Rebecca McLaughlin - 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity

Ive just finished watching a show called The Good Place . In the first episode, a woman called Eleanor wakes up in an unfamiliar place. A man tells her, kindly, that shes died. But everything is fine! She lived a really good life on earth, so shes come to the Good Place. Everyone in the Good Place earned enough points in their lives to deserve super-happy afterlives. Each person gets to live in his or her ideal house, with a specially selected soul mate. They eat their favorite foods and own their perfect pets. They even get to learn to fly!

But Eleanor has a problem. She knows she isnt good! In her life on earth, she was selfish, dishonest, and cruel. Shes not a murderer or psychopath. She doesnt think she deserves the Bad Place. But she knows theres been a big mistake. Eleanor thinks she should be in a Medium Place, for people who are just okay. And shes afraid shell get found out.

Many people think of heaven like that. If were good people, we earn our way to a good place called heaven. Strangely, even people who dont believe in God at all will often talk about loved ones who have died looking down from a better place. But if there is no God, there is no better place. Theres only death. Unlike Eleanor, most people think that if there is a good place, theyre probably good enough to go there. And if theres a bad placea place called hellthats just for really terrible people, like Hitler and Stalin.

So what does the Bible say about heaven and hell? How can we be sure well go to heaven when we die? And if there is a place called hell, how could a loving God send people there ? This chapter will explore those questions. Its the hardest and most important chapter in this book. Its about the end of the story.

The Real Meaning of Heaven and Hell

According to the Bible, hell is when God fights with us.

You may have heard Christians say that you need to believe in Jesus to go to heaven, and you might have thought, Thats weird! Why would believing in a guy from two thousand years ago make the difference to where you go after you die? But heaven is all about being with Jesus . At the beginning of The Good Place , Eleanor is assigned a soulmate called Chidi. But Jesus says, at the resurrection there will be no human marriage (Matthew 22:30). Why? Because the real marriagethat whole new world of Jesus s marriage to his people that we talked about in chapter 6will finally have come!

I live with my husband and our three kids. The place I live in isnt just a house, its a home, and the foundation of that home is my marriage to my husband. If Id said no to Bryan when he asked me to marry him thirteen years ago, I wouldnt be living with him now. Its like that with Jesus . Taylor Swift made a false god of her relationship with her boyfriend. But there is a true God, who longs for a relationship with herand with you. Hes inviting us to live with him. I stand at the door and knock, says Jesus . If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20). But if we say no to Jesus now, the day will come when were longing to get in to his home, but the door will be forever shut.

But you might wonder, is missing out on that relationship with Jesus really so bad?

Is Life without Jesus Really So Bad?

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , we meet the terrible Dementors. Dementors guard the high-security prison of the wizarding world. They dont carry weapons, like normal prison guards. Instead, Dementors suck the joy and love and happiness out of a roomor even out of a personuntil all that is left is coldness and despair. The ultimate punishment in the wizarding world is a dementors kiss.

If we dont know Jesus , its easy to think that well be just fine without him. Plenty of people who dont follow Jesus live pretty happy lives on earth. But if Jesus is who he says he is, then truly being without Jesus is like kissing a Dementor. If Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), then being without Jesus means living in terrible darkness. If Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35), then being without Jesus means being desperately hungry. If Jesus is the way (John 14:6), then being without Jesus means being eternally lost. And if Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), then being without Jesus means being finally, utterly, everlastingly dead. Jesus isnt a guru or a life coach. He didnt come to make our lives better. He is the life. Without him, in the end, there is no life for us at all. So how come people can live in this world right now, rejecting Jesus , and seeming to do okay?

Two years ago, we fish-sat Bella Lightning, my daughter Elizas class fish. We collected Bella from the classroom, and I put her bowl on the floor of the passenger seat in our car. I started to drive home. Very slowly. But after a few minutes, I turned a corner a bit too fast, and the goldfish bowl tipped over, sending Bellaflapping wildlyonto the floormat. I pulled the car over as soon as I could and asked my girls if they had any water. I knew that even a couple of minutes without water would kill this fish. Amazingly, my daughter Mirandawho usually doesnt carry a water bottlehad one that day. It had just enough water for Bella to survive.

Before being dumped on the floormat of our car, Bella didnt know she needed water. She didnt even know she lived in water. But as soon as the water was gone, her life became a fast-track to death.

Jesus made each one of us and gives us everything we have: our family, our friends, our health, even the air we breathe. We can live a long time without realizing Jesus gave us these things, just like we can live without realizing were breathing air. We cant see it. We cant hear it. We cant smell it. But if it stopped being there for us, even for a minute, wed be thrown into sudden, terrifying panic. And after a few minutes, wed be dead.

Gods goodness to us now is like the air we breathe, or like the water in which Bella swims. We take it for granted. But without it, wed have nothing. And if we reject Jesus in our lives on earth, the Bible warns us that in the end, he will reject us.

But is that fair?

Is God Fair to Judge Us?

At the beginning of the Harry Potter series, we meet Harrys aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon. Throughout Harrys childhood, theyre horrible to him. They make him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. They constantly say and do mean things to him. They wish he didnt exist. When Vernon has important guests over, he tells Harry to stay in his bedroom, make no noise, and pretend he doesnt exist. If Harry (aged one) hadnt defeated Voldemort, Vernon and Petunia would probably be dead. Voldemort would have taken over the world, and his followers would be killing Muggles like the Dursleys just for fun. But Vernon and Petunia think theyre being incredibly kind to let Harry live in their house. They dont think theyre bad people. In fact, they think theyre really very good.

Most of us like to think were basically good people. We know were not perfect. We sometimes do bad things. But at heart, we think were pretty good. Were not like the murderers we hear about on the news or read about in history books. So the idea that we might one day be judged by God doesnt seem fair. But what if, at heart, we actually arent good?

You know when youre reading a comic book and theres a cloud-shaped bubble over someones head, showing that characters thoughts? Imagine for a minute that you had one of those bubbles over your head in real life. Imagine all your thoughts would ping up there, moment by moment, so anyone could read them. What would people think of you?

Try an experiment between now and this time tomorrow. Notice what youre thinking and imagine other people could see your thoughts. Scary, right? If that happened to me, all my relationships would be ruinedeven with the people I really like! Its not that all my thoughts are bad. But many of them are. Even when Im doing something good, I always have some messed up thoughts mixed in. And heres the thing: the Bible tells us God can see our thoughts. Its like he has x-ray vision to see right through us, even when were looking pretty good to other people. And Gods standards are really high.