“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
It’s amazing how many divergent notions about death are held by otherwise intelligent and practical people.
At funerals, it’s not uncommon to hear people gaze longingly upward and say, “Oh well, he/she is in a better place now.” How do they know the deceased person is now “looking down” on them from a higher place in heaven?
If the recently departed never exhibited interest in spiritual things while alive, why think they would suddenly be any different in the afterlife?
I shudder to think about my biblically ignorant notions of heaven prior to my studying the matter more closely. I used to believe that ordinary people who live a largely “good” life will automatically be admitted into heaven upon their death — after all, I reasoned, God is a nice guy and so am I, therefore, “I can’t miss.”
The underlying supposition was that the default destination for all men upon their demise is heaven, and only especially evil people end up in the “other place.”
Is that true?
Would you be “at home” in heaven? The Old Testament prophet Isaiah sure wasn’t.
Isaiah was about as “holy” a man in all the Bible. While writing his renowned “magnum opus,” in Isaiah 6:1-5, he was suddenly given a terrifying vision:
“… I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him … And one called out to another and said,
‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.’
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I (Isaiah) said,
‘Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’”
Far from feeling comfortable, Isaiah got a glimpse of God’s holiness and went completely to pieces. Now able to see who he really was, he dissolved into a whimpering ordinary sinner.
What followed in Isaiah 6:6-7 paints a perfect picture of what all of us must experience to become “heaven-ready:”
“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.’”
Absent the Angel’s cleansing of Isaiah’s sins, he would have been instantly vaporized in the light of God’s immediate presence. The same is true of all of us.
Mankind’s Default Destination
Bottom line, the default destination for humans at death is not heaven — it’s, well, the other place.
John 3:16, the most familiar verse in the Bible states, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
That’s the good news. Now read on in John 3:17-21 …
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
What does a person have to do to perish? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. They’re judged already. That is the default position for fallen humanity.
Made Heaven-Ready by God Himself
We’re not fit for heaven without a drastic personal divinely administered nature change that transforms us from being, “dead in our trespasses and sins … walking according to the course of this world … by nature children of wrath” to becoming, “alive together with Christ and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” according to Ephesians 2:1-6.
This is no accidental or automatic process. It involves our personal choice and commitment before we die. We must, “believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
How About You?
So, do you still think anyone can just strut into heaven, head high and demand an audience with almighty God?
Consider Job’s words in Job 42:5-6, “I admit I once lived by rumors of you (God); now I have it all firsthand — from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry — forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.”
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information, or contact him at don@peervalue.com. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.