The joyful eternal life
Possess it and do not lose it

Many people ask what will happen to them after death, and whether death will end everything, and whether there is life after death. The Lord Jesus made clear the truth about life after death in many places in the Gospel and described that in this incident:

Luke 16: 19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and enjoyed himself luxuriously every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus had been laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and he longed to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in hell, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes,”

# Not all the rich are sinners who will go to hell; our father Abraham was very rich, and so were many in the New Testament. But money was not a means for pleasure and for fulfilling their lusts; rather, they used it to serve God and to help the needy and the wretched. And not all the poor will go to heaven; there are poor people who do what is worse than the rich.

And he saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom, 24 and he called out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘My son, remember that you received your good things in your lifetime, and Lazarus in like manner bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who would pass from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’

# From what precedes we understand that after death a person will go to one of two places: one for comfort (Paradise), where one enjoys what eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man—what God has prepared for those who loved Him, repented of their sins, and whose lives were changed. The second place is (Hades), where there is torment without hope and without change. This continues until the Day of Resurrection, when the wicked will stand before God who sits on the great white throne and receive the sentence of being cast into the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. As for the righteous, they will move from (Paradise), the place of comfort, to the new heaven and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells, where there are all joy, happiness, and peace.

27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers ، that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”.

# Satan is the fiercest enemy of God and of people, and he does all he can to take, if possible, all humanity to hell. But we see here that the rich man, who is in torment, sets aside his selfishness and asks his father Abraham to send someone to tell them about the torment that awaits them if they do not repent and turn from the evil they do. The devil deceives people by saying there is no torment or that there is no God, and he preoccupies them with the matters of life so that they forget their eternal destiny. Therefore we must be utterly alert and make every effort to obtain deliverance from hell and to receive eternal happiness.

In another conversation with his disciples, he declared to them the necessity of living in godliness and the fear of God, lest they fall into stumbling, and what should be done about whatever makes a person stumble, as in:

Mark 9: 43 “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, to the unquenchable fire. Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, into the fire that is not quenched. 46 Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. 48 Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

# The Word of God teaches us that we are born with a corrupt nature that inclines to and responds to doing evil. Under the enticements of sin and the assaults of the devil we find ourselves too weak to resist and we do evil. The saying “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off” is not to be taken literally, because physical maiming will never defeat sin. Sin is an internal matter, unrelated to any member of our bodies; if I cut off my right hand, my left will continue to do sin. And if I were to amputate all my members, I could still sin in my mind and in my heart. Jesus did not call for the amputation of members, but he was speaking of the cost of sacrifice in the strongest terms possible. One thinker said, “Reaching the goal and achieving it is worth every sacrifice.” And Christ also said “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” And the apostle Paul said, “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood in your struggle against sin.” The message of the Lord Jesus was very clear: Knowing how horrible hell is, makes us hesitate not at all to sacrifice whatever is most precious to us.