Planet earth is such a beautiful place, even today, In spite of all the chaos, injustices, prejudice happening, it’s still beautiful. Do we want to talk about the majestic glaciers, the Grand Canyon, in North America or is the beautiful Yankari games reserve is South Africa not worth mentioning?, or the Nairobi safari walk (in Nairobi). Would it be proper not to talk about the underwater world in Singapore, or the Eiffel tower in Western Europe... These are some of the major world tourist attractions around the globe.

Should I also neglect to talk about the Human Spirit? Granted, there are some devils walking this planet in human form, but just as many if not more are friendly, helpful, kind, compassionate humans --- in neighbors, bosses, colleagues, bus driver, mail man, pizza delivery man, school teachers, pastors, Rabbi’s to name a few. People are just genuinely nice.

I will be amiss if I fail to mention your neighborhood. Yes, it may seem like it’s not much compared to the elite place in your part of the world. Maybe you even live in the ‘ghetto’ of your city or town and it seems like life has dealt you the short end of the stick, but its still a masterful work of art.

I am sure by now, you are wondering what I am getting at, just be patient, I am just preparing a picture and then I will contrast for you.

Planet earth among other things created was made by God for Man, a place of habitation for man to enjoy (according to Gen 1&2 creation story). Man has been living on this planet for approximately six thousand years. With an estimated population as of the time of this writing of about 6.7 billion! Many generations of people have come and gone, but the planet remains.

Now back to you. A day comes and you die. Now What?

Many people have wondered “what happens when someone dies”, they have thought about it – based on information available to them, maybe from the internet, school, friends, pastors etc – it all seems confusing. How can there be so many answers to this same question? Many have shrugged it off and left it for later. When ‘later’ comes, they do the same routine, and leave it off again. Until that day, when they are living life to the fullest, for example, they just made partner at the law firm and driving down to celebrate, suddenly heart attack or car accident or disgruntled convict seeking revenge shoots at them, etc. Bottom line, they die. OR they just turned 30 and went out with friends to celebrate and overdosed on the ‘stuff” they were doing at the bar. Before this, they rationalized, “today is my birthday, let me stretch myself a little, unfortunately, they overdosed; now they are dead. They stepped into what the Bible calls “eternity”.

Lets fast forward a bit, “At the funeral”

Family and friends and loved ones – are there grieving this young life (or middle aged, or aged) with many questions on their mind, the biggest of which is WHY? Mostly people are sorrowful, but life must go on. Almost in every funeral, the pastor or priest or rabbi would tell the family of the departed “your loved one had gone home to rest with the lord or God” (depending on their religious beliefs). But the question is “have they?”

Now I said planet earth is very beautiful and it is, but it pales, fades, evaporates, disappear in comparison to Heaven as described in the Bible (Revelations), but before we talk about heaven, let’s talk about the subject of this article “Earth, the ONLY heaven most people will ever know”. Why do I say that?

I have painted a grandeur picture of planet earth, what it has to offer. On earth, if you do not break the law, you are a free man. Even in countries where religion or government have enslaved or limited the freedom of the masses, man still has some celebrated freedom. If I speak specifically of United States of America, where I live with my family, its almost unbelievable the level of freedom we enjoy. There is medical help in case of medical need, even though you pay for it, food to enjoy, friendships to enjoy, and human interaction (If you think this is not a blessing, ask inmates who are in solitary confinement, it’s a real punishment to be separated from other human however much they get on your nerve). Water is a blessing… thinks of that sunny day you were thirsty and you got a cool refreshing glass of water, not minding the source, remember how you felt? Water is a blessing. How about technology – transportation, information, etc, things and conveniences we enjoy on this earth.

You may have seen a horror movie sometime in your life, even if you have not, you must have experienced fear at some point in life. Think back to that moment when fear came upon you and you were greatly afraid, but it went away after the danger was past; even in a near death experience, once the event is over; the fear goes away after a while.

Maybe you are a very strong individual; you have a grip on your life – planning, strategy and relationships that keeps you on top of everything – your family, career, relationships. But even the Oprah’s of this world, the Tony Robinsons of this world have had moments of hopelessness, helplessness, which with counseling, self-talk, motivation or other resource will pass in time and you are back on the proverbial horse, ready to take on life again

Now imagine a place of complete constant fear, fear multiplied a trillion times over, a place constant thirst, constant pain, there is no respite. Imagine a place of complete hopelessness – no hope of respite or rest, complete and utter darkness, a place of unimaginable torment.

I am not a fan of comupter games, never have been. I think they are waste of time. I have played some online games like chess, Collapse and games of that sort, but gladly never got interested in video games. However, I have seen commercials on TV about video games - with absolute carnage, destruction in those futuristic type setting. I have also seen commercials of horrow movies that evokes great fear in the audience. Now imagine a place where there is no rest day or night, NONE!

In this place, you have groups of creatures that are more than thousand times stronger than you are assigned to you to torment you day and night (Rev 20:10). That is all they do. These creatures have no concept of mercy of forgiveness. In fact, the more someone begs for mercy, the more it enrages them. They torture and torment, yet, your body still continues, you will expect that this treatment will kill an individual, but it doesn’t because SPIRITS never die. Nothing can kill a spirit. It is absolute terror that has never been experience anywhere on earth.

I am sure by now, you are asking yourself, what is this place, why would anyone go to this place? The answer is the simplest in this world.

When someone lives their life without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they have elected to go to this place. The bible said God created this place called HELL for Devil and His angels after they fell. But Devil or Satan has vowed to take as many with Him as possible. This is the reason there are so many confusing ideologies about eternity, hell, heaven and even Satan himself, He (Satan) is the master architect behind all the confusion (John 8:44). He tried to cover the truth with lies. He created many religions, many belief systems, some even outright worship Satan. Some say they don’t believe there is God. Let me ask you a simple question, if someone said “I don’t believe there is United stated of America, so there must not be one” does that remove the fact that there is one? of course not. Similarly, if someone said there is no God, does that make it true? (Rom 1:18-22)

Man sinned in Adam and man was separated from God, so man was destined to share the same fate and destiny that Satan have. But God sent Jesus the Christ, He lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose on the third day and now sits on the right hand of the father.(Acts 2:33). Then He said to His disciples after His resurrection “ go, preach this gospel to the nations, anyone that believes will be saved, anyone that does not is damned” Mat 16:16 (to the place I described earlier).

I have looked at other religions in the world. Many of them have similar claims to a life after – promising some kind of blissful existence of some sort. The bible also promised a heaven that our mind cannot even fathom possible. But which is true. Here is how I came to my conclusion – you make your choice.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me” John 14:6. No other religious person in History ever made that claim. I will be specific on one of them – Prophet Mohammed said He was not sure where He was going (If you are a Muslim, research this). Whatever your religion, open your book and find the claims of the leader of your religious group. Jesus was the only one that ever made the claim that He was the way to Heaven and to the father.

Also, in the bible – historically verifiable accounts – there were hundreds of prophesies about the birth, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ... According to ChristianAnswer.net, Peter W Stoner and Robert C. Newman wrote a book several years ago titled Science Speaks. This book was based on the science of probability. This research was also vouched for by American Scientific Affiliations. In this book, it sets out odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even 8 of the 60 major prophecies (and 270 ramifications) fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be only 1 in 10¹⁷. That's 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

That is a very staggering data. What are the odds Jesus was just another man or prophets? are you willing to bet He was lying and go to the place called HELL I have described? Again its your choice.

In Law, there is something called reasonable doubt. If there was reasonable doubt about a case, it’s enough to cause a mistrial or throw out the case. Can you honestly say the path you are threading will take you to heaven, without any reasonable doubt?

Jesus Christ died for you and for me. BUT I must make that choice here and NOW, tomorrow is not promised to any man. Jesus is the ONLY way to the father. Would you gamble your eternity? Think about the place I described called Hell, a place of literal burning fire, a place of torment, would you take that chance? The choice is yours. This was the reason I titled this article “earth, the ONLY heaven most people will ever know: the choice is now Yours!”

You might say, How do I know this Jesus? According to Romans 10:9-10:

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Just say this prayer – Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Christ, the son of the Living God, come into my heart, be my lord and savior”

That’s it friend. You just got born again (John 3:3). Find a good bible based Church, if you need help, call our ministry and we’ll help you find one in your local area.

If you live in the Rochester Minnesota area, come worship Jesus with us at 315 Elton Hills Drive NW, Rochester MN 55901.

Welcome to the family of God, and congratulations for choosing Life!