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (spend eternity in hell), but have everlasting life (be in heaven with Him for eternity). For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17)  (Emphasis mine)

There is only one thing that God asks of you to be in heaven with Him.  He asks that you “repent”  (change your mind about your sin) and believe (trust) that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for your sins (all of them) and that Jesus rose from the dead (His resurrection) to show that he conquered sin and death.  You cannot do anything to work your way to heaven! Jesus paid it all!

Here is what the Bible says about our so-called good works:

“For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away”  (Isaiah 64:6) NASB

Jesus is the only way to heaven

The words of Jesus Christ: