The Destiny of the Unbeliever and the Impious.

I finished my previous entry with the one verse in the New Testament that summarizes the Eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ, John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16

Please read that entry before you read this one. You can find it here: The Pure, Unadulterated Gospel.

However, in that same chapter, a few verses later, Jesus Christ Himself gives a stern warning to those who do not believe:

^17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

John 3:17-19

There you have it, from the mouth of the Messiah Son of God, the representative of God Himself: if you do not believe, you are already condemned. Condemned to what? you might ask. Condemned to eternal death, the Second Death which I will write later about. God Himself says this in Revelation 21:

^7 “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:7-8

Some of you might ask the question, “but what about people from other cultures and religions that have never heard about the Gospel, what about them? It’s not fair for God to condemn them if they do not know about the Gospel.” This is a very good question and I do not have a straight and clear answer for it, but I have a few things to say regarding this complicated matter:

1. I believe everyone on this planet will have an opportunity to hear the Gospel and decide to believe or not believe; to accept God’s forgiveness through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross or to reject it. My base for this belief is this verse spoken also by Jesus in Matthew 24:

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Matthew 24:14

2. God will require the most from those who have been given the greatest light:

⁴⁷ “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

⁴⁸ But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

Luke 12:47-48

3. I know there are some people in remote areas of the world, members of primitive indigenous tribes, who die without having the chance to hear the Gospel. These people are born with a conscience given by God, and they do have a basic understanding of what’s right and wrong. I am not God, and I do not know what He’s going to do with those people, but one thing I know is that He is good, and He is perfect justice; so, whatever he does will be perfectly just.

Will all believers be saved? Is it enough with just believing? NO! Some Christians believe in the doctrine of “Once Saved Always Saved”; so, they recite the sinner’s prayer and, in their mind, that’s all they have to do. In some cases, these Christians believe that they can continue committing sin, breaking the Ten Commandments, and they believe that’s ok because they already said the sinner’s prayer; and since they are (wrongly) taught in their churches that the Law of God has been done away with, they consider themselves under grace, and free to do whatever they want, even if it is breaking the commandments.

These people will have a rude awakening in their judgement, when the Son of Man returns to earth for the third time, because Jesus Himself said the following words:

²¹ “Not everyone 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.

²² 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?

²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

 Matthew 7:21-23

For me, these are the most terrifying verses in the whole Bible. Think about it; Jesus is stating unequivocally that there will be people who profess faith in Him, Christians, some of them even performing miracles (wonders)! Whom He will say: I never knew you, depart from me workers of iniquity! It is still shocking to me to read these verses. Jesus pulled no punches in his sermons. The word iniquity in verse 23 is the original Greek ἀνομία (anomia), which means literally violation, transgression of the Law.

A sincere Christian is one who is truly repentant of his/her sins and asks God for forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, as I stated in my previous article. But once he or she is forgiven, if the repentance is sincere, he will have the ardent desire not to sin anymore and follow the Law of Ten Commandments, because sin is the breaking of the Law (1 John 3:4).

The Church of Christ, those who are waiting for His Second Coming with eagerness, are characterized by two features as described in Revelation 14:12, in the context of the Second Coming:

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Revelation 14:12

The Church of Christ, those who belong to Him, have faith on Him, and keep the commandments of God; all ten. That verse is very clear and straightforward. Jesus Himself said this:

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

John 14:15

Jesus’ commandments are the same as His Father’s commandments. He summarized the Decalogue in two major commandments in Matthew 22:36-40:

“You shall love God above all things” (commandments 1-4); and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (commandments 5-10).

The apostle John said this also in one of his letters:

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

1 John 2:3-4

So, there you have it: without keeping the commandments, faith is absolutely useless. True faith leads to commandment keeping.

The Second Death

At this point I would exhort my dear readers to review my entry “The Truth about Death”. In that article, I explain how the Bible clearly teaches that death is a state of unconsciousness akin to sleep. The analogy between sleep and death are all over the OT and the NT.  Both the unrepentant sinner and the sinner forgiven by grace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ have the same destiny when they die: they both go to the grave, unconscious, waiting for the RESURRECTION, which is the biblical doctrine. Nobody goes to heaven or hell as soon as they die, as is popularly believed.

The Bible establishes the Doctrine of the Resurrection. From the point of view of the Holy Scriptures, the dead can only achieve retribution through the resurrection (Daniel 12:2, John 5:25).

The Scriptures describe two resurrection events that will take place in the future, separated by 1,000 years. Let’s hear it from Jesus Himself:

²⁵ “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

²⁶ For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

²⁷ And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

²⁸ Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,

²⁹ And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

John 5:25-29

Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, describes two resurrection events in those passages: The Resurrection of Life, and the Resurrection of Damnation.

The Resurrection of Life will happen at Jesus’ Second Coming, not many years from now; and it is described by Paul in two different places, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. All the dead throughout this earth’s history who died with the hope of forgiveness of sins through the Messiah will be raised and translated to heaven on that glorious day. But that is not the subject of this article; I want to concentrate on what will happen to the unrepentant sinner and unbeliever.  

Revelation 20:5 narrates how unbelievers and sinners that did not take part on the Resurrection of Life at Jesus’ Second Coming, will be resurrected 1,000 years later; let’s read:

⁴ “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

⁵ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 

⁶  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

Revelation 20:4-6

The First Resurrection described in Revelation 20:6 is the same as the Resurrection of Life described by Christ in John 5:29. The Resurrection of Damnation will happen 1,000 years later. Everyone else that was not resurrected at the First Resurrection (of Life) will be resurrected then, and then they will be judged according to the books (Revelation 20:11-15), and if found guilty, they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire (translated as Hell in some versions of the Bible) where they will experience the Second Death, and this one is for good. They will die for ever, but they will not be eternally consciously punished for all eternity as most Christian churches teach. God is not a monster who tortures for eternity for just 80 years of sins. Read my entry “The Truth about Death”  to better understand how the doctrine of immortality of the soul is not biblical, and actually comes straight from the pit of hell, to make God appear as a cruel tyrant.

No, the unrepentant sinner will die for ever, as if he or she never existed, burnt in the Lake of Fire. Allow me to repeat these verses that I already cited above. In the words of God Himself:

⁷ “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 

⁸  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:7-8

And the psalmist says:

^9 “For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.”

Psalm 37:9-11

Revelation 21:8 which I cited twice above describes all of us. As I stated in my previous entry, The Pure, Unadulterated Gospel, all of us are at least one of the terrible things described there: fearful, unbelieving, murderers, adulterers, idolaters, liars. The only way to not end up thrown in the Lake of Fire and to die for ever is to repent from all those evils and accept the sacrifice of the Son of God.

I exhort you dear reader; these are not fairy tales, this is reality. This is the word of God. Turn from your sins and turn to God and His Son, who love you and want to spend eternity with you.

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

Ezekiel 33:11

May God and His Son bless your life and guide your steps.