Five Minutes After You Die: How Then Should You Live?

by David Chadwick

If hell exists, and if Jesus’s teachings about hell are true, then unbelievers who live apart from Jesus will spend eternity there. If this is true, how then should these truths impact how we live as followers of Jesus today? This is the most important question that every single believer should ask.

The reality of hell should make evangelism to the lost the urgent and primary task of the church. Is it for you? How should you be ready to share the gospel? Does the thought of people spending an eternity away from the Father grip your heart?

Today, I want to exhort you to consider the importance of evangelism. What should your life look like toward a lost and hurting world? How then should you live in light of the Gospel message?

First, pray regularly for your lost friends and for this lost world. Ask God to bring people into your life who don’t know Jesus.

Secondly, learn how to share the gospel. Know the Ten Commandments as they show our sin and brokenness before a pure, perfect, and holy God. Share the gospel in light of this reality. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). The consequence for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Because of God’s love, Jesus absorbed all of our sin on the cross as perfect God and man and offered us eternal life (John 3:16). As a man, he lived a perfect and sinless life, and he took our place on the cross. As God, he forgave us, because only God can forgive our sins.

Third, be willing to JUST GO. Wherever God may send you, say “yes.” Be willing to live on mission to serve a dying world. Be ready to give your life away practically and spiritually. Be willing to forgive others just as Christ has forgiven you. Be excited to give your resources to places around the world that are reaching other people for Jesus, especially in what is called the 10/40 window. These are the specific places around the globe that are most resistant to the Christian faith.

If you do this, you will hear Christ’s, “Well done!” one day when you die. If you’re a follower of Jesus, the judgment seat is not a place to fear; it’s a place of victory where you will meet your Savior face-to-face and finally spend an eternity with him.

Five Minutes After You Die: Most Often Asked Questions

by David Chadwick

What happens five minutes after you die? What are some of the most often asked questions about heaven and hell? Today, let’s try to answer some of them.

What happens to miscarried babies? Babies who die? Children who die before they reach the age where they could make a decision to follow Jesus? Jesus clearly said, “Let the little children come to me” (Matthew 19:14). He loves the little children. When they die, I believe they are rushed straight into the presence of Jesus.

What about the topic of annihilationism? Some do not believe in eternal torment, but rather they believe that a soul that is eternally separated from God will eventually cease to exist and permanently perish. Some people find this belief comforting, as they believe eternal punishment is too gruesome for a loving God. The problem here is that Jesus taught that hell was “eternal,” just like heaven is. If Jesus is God, and he says one thing, then I believe we can go no farther than he goes with our conclusions.

What about universalism? This is the belief that all people are one day saved. People in this category believe that God is love and that he would never be able to let anyone be separated from him. This conclusion would mean that Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, and every wicked leader will all be in heaven. All because God is love? That doesn’t make sense. True love must exist in the presence of truth. Universalists believe hell is an eternal purgatory that will eventually burn off everyone’s sin. The problem? Again, this is not what Jesus himself taught. Jesus taught a literal, eternal hell. Is Jesus God? If so, we can go no farther than he goes.

Will we have conscious memories of loved ones who are in hell? The Bible says that in heaven, believers will not cry. No more sadness, no more shed tears. Scholars and others have speculated that perhaps our memories of those we love who are not there will be in our minds. That could be, but we have no biblical evidence for that. It could also be that we all love Jesus so much and are so fully aware of his perfect and pure judgments that we embrace all of his decisions without question.

As believers, we must live knowing that hell exists eternally. Join us tomorrow to learn more specifically what this reality means.

Five Minutes After You Die: Sentencing for the Unbeliever

by David Chadwick

Today, we look at not just five minutes after death, but immediately after death, and specifically in the life of an unbeliever. After judgment comes sentencing.

When an unbeliever meets the Creator of the Universe face to face, without the grace and mercy of Jesus, he or she is declared guilty. The unbeliever is cast into hell, a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42). Hell is continual rebellion against God, marked by eternal sadness and regret.

If the beauty of Jesus’s grace could not win you over during your time on earth, why would you think that a terrible thing would all of the sudden cause you to repent and accept grace? Beauty invites us into true and lasting transformation, whereas fear of punishment only creates momentary change. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a beautiful message, meant to set captives free.

Hell is permanent separation from God. I know this sounds harsh to our world that loves nice, kumbaya messaging, but it’s true. It’s what Jesus said himself. The same word in the Greek that Jesus used to describe eternal (ainos) is the same word he used to describe eternal death (ainos). In Revelation 20:11-15, it’s called the lake of fire.

Jesus spoke more about the subject of hell than he did heaven. If it was true for him, it must be true for us, especially those of us who are pastors and teachers today. Warning unbelievers about the reality of hell must be a part of gospel preaching. Sin. Judgment. Hell. Repentance. Missing in action words from too many preachers’ vocabulary.

The bad news for the unbeliever needs to be shared as often, if not more so, than the good news of the forgiveness of sins by Jesus. Both messages are important to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the story doesn’t end with the bad news. God loves the world. He sent his son Jesus to die the death we deserved and to cover the penalty for our sins. Anyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). He is the resurrection and the life and if we believe in him we will never die (John 11:25) and we will live forever with Jesus.

It’s the best words the world can hear. Let’s all preach it until Jesus returns.