Heaven & Hell

by Dr. Chuck Missler

What happens when we die?

This is one of those all-important questions. It’s one that should keep us all awake until we know the answer. Is there life after death? Should we declare, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” or do our actions in this life have repercussions in our eternities?

This subject of life after death is truly one of the toughest for many reasons. First, it’s painful to get our arms around. It’s a scary topic; one people love to brush away with trite clichés. Second, it has been plagued with many myths and superstition. Yet, this topic is unquestionably the most important I’ve ever addressed.

We like to kid around about death. A multitude of jokes begin, “An accountant/engineer/lawyer died and reached the Pearly Gates…” We find memes that say, “If I died and went to Hell, it would take me a week to realize I wasn’t at work anymore.” Even with all our humor about the issue, most of us understand the seriousness of the matter. If the world continues as it has, we are all going to die one day. We will all pass through that veil, and it’s vital we understand what we’ll face on the other side.

What happens when we die? When we pass through that portal, what’s the first thing we run into? Many people deny the existence of an afterlife, but we find that even skeptics wonder as they approach that final door.

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Tradition

by Bob Cornuke

Ignorance. Mud. The plague. When Rome fell to barbarian tribes, the civilization that the caesars had created fell apart. The Mediterranean Sea had been transformed into a Roman Lake as the Empire stretched across the known world, but 500 years after Augustus took the throne, a feeble Rome wallowed in gluttony and laziness. Waves of invasions from Germanic tribes left the Western Roman Empire in disarray. Trade routes were disrupted, infrastructure fell into disrepair, and education was abandoned in the interest of mere survival. The once-mighty empire took its final gasps of dissipated greatness and succumbed to a dusty collapse. Thus, began the Dark Ages, a time known historically for warfare and misery as illiterate hoards overran Europe. During this time of uncertainty, the religious leadership of Rome stepped in to fill the enormous power vacuum.

In many ways, the Roman Church alone preserved the civilization of the dissolved Roman Empire, protecting ancient manuscripts and promoting clerical learning. Church leaders provided direction for fearful populations reeling from an undefined fate. Yet, as the power of the church increased, so did the draw of high church positions. Lingering corruption from pagan Rome seeped into the religious hierarchy, and while there were good popes and bishops devoted to morality and righteousness, there were some really corrupt ones as well. As time went on, the church of Christ looked less and less like Jesus and more like any other human institution. In all times of church history, there have been those who sincerely sought to follow God in Christ Jesus and this is true in the Roman Catholic Church. Conversely, there have been those who used the church to pursue their own self-aggrandizing agendas, to the harm of all.

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