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What do you believe happens when a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian dies?

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What do you believe happens when a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian dies? Empty What do you believe happens when a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Christian dies?

Post by Admin Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:47 pm

Additional portion of question:
think there are three options that you could say: (1) They go to their own perspective places of death and so you would go to heaven and they would go to their own place, put this in a way so that there’s more than one God. (2) Your God says although you’ve been foolish and wrong praising false gods you’ve been good people; come on in to heaven. (3) Your God turns them away and says you have been a fool for not worshipping me—go burn!

This is a difficult question because of the recent loss of a “very good person” who, to my knowledge, never surrendered her life to Jesus Christ. That being said, the first thing to look at is what God says concerning Himself; God Himself gives us that first consideration through the words of the Ten Commandments that He declared to the nation of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me—God speaking, Exodus 20:2-3. The prophet Isaiah gives us more input from God Himself: You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even, I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God—Isaiah 43:10-12. And again: For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not created it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right. Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it—let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.’” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame—Isaiah 45:18-24. And again: Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do—God speaking, Isaiah 46:8-11. Quite obviously, the Bible declares unequivocally that there is only one God, and that the God Who revealed Himself through creation and revelation to His chosen people was, and is, in fact, the only true God. Therefore, point #1 is essentially muted. And what’s more, we exist only because God in His sovereign power and plan has intended for us to exist. It only follows that everything that we need would likewise come from Him—including the salvation that allows us to be seen, by the work of Jesus Christ, with the purity of God Himself. As David said (about 1,000 years before Christ), My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him—David, Psalm 62:1. This idea certainly ran throughout the ministry and word of Jesus and His disciples in the New Testament. As Christ Himself said, Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me—Jesus Christ, John 14:6. This idea was certainly reiterated by the apostle Peter, who told the Sanhedrin, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved—Peter, Acts 4:12. It is a moment, a surrender, that the Scriptures call “justification”—the moment when, in surrender to God through Jesus Christ, we are declared “not guilty” in God’s eyes by the perfect presence of Christ found to be in us. As Paul said to the church at Ephesus (and I love how the ESV phrases it), [H]e chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him—Paul, Ephesians 1:4 (ESV)—in other words, matching God’s purity with the purity of the Christ who now dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself, in His famous interview with the Pharisee Nicodemus, called that moment being “born again.” As He said it, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again—Jesus Christ, John 3:3. He went on to say—to Nicodemus and, by extension, to us—I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit—Jesus Christ, John 3:5-6. The Old Testament foundation for this idea—with the Scriptures that Nicodemus and his Pharisee brethren would have known—was given by God through the prophet Ezekiel, when He said, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws—God speaking, Ezekiel 36:25-27. He would later add to this, telling His disciples, The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing—Jesus Christ, John 6:63a. In other words, the opportunity to become “not guilty” in the eyes of holy, perfect God is just as uniquely provided, in only one way—through His Son, Jesus Christ. In tandem with that is the consequence of not surrendering to God through Christ, of living apart from the plans and purposes of God. Man’s attempt to void the consequences so clearly spoken in Scripture is called “universalism,” that essentially states that all people will go to heaven. This point of view states that, when Christ died, all our sins were forgiven—completely, leaving us free to live how we want because heaven is all about God and God is all about love. A truly loving God would never create a hell, nor would He be so unloving as to actually send somebody there. This grotesque twisting of Scripture nullifies not only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but the amazing love and grace that went into that plan of God’s to rescue mankind from itself. Obviously Solomon knew what he was talking about when he said, There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death—Proverbs 14:12. Point #2 likewise is completely wrong. That leaves Point #3. That perspective is not right. According to Scripture, God will never enjoy the suffering of the wicked; as He said, again through the prophet Ezekiel, Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’—God speaking, Ezekiel 33:11. That being said, what seems so easily forgotten is that not only is God a God of love and grace, but also a God of perfect justice, judgment and consequence. As the apostle Paul noted in his letter to the Galatian church, Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life—Paul, Galatians 6:7-8. Everyone will one day stand before a holy and perfect God. The equation will be strikingly simple: Either He sees someone standing with Jesus at his side, or He sees someone standing there alone—a solitary figure accompanied only by his sins. And what is the standard of judgment? God’s very nature, the very way He is. A.W. Tozer said it this way: “Justice, when used of God, is a name we give to the way God is, nothing more; and when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation. As gold is an element in itself and can never change or compromise but is gold wherever it is found, so God is God, always, only, fully God, and can never be other than He is. Everything in the universe is good to the degree it conforms to the nature of God and evil as it fails to do so (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 87).” God has made His standard completely clear and understandable. The Judean king Jehoshaphat understood this very well. When he was appointing judges for the land of Judah, he said to them, Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the Lord, who is with you whenever you give a verdict. Now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery—King Jehoshaphat, II Chronicles 19:6-7. He wanted their judgments to reflect the justice and righteousness of God Himself—because God’s judgments are perfect. King David knew this as well; he said, The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice—David, Psalm 9:7-8. Therefore, as David wrote, The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them. The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot. For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face—David, Psalm 11:4-7. Psalm 89 reflects similar sentiments, telling us, Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you—Psalm 89:14. As the prophet Isaiah noted, But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness—Isaiah 5:16. It is all these declarations of righteousness that tell us that God will be fair, and that God will be firm. We will realize justice in eternity—which means that justice will prevail as strongly in hell as in heaven. There will be no accidental occupants of hell. That destination will be as chosen as planning a vacation. And hell will be as awful as it is because it was God’s own Son who offered the remedy. When turned down, it is the ultimate profanity against the amazing grace that God offered to everyone on the planet. They will burn—but not by the delight of God but by His justice. And the book of Revelation draws the final picture: Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and everyone was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire—Revelation 20:11-15. God’s desire is for our salvation, but He will judge according to our wishes—life with Him or life apart from Him. There will be no secrets—only pure, perfect, righteous justice.

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