Fear of Divine Judgment - How Jesus Overcomes Our Fear of Death

Many people assume that death is bound to be better than our suffering right now. How often have you heard somebody say, “Well, at least he’s not suffering anymore…”? Or “Now she’s at peace; she’s in a better place.”

If you’re in heaven, you are in better place where there is “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Tears and suffering are over forever.  But according to Jesus, not everyone goes to heaven. Christ said, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it (Matthew 7:13-14, NLT, my emphasis).
           

If you end up in hell, the suffering is infinitely worse than anything you might experience in this life. Christ described hell as a place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48).

In three previous posts I’ve talked about the reasons why people may fear death. But this last one, fear of divine judgment, is the most important one. People should fear being punished for their sins.

Five Terrible Truths About Hell

One of my early mentors was a man named Jim Dolin. Jim was a silver-haired Southern gentleman from West Virginia. He always dressed in a tie and sport coat, and he had a way of making friends with everyone, including total strangers.

Jim didn't become a Christian until he was in his late 20’s. He was a pilot and tactical training officer during WWII, and was badly burned in a plane crash. He spent a year in the hospital recovering from his burns. Early in his hospitalization, he had a vision of hell.

Four False Assumptions About Life After Death

On November 1 Brittany Maynard, age 29, took her own life, as she had planned. I wrote about her story here. I hope and pray for God’s mercy and peace upon her family.

But something Ms. Maynard said just a few weeks ago continues to nag at me. She told CNN that when the day came to kill herself, she would tell her family, “Come say goodbye as I pass into whatever's next.” Without any disrespect to her or her memory, those words seem to point to certain assumptions about life after death.

Road Trip

The summer after I graduated from high school, my friends Randy and James, and I, decided to do a road trip. We would drive down to the Four Corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona all come together. You can stand in all four states at the same time. For some reason this seemed like a great goal for us.

None of us had any money, but we figured we’d just camp along the way. We raided our families’ refrigerators and loaded up a cooler with steaks and hamburgers. And we threw our sleeping bags in the back of Randy’s old Hudson Hornet.

Naturally we had no plan where we would spend our first night. We set out from our Western Colorado home late in the day, and just headed south. 140 miles later, after midnight, we cruised into Durango. With no money for a motel, a campground seemed like our best option. We drove through town, randomly took a side road, which led to another dirt road and finally to a large flat area overlooking the city. By this time we were all so tired we could hardly see straight.