It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

HEBREWS 9:27

I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

REVELATION 20:11-15

Hades is the temporary habitation of the souls of the unbelieving dead. Death refers to the grave that holds their bodies. Like believers, who will experience a bodily resurrection at the rapture, unbelievers will be bodily resurrected and their bodies will be reunited with their souls at the end of the millennium. However, it will not be a resurrection to the same destination as believers. Instead, unbelievers will find themselves standing before the throne of Almighty God, and books will be opened that record all their deeds, including all the times they rejected God’s offer of salvation.

This group will include all who denied God as creator, all who followed false religions, all idolaters who worshipped other gods, all who believed that being a good moral person gains a person entrance into heaven and, as we read earlier in Revelation 21:8, “the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Before we move on, I need to make one point clear: There will be people in heaven who once did the things described above. There’s an important distinction we need to understand with regard to those who go to heaven and those who go to hell:

The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

GALATIANS 5:19-21

It is the unrepentant and habitual practice of those things that is the distinguishing factor between the people who are resurrected to heaven or to hell. First John 1:9 tells us more: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Excerpt from The Time of the Signs by Barry Stagner. Order Now.

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