Page 50 - The Gospel Truth About Death and Dying_Neat
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— by failing to accept it — and thus the alternative is hell.
People cannot be saved, and do not go to heaven, without
accepting God’s offer of salvation.
Some people think this is cruel. They say God should let everyone
into heaven. The thinking is, “Wouldn’t a good God allow
everyone into heaven?” But, as we’ve seen, although God is love,
he is also the initiator of justice, and the two go hand-in-hand.
Love does not override justice, or the other way around.
Plus, there is the human side to the issue — the free will and
choice side. If people have spent their lives rejecting God, his
Bible, and his people, what makes them think they would be
happy in heaven? They would be miserable there.
They would have no relationship with God, which is primarily
what heaven is all about!
Parties vs. Beneficiaries
We are parties to God’s covenant of salvation because we must
ACCEPT God’s offer. If we don’t accept it, it’s like we reject it
and we are in default.
When we accept it, then this gives us a different perception of
death that we never had before. Jesus says that eternal life is
knowing him, and knowing his Father (John 17:3). We do this
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