Ron Rhodes - What Happens After Life?: 21 Amazing Revelations About Heaven and Hell

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Except where noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001, 2011 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Verses marked ( NLT ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER LIFE?

Copyright 2014 by Ron Rhodes

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rhodes, Ron.

What Happens After Life? / Ron Rhodes.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-5138-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5139-5 (eBook)

1. Future lifeChristianityMeditations. 2. HeavenChristianityMeditations. I. Title.

BT903.R46 2014

236'.2dc23

2013013818

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In loving memory of Alpha and Thomas Rhodes, my beloved mother and father, with whom I will one day reunite in the afterlife

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

Thanks, Mom and Dad . I often found myself thinking of you and smiling as I wrote this book. I look forward to seeing you again in the heavenly country!

Thanks, Kerri . I cannot imagine a more perfect wife and life companion. You are an endless source of blessing to me. Our life together has been and continues to be a joy as we travel hand in hand to the heavenly country.

Thanks, David and Kylie . You are both such a joy to your mother and me. You are loved more than words can express.

Thanks, Harvest House Publishers . Im so glad we are partnering together on yet another book. (How many has it been now?) I consider it a privilege to work with you.

Thanks, faithful readers . I so appreciate the blessing and honor of being able to share and explore the Scriptures with you for these many years.

Most important, thank You, Lord Jesus . Serving You is the single greatest privilege and joy Ive ever known. You are awesome and are truly worthy to be praised. Thank You for preparing a place for me in heaven. I so look forward to the rapture!

Contents

L ife on earth is short. Life in heaven is long. (It is eternal.) It therefore makes good sense for Christians to take a little time to ponder timeless truths about heaven and the afterlife. Put another way, we Christians are wise to live our short lives on earth in view of our imminent transition to our long lives in heaven.

You are not holding a dry and dusty book of theology in your hands. Rather, you are holding a book of devotional and inspirational truths you can apply to your life. This kind of theology is engineered to make a difference in the way you live your Christian life. These truths are not just for the head but also for the heart. Theology that does not touch the heartthat fails to resonate with your inner spirit so that it changes youhas failed at its task. Thats one reason Im excited about this book. My prayer is that it will cause a paradigm shift in the way you view this present world. The more your present life is informed by the glorious truths of heaven, the more you will gain an eternal perspective that will help you navigate the difficult circumstances you might face in life.

You will notice that this book has 21 chapters. Each chapter is short enough to read in a day. If you follow this route, you will join me for a three-week tour of the afterlife. However, feel free to take things slower if you wish. The timeless truths in most of these chapters are too important, too spiritually rich and uplifting, to rush through. I urge you to allow each truth to yield its full blessing as you relax and meditate on it. Dont let the tyranny of the urgent rob you of the blessing.

Even the chapters on unbelievers, their judgment, and their eternal destiny can yield some benefit to us. First, these chapters help us to clearly see what Jesus Christ has rescued us from in the salvation He has provided for us. Second, these chapters motivate us to share the good news of Jesus with unbelievers so that they too can go to heaven. Third, these chapters help us to understand why evildoers must be eternally quarantined from believers in the afterlife. Without such a quarantine, the spread of evil would continue endlessly.

So, my friend, lets dive into the Scriptures. And lets be open-minded about what God wants to teach us. Lets resolve to allow God to do His life-changing work in us as His Word saturates our hearts and minds.

F ATHER , I pray that as my readers journey through this book, You will bring spiritual blessing and enrichment to them. By Your Spirit, open their eyes so they may behold wondrous things in Your Word. May Your Word bring revival to their souls. May the joy of the Lord be their strength. Please give them an eternal, top-down perspective that enables them to see all earthly realities and problems from the vantage point of heaven. I pray in Jesuss blessed name. Amen.

W hile I was writing this book, a 21-year-old boy who had been a longtime acquaintance of our family was in a fatal automobile accident. He attended the same Christian university my two children attended. After visiting some friends one evening, he was driving home but was going a bit too fast. He suddenly came upon some garbage cans in the road, which caused him to swerve, lose control, and then hit a tree. It all happened terribly fast. In the hours past midnight, after the police had sorted everything out, there was a knock at the door of his parents house. The police on the doorstep informed them of the tragic accident.

We were all deeply saddened to hear about the accident. We took comfort, however, in the reality that this young man was a Christian and that he was now in the presence of his Savior, Jesus the Messiah. His funeral celebrated his life and truly honored the Lord Jesus.

From a human perspective, many would say that this young man died before his time or suffered a premature death. From a biblical perspective, however, God has appointed each one of us a certain amount of time to dwell on the earth. Even before we were born, God in His sovereignty and infinite wisdom determined the exact time allotment for each one of us. Some of us die very young. Others die at a ripe old age. But in every case, the time we have on earth is precisely what God long ago determined for each of us. There are thus no premature deaths in Gods sovereign timetable.

All of Scripture points to Gods sovereign oversight of the timing of life and death for every person. In Job 14:5, for example, we are told that a human beings days are determined. The Hebrew word for determined in this verse carries the idea of something being engraved on stone. We might think of our time allotment on earth as being set in concrete by God. Our time allotment is a sure thing. We cannot die sooner than Gods appointed time for us, nor can we live longer than Gods appointed time for us.