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What Is the Mark of the Beast? (Revelation 13)
We must be willing to suffer, to give our all for Christ, to persevere until the end in order to obtain the final reward.
Articles on Heaven and Hell
85 results found
10 Things You Should Know about Demons and Satan
Jesus came into the world as the incarnate Son of God to accomplish more than one thing and defeating the devil by tasting death was among them.
Who Are the 144,000? (Revelation 7)
Who will escape the wrath of God at the final judgment? Only those who belong to God, those who are sealed by him, who are numbered by him.
Help! I’m Struggling with the Doctrine of Predestination
Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley
If you have struggled with this doctrine, you are not alone. Even Jonathan Edwards once wrestled with it before he became fully satisfied with it.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Jesus Said More about Hell Than Anyone in the Bible
The word wrath is important for understanding what Jesus meant by hell. Hell is not simply the natural consequence of rejecting God.
The perfect happiness of heaven will make your greatest joys from this life feel like misery compared to the complete euphoria of heaven with Christ.
What Does It Mean that Samuel Was Brought Up from the Dead? (1 Samuel 28)
When Saul can no longer consult the prophet, Samuel, he uses a medium to communicate with him from the dead.
10 Things You Should Know about the New Heavens and the New Earth
God will have the final victory over what God has made. It will not be discarded but rescued.
What Must Happen before Jesus Returns?
We do not know how much time must elapse before Jesus comes. We err to say otherwise. But we may err in the other direction as well—presuming to think that he must not be near.
What Did Jesus Teach about Hell?
No Bible spokesman places more stress on hell as the final consequence of God’s judgment of condemnation than Jesus.
10 Things You Should Know about Angels
What does the Bible have to say about angels and what have we incorrectly adopted from a worldly perspective on spiritual beings?
What Did Jesus Teach about the Devil and Demons?
There is an enemy of God and humanity. That enemy needs to be known.
Why Does the Apostle’s Creed Say That Jesus Descended into Hell?
Death has been called “the new obscenity,” the nasty thing which no polite person nowadays will talk about in public. But death, even when unmentionable, remains inescapable.
The realities of hell give us all the reasons in the world to persuade sinners to put their faith in the one who experienced hellish despair on the cross.
If We Were Created for God's Glory, Is God Merely Using Us?
Life is wasted when we do not live for the glory of God. All of life, all for his glory.
Heaven may not be our final home, but insofar as we are with the Lord, we will indeed be at home as we wait.
5 Misconceptions about Heaven and Hell (and 5 Truths)
The most common misconceptions about heaven and hell have to do with their nature and purpose. There are many false ideas about what they will be like, but the word of God gives us a clear picture.
10 Things You Should Know about Chaos and Cosmos in God’s Creation
In the end, the cosmos God intended from the beginning will be restored.
The crass references to hell we hear in everyday conversation shouldn’t dull the agonizing awareness all believers should have of the pains of hell.
Why Jesus Warns Us to Be Alert for His Second Coming
The appearing of Christ becomes a sudden trap not because it could happen any moment, but because the spiritually unseeing will be blind to Christ’s coming.
Will the Unsaved Suffer Eternal Judgment? (2 Thessalonians 1)
Salvation comes by grace through faith to believers, who consequently display their faith as they continue to trust in Jesus, heedless of suffering and persecution in this life.
Here are five myths about evangelism that may lead us to neglect an important facet of the Christian life.
What C. S. Lewis Believed about Hell
When the wrath of God is poured out, God gives us over to our desires and we become less and less human.
Can Christians Know the Timing of Christ’s Second Coming? (1 Thessalonians 5)
Many wish to know when Jesus will return to establish his kingdom fully. Even the disciples asked this very question .
How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?
Jesus is not separable from the God whose wrath he faces on the cross, so he is not separable from us, if we but put our trust in him.
Will Unbelievers Be Annihilated or Suffer Eternally? (Revelation 14)
The reality of a believer's faith will reveal itself in observable and concrete ways—those who endure follow God in obedience.
The Middle Ground between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology
Peter J. Gentry, Stephen J. Wellum
Putting together the biblical covenants is central to the doing of biblical and systematic theology.
Two Ways the Hope of Heaven Battles Your Anxiety
How can we have peace when we know that we are vulnerable? Only if we know this world is not everything.
A Biblical Theology of the City of God
From the very beginning of creation, God intended that people, made in his image, should inhabit an earthly city with him.
Atheism and the Problem of Evil
Can an unguided world governed by mere chance provide any sort of objective foundation or absolute definition of “good”?
How to Pray with the End Times in Mind
Closely connected to end-time gatherings for the sake of encouraging each other not to grow cold in love, but to persevere in faith, is the summons to end-time praying.
Does Heaven Have a Brand Problem?
For some, the idea of heaven seems boring. For others, the notion of heaven seems almost pitiful, more like loss than gain. I’m convinced that heaven suffers from a serious brand problem.
”But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD.”
Taking A Closer Look at Colossians 3:1–4
If then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. . .
The Bible presents the greatest story ever told: the ultimate good-versus-evil storyline—the great cosmic battle between God and Satan.
What Did Jesus Teach about Resurrection?
Jesus's teachings affirmed a future resurrection for the righteous and the wicked, but he himself was raised in the middle of history as the firstfruits of the life that will be ours.
9 Ways the New Earth Will Be More Glorious than Eden
When we enter this Eden 2.0, we’ll begin to experience all that God has intended for his people all along.
Podcast: Are Angels and Demons Still Active Today?
What does the Bible really teach about angels, demons, and Satan, and what have we implicitly adopted from culture?
Revelation 5:8–12 portrays a similar scene, with multiplied thousands of voices singing of the worthiness of God and the Lamb. That is the song of heaven. I cannot wait to hear it.
What Does It Mean to Enter God’s Rest?
We are like the Israelites: When God gave them his Sabbaths of rest in a land of rest, he had more work to do to make them believe it than he had to overcome their enemies and obtain it for them.
Does Singleness Waste My Sexuality?
There will be a time when there will be no more earthly marriage. Marriage, as we practice it now, will have served its purpose. Life then is a fulfillment of all that marriage now is meant to point to.
8 Ways the Doctrine of Eternity Clarifies Our Values
If you want to know what you truly value, consider where you tend to invest your time, energy, gifts, and money.
Feeling Dissatisfied? Lean into It
We enjoy the moment more when we just accept that it won’t last, that we can’t possibly fully capture it, and that we may as well soak it up while we can.
Why It's Dangerous to Misrepresent the Gospel
It is rare to find an individual who can give a well-rounded and comprehensive declaration of the gospel message.
Why the Physical Earth Matters to God
When we fail to value creation, we fail to honor the God who made and sustains it.
God is transforming the city into a place that he intends to live in forever with his people
The Theology We Claim versus the Theology We Live
Our hope is the glorification without which we cannot see the Christ who saved us. But believing in the Christian hope is one thing. Living as though that hope is real is another.
The Unlikely Companion Who Walked with Me Through My Season of Grief
We suffer in the fallen world. We wait for the return of Christ. We aim to move fruitfully toward glory. In the Christian life, all things begin, point to, and end in eternity.
Two Misconceptions About What Heaven Will Be Like
The world to come is wonderfully material and will be an expansion of everything we love most about this world and never a subtraction of it.
Jesus Will Deliver Us from the Wrath of Jesus
Against the backdrop of coming judgment, the second coming of Christ is pictured as a rescue of his people. He is coming to save us from God’s wrath.
How the Exile Is Relevant for Christians Today
God's original intent in forming the world is never abandoned in the Bible and is accomplished in the end. But between those two poles, we have a multi-layered story of exile and return.
Hell is eternal conscious punishment where sinners are separated from God’s gracious presence. Hell is eternal. Hell lasts forever after this life.
Podcast: Common Misconceptions about Heaven (Ian Smith)
Ian Smith discusses what the New Heavens and New Earth will be like when Jesus returns.
Don't Pack Your Bags for Heaven
When the only certainty about life is death, the Gospel message of resurrection-life offers comfort and hope.
How Discipleship Yields Restoration
The Acts of the Apostles is basically an account of how the Holy Spirit transforms the earliest followers of Jesus into the restored people of God, the beginnings of God’s new creation.
Resurrection Hope Is More Prevalent in the Old Testament Than It May First Seem
When you think of death, do you think exclusively about the stopping of the heart and breath? The ending of breath and heartbeats is most surely death, but in the Bible death is more than this.
Work in the New Heavens and New Earth
This side of the sin at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, our work is ruined by all manner of afflictions moral, physical, emotional, and mental.
The Swift Digression of Humankind in the Godless City of Babel
With remarkable conciseness the opening chapters of Genesis introduce a story that looks forward to the creation of an exceptional city where God and humanity will live in harmony.
Reconciling the Reality of Hell and the Grace of God
We can’t scare people into heaven. Our union with Christ is not simply a self-serving choice to walk streets of gold rather than be cast into a lake of fire.
We’ll Be Truly Alive on Our Third Birthday
Some day, some way, my heart will stop, as sure as eggs are eggs, and that what the world will call my death-day will really be a birthday—the third in line.
The Blessing of God’s Presence
The most important blessing of the church’s new existence will be its similar experience of the immediate, palpable presence of God.
The Greatest Promise in the Bible
What we see in Eden is God preparing a home that he intended to dwell in with his holy people.
Podcast: Answering Hard Questions about Predestination and Free Will (Andy Naselli)
Andy Naselli answers a few of the most common questions about the doctrine of predestination, including what the Bible really says about it and what impact this teaching may have on the idea of free will.
Why 2 Peter and Jude Matter to You Today
In the midst of a world that often seems out of control, knowing our ultimate destiny is a source of great comfort and motivation to press on in the face of serious challenges and opposition to the gospel.
A Momentary Affliction in Light of Eternity
All Christians, especially those who are suffering, should be daydreaming about eternity on a regular basis.
When Is the Last Time You Thought of the Fact That You Will Die?
When is the last time you thought of the fact that you will die? When did you last have a conversation with someone on the subject of death?
Andreas J. Köstenberger, Alexander E. Stewart
The Bible is God’s story, recounting the Creator’s involvement with his creation.
Jonathan Edwards makes three observations about heaven.
Is It Right for Christians to Think the World Is Not Our Home?
There really are two kingdoms that are competing within the gospels. There is the kingdom that is ruled by Satan and there is the kingdom that is ruled by Jesus.
John MacArthur taught believers that they should be more preoccupied with the glories of eternity than with the afflictions of today. He is now finally and truly at home with his Lord.
Podcast: What Is the Mark of the Beast? (Thomas Schreiner)
Thomas Schreiner reflects on the best way to approach Revelation when studying it for the first time, and explains what the mark of the beast is really all about.
Talking about Heaven with a Grieving Person
What do you do when that’s the way everyone is talking about someone who has died, but you’re not sure that you ever saw any genuine relationship with Christ?
For the Christian, the Best Is Yet to Be
“The best is yet to be,” indeed, as the Christian poet Robert Browning wrote. God has a project. He is restoring his defaced images to the likeness of Christ.
The Christian Life Is Not Interrupted by Death
The New Testament answers the question about whether Christians at the point of death are in heaven with the comfort that they are “away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
Podcast: Without Judgment, Life Doesn’t Make Sense (Tom Schreiner)
Tom Schreiner discusses what the Bible really teaches about hell and the final judgment, and why it's worth thinking about, even though it's hard.
Why Is the Fight for Holiness So Difficult?
The Bible tells us to expect holiness to be a battle. We are a part of a spiritual war, and even with the help of God’s Spirit, we’re still doing battle with the flesh.
Do You Doubt the Reality of Life After Death?
Have you ever doubted the possibility of life after death? I know I have. I believe in the resurrection of the body, but I’ve also been at a graveside, and I’ve wondered, Is this body going to rise again?
Dear Christian, If Heaven Is Real, Then Your Life Isn’t Meaningless
Many people struggle with finding meaning in normal life because most people don’t have super exciting, glamorous lives.
Chaos to Cosmos = Dark to Light
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is not only the maker of the first creation, which is now broken, but also the maker of the coming new creation.
In the forthcoming book Life's Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says About Things That Matter Most, author Eric Thoennes briefly addresses what the Bible says about final judgment and hell.
This gospel meditation by Paul David Tripp contrasts the broken cities of this world with the restored one to come.
Podcast: How the Hope of Heaven Changes Us Right Now (Matt McCullough)
Matt McCullough discusses how the hope of heaven fights temptation, resolves anxiety, and makes suffering purposeful.
Pursuing Faithfulness with Our Eyes on Heaven
It is so easy to have tunnel vision for what we’re going through with work and kids and all of the things that fill up our days. And it’s easy to forget that this is not all there is.
Is God Leading Us to Eden 2.0?
The plan of the Lord to bring his people into everlasting fellowship with him is not going to be Eden 2.0. The garden itself was designed by the Lord to aim at a global project.