HEAVEN
At dusk, a little girl entered a cemetery. An old man who sat at the gate said to her, “Aren’t you afraid to go through the cemetery in the dark?” “Oh no,” she replied, “my home is just on the other side.”
—Henry Durbanville
The two questions most frequently asked in heaven: “What are you doing here?” and “What happened to so-and-so?”
Christians are not citizens of earth trying to get to heaven but citizens of heaven making their way through this world.
—The Vance Havner Quote Book
I’ve never seen that Other World,
Beyond time’s narrow shore,
Where He has pledged that we shall live
With Him forevermore.
But though the map of that high world
Be oddly traced and dim,
Because He’s there I’ll be there, too—
Sometime, somehow, with Him.
—Lon Woodrum
An old man lived in a broken-down shack on a corner lot that was very valuable. He had secured his property before the area was developed, and now it was the section of the city where millionaires built their homes. While dozing off one afternoon on his porch, he was roused by a man who wanted to purchase his land. “What’s your price?” he inquired. “A hundred thousand,” came the reply. “Fine, I’ll buy it,” said the stranger without hesitation. Before leaving, he handed the owner a check for ten thousand dollars to bind the contract.
In the weeks that followed, the old gentleman felt guilty about asking so much for his worthless shack. Thinking he could make it more presentable, he began fixing it up. On the day of the closing, the buyer came to complete the transaction. After the final payment had been made, the old fellow turned to the rich man and said, “Don’t you think you’ve got a nice little place here? See, I’ve painted it, patched the roof, and put new boards on the floor. You can sure be proud of it.” The new owner responded, “I can’t use it. It must come down, for I’m going to build a brand new house.”
—Paul Rader
A poll conducted by USA Today showed that Americans are vitally interested in going to heaven, but their opinions about it are inaccurate. Seventy-two percent of those polled rated their chances of getting to heaven as good to excellent. These same people said that only 60 percent of their friends will go to heaven. Eighty percent said they believe in heaven. Only 67 percent said they believe in hell. Ninety-six percent said they believe in God.
The Spanish mystic Unamieno, conversing with a peasant, suggested that perhaps there is a God but no heaven. The peasant thought a minute and then replied, “So what is this God for?”
In his book And the Life Everlasting John Baillie tells of the Scottish physician who was attending a close personal friend in his last hours. “Tell me, you are a believer of sorts. What will it be like after I die?” There was a moment of silence. Suddenly there was a scratching at the bedroom door. The doctor turned to his friend and said, “Did you hear that? It’s my dog. He’s been waiting patiently for me downstairs and has become impatient. He has never been in this room. He has no idea what it is like. He knows only one thing about it and that is that I am here. That’s all I know about the future.… He’s there.”
In the spring of 1994 The Dallas Morning News surveyed 1,011 adults in four north Texas counties about their religious beliefs and priorities. Eighty percent of the respondents said they believed in an afterlife, and 68 percent said they believe in heaven and hell.
I dreamt of heaven the other night,
The pearly gates swung wide.
And as I made my passage through,
I looked around, inside.
And there to my astonishment,
’Mongst those who’d gone before,
Were some I deemed as quite unfit,
To make it through that door.
Words of censure rose in my throat,
But never were set free—
For I could tell from their surprise,
Not one expected me.
G. Campbell Morgan recounts the story of a little girl who went home after hearing the story of Enoch at Sunday school. “Mother, we heard about a wonderful man today in Sunday school.”
The sensible mother let her child tell her what she had heard. “His name was Enoch, and you know, Mother, he used to go for long walks with God.”
“That is wonderful, dear. How did it end?”
“Oh, Mother, one day they walked on and on, and got so far, God said to Enoch: ‘You are a long way from home. You had better come in and stay with me.’ ”
—J. Oswald Sanders
A woman, who had been extremely poor, fell heir to a legacy and was able to move into a lovely home. For a short time she enjoyed her riches, then she discovered that an incurable disease would soon take her life. Her friends were amazed that she was not dismayed at the prospect of leaving her beautiful, new surroundings. “How can you be so cheerful about it?” they asked. “Oh, that’s easy,” she replied, “just think what I am leaving it for.”
A teacher asked a class of girls how many wanted to go to heaven. All hands were raised but one. “Why don’t you want to go?”
“Because my mother said for me to come right home after Sunday school.”
A little boy came running into the house one day exclaiming, “I love my home so much!” A neighbor inquired, “Johnny, why don’t you visit me sometime? Our houses are built exactly the same, and the rooms are all like yours.” He declared he wouldn’t be as happy over there. Then she asked, “What makes this such an enjoyable place for you?” He had never thought about it before, but he ran to his mother and putting his arms around her neck exclaimed, “I guess it’s Mom.”
—Our Daily Bread
We talk about gates of pearl and streets of gold and walls of jasper, and we are thrilled; but those things would not be attractive if Jesus were not there. His presence is what will make heaven such a grand place.
—Paul Rees
“Too bad you are blind,” someone said to Fanny Crosby. “With all your gifts it’s too bad God withheld your sight.”
She answered, “My first request at birth would have been that God would remove my sight.” “Why?” “Because when I get to heaven the first sight I will behold will be that of my Savior’s face.”
When Theodore Roosevelt was president, he went on a hunting safari to Africa. On his return to the United States, a missionary who was retiring after forty years of services in a remote jungle village was traveling on the same vessel. When the ship docked, cheering throngs greeted the chief executive, but not a single person was there to welcome the returning missionary. Momentarily the man of God was filled with self-pity. He thought, “When a president comes home after a short hunting trip, hundreds come out to greet him. But, Lord, when one of Your missionaries comes home after a lifetime of service, no one is there to meet him.” Immediately it was as if the Lord whispered, “But My son, you are not home yet.”
—Our Daily Bread
When you get to heaven
You will likely view
Many folks whose presence there
Will be a shock to you.
But keep very quiet;
Do not even stare.
Doubtless there’ll be many folks
Surprised to see you there.
—B. Y. Williams
Cliff Barrows and Billy Graham were talking about going to heaven. Barrows, Graham’s song leader, said, “I’ll have a job in heaven, but what will you do?”
When the new preacher moved into town, one of the first people he met said, “I certainly hope that you’re not one of these narrow-minded ministers who think that only the members of their congregation are going to heaven.”
“I’m even more narrow-minded than that,” replied the preacher. “I’m pretty sure that some of the members of my congregation aren’t going to make it.”
—Ties
A little girl was taking an evening walk with her father. Wonderingly, she looked up at the stars and exclaimed, “Oh, Daddy, if the wrong side of heaven is so beautiful, what must the right side be.”
—Charles L. Allen
HELL
There once was an Englishman named Charles Peace—an ironic name, because Peace was not a peaceful man but a contentious one. Violent, thieving, brawling, he was a career criminal who respected the laws of neither God nor man. Eventually the authorities caught up with him, and he was tried and condemned to death by hanging at Armley Jail in Leeds.
On the morning of his execution, a contingent of prison officials met at Peace’s cell to take him on his final walk to the gallows. Among them was a sleepy prison chaplain whose job it was to prepare the condemned man’s soul (such as it was) for the hereafter. As the group began its solemn death march, this parson began mumbling and yawning his way through a series of unintelligible recitals.
Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. “What are you reading?” someone was asking. He turned to find it was Mr. Peace.
“The Consolations of Religion,” he replied.
“Do you believe what you are reading?” inquired the prisoner.
“Well, yes, I guess I do.”
Peace stared at the chaplain, stunned. Here he was, going to his death, knowing that his earthly deeds utterly condemned him before the ultimate Judge, and this clergyman was mouthing words about heaven and hell as if it were a boring chore. He said to the parson, “Sir, I do not share your faith. But if I did—if I believed what you say you believe—then although England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would crawl the length and breadth of it on hand and knee and think the pain worthwhile, just to save a single soul from this eternal hell of which you speak.”
—Howard G. Hendricks
One who is interested in proving that there is no hell generally has a personal reason for doing so.
When H. A. Ironside was a little boy, his mother would draw him to her knee and talk to him of the importance of trusting the Lord as his Savior. Once he said, “Well, Mamma, I would like to do it, but the boys will all laugh at me.”
“Harry,” she replied, “remember they may laugh you into hell, but they can never laugh you out of it.”
A group of troop soldiers on a ship once asked the chaplain, “Do you believe in hell?”
“No, why?”
“Well, then will you please resign? For if there is no hell, then we do not need you; and if there is, we do not wish to be led astray.”
A church that needed a pastor invited several candidates to come and preach. One minister spoke on Psalm 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell.” The chairman of the board was not in favor of him. A few weeks later, another preacher came and used the same verse for his sermon. This time the man said, “He’s good. Let’s call him.”
The other board members were surprised, and one of them asked, “Why did you like him? He used the same text as the other minister.” “True,” replied the chairman, “but when the second man emphasized that the lost will be turned into hell, he said it with tears in his eyes and with concern in his voice. The first preacher almost seemed to gloat over it.”
—Our Daily Bread
The doctrine of hell is based on the premise that the punishment must fit the crime. Men refuse to give themselves to God—God refuses to give Himself to them eternally. They spurn fellowship with God—they are given separation from God. They cast Christ out of their lives—they are cast out of His life. They reject—they are rejected.
I remember my graduation from middle school near Philadelphia. The school provided each one of us with an autograph book which we passed among our fellow students for them to sign and write a few words as a momento of our years together. One of my fellow students wrote the following words: “If in heaven we don’t meet, I hope we both can stand the heat! Ha! Ha!” What that boy didn’t realize is that hell is no laughing matter. If he really realized where he was heading, he should have been deeply troubled. We do the unsaved a great disfavor to let them think otherwise.
—George Murray
Voltaire, the French infidel, was more honest than some modern “Christian” preachers. When he received a letter from a man who said he had “succeeded in getting rid of the idea of hell,” Voltaire replied, “Congratulations—I wish I could.”
A warden at a large prison was concerned about a longtime inmate because no one ever came to see him. Knowing that visitors boost morale, he called the man into his office one day. “Lefty,” he asked, “do you have any close relatives or personal friends?” “Sure,” Lefty answered. “But no one has visited you since the day you arrived. May I contact somebody for you?” “It wouldn’t do no good,” Lefty replied with a shrug. “They’re all here.”
—Our Daily Bread
Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis’s secretary, chuckled when he read this grave inscription: “Here lies an atheist, All dressed up with no place to go.” When he told C. S. Lewis about this, Lewis didn’t chuckle. He responded, “That atheist probably wishes now that were true.”
A young man in Switzerland had been brought up in a home where God and the Bible were revered. Although the Gospel was often presented to him with loving urgency, he refused to believe and became increasingly rebellious. Finally he said, “I’m sick and tired of Christians. I’m going to look for a place where I can avoid them.” His mother wept as he packed his suitcase and left home. He boarded a train, only to find that two passengers seated behind him were discussing the Scriptures. “I’m not going to stay here,” he muttered. At the next stop he left the coach and entered a restaurant. To his dismay, some elderly women were talking about the return of the Lord. Knowing a ship was docked nearby, he decided it might be a way to escape the “religious chatter” he encountered at every turn. But when the steamer embarked, he discovered that it was filled with happy young students from a Bible academy.
Thoroughly disgusted, he made his way downstairs to find the bar. Approaching the captain, he exclaimed, “Say, can you tell a man where he can get away from all these cursed fanatics?” The skipper looked up and said with a grin, “Yes, just go to hell. You won’t find any Christians there.” These startling words caused him to realize his eternal peril and when he returned home, he received the Savior.
No man should preach on hell who can do so with dry eyes.
—Charles H. Spurgeon
After discussing the difference of the eternal state of man after death with a returned soldier from World War II, he just denounced the brutality of war and concluded with a rare bitterness in his accusation against Hitler and what he called “his gang.” This gave me an opportunity. Since he had previously vehemently denied all difference in the eternal state and strongly argued that all will enter heaven, my comment was, “You better change your mind about Hitler and ‘his gang.’ Since you insist that all go to the same place, what if the first man you meet in heaven is Hitler?”
“Oh!” he cried out. “That could never be!”
“But where will he be?”
“To hell with him,” was the soldier’s bitter reply.
“But there is no hell, according to your opinion.”
“There must be one for that kind of people” was my friend’s emphatic word.
—George W. Peters
A minister preached a sermon on the subject of eternal punishment. The next day a young man came to see him to dispute what he heard preached. He said to the minister, “I believe that there is a difference between what you and I believe about eternal punishment. I came here in order to settle this difference.”
The minister thought for a while and then turned to the young man and said, “There is no dispute between you and me. If you turn to Matthew 25:46 you will find the dispute is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, and I advise you to go immediately and settle it with Him.”