Topic(s): Eternity & Judgment

Bob Prichard

Heaven is the place all thoughtful people want to go. The last two chapters of Revelation describe its beauty, using earthly terms to describe heavenly beauty. With its jasper walls and street of pure gold, it will be a beautiful place. “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). All want to go there, but are all going to that same place of bliss, forever in the presence of God?

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31-32). “All nations” gather before His throne, indicating a universal judgment for all men. The King said to the sheep, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” They had served Him, so they received His reward. To those on the left, the goats, He said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,” because they had not done His will. The sheep and the goats will not all be going to the same place. The disobedient “shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25: 34, 41, 46).

The good works of the sheep were distinctly different from the goats. Good works alone, however, are not sufficient to make one pleasing to the Lord. Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). God has always required strict obedience to His will.

Nadab and Abihu, who were sons of Aaron, “offered strange fire before the Lord.” They were the right people (priests), in the right place (the tabernacle), doing the right thing (worshiping), with the right tools (censers), in the wrong way (strange fire). “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD” (Leviticus 10:1-20). It matters what we do in worship!

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:9-10). Make heaven your choice. Obey the gospel of Christ today!