Once, a seeker of the truth pulled me aside and asked, “Most of the time, Christianity teaches the love of God, but sometimes it also teaches heaven and hell. Does that mean that Christianity wants to threaten and comfort people at the same time, holding out the stick and carrot simultaneously, to force people to believe?”

Looking at his earnest attitude, I compassionately said, “I completely understand what you’re saying. But I have to tell you honestly, heaven and hell truly exist.”

Life Never Ends
According to materialism, life ends with the death of the physical body, like turning off a light. I once read an article in the China Times entitled, “The Humor of Death,” which compared the epitaphs of the East and the West. Compared to the solemn epitaphs of the East, such as “The green mountain is lucky enough to bury the royal bones,” the author believed that tombstones of the West were more humorous and vivid. For example, the funeral for a German playwright who died in 1993 was formal. But on the tombstone, there were just two words, “The End.” Before he was about to die, the French pianist, Lemmas, asked his student to carve a golden “Full Stop” symbol on his marble tombstone. The British Athletic Club sent a wreath to the funeral of a former world golf champion with the following message attached, “This time, entering a hole without winning a cup.” To honor a famous architect, Swiss businessmen and industrialists engraved a phrase used by the architect when he was alive: “Actual useful area, about ten square feet.” In America, an African-American mother placed “Knock Off” on the tombstone of her fourteen-year-old son, a laborer. These tombstones reflect the cultural differences between the East and the West.

If these epitaphs were meant to demonstrate only that after death people would end their worldly occupation, profession, or labor, they are quite symbolic. But if “The End” and “Full Stop” were meant to demonstrate that the lives of the people ended forever, then we would have to think deeper. The spirit never dies with the body; it only changes from one state to another.
Almost all cultures have a belief in eternal life. The late First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “Almost every person with whom I have ever talked in my world travels has believed in life after death.”3 According to Flynn, “A Gallup Poll in 1976 showed 69% of American people believe in life after death, a figure that has remained constant since 1948.”

Life is too short for everyone. Even the amount of work that very successful people are able to accomplish is limited by the brevity of life. Socrates said that if there were no life after death, we would not know how to begin talking about the value and meaning of life. Just when we begin to accumulate enough knowledge, become mature, and enter our golden years, we have to face the end of our lives. If there were no life after death, then the meaning of life itself would be hard to imagine. It would be similar to an artist who spends almost his entire life to create a near-perfect statue, and upon its completion, throws it on the ground and breaks it into millions of pieces.

Injustice is pervasive in the world. Often the wicked live long, comfortable lives, both physically and financially. On the other hand, many earnest and devoted people struggle their entire lives in poverty and die young. If there were no life or judgment after death, then there would be no righteousness and justice. Fortunately, the Bible clearly teaches that people never die and that judgment will follow death. “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The Old Testament has ample evidence about eternal life, while in the New Testament; Jesus spoke many times about everlasting life, the days of judgment, heavenly rewards, and the punishments of hell. One scholar calculated that of Jesus’ thirty-six parables, one-third of them were related to the future judgment of God. Of course, the most forceful evidence of life after death is that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected on the third day.

The biblical records of life after death have also been verified by experiences in people’s actual daily lives. In the first chapter, I referred to Rawlings’ Beyond Death’s Door, which described the experiences of cardiac patients who departed from their physical bodies. Recently, I have heard from several friends who have had similar experiences, and even learned of another on a flight to Dallas. I was sitting next to an American dentist who was traveling to Dallas for one week during her spring vacation. She told me with her first pregnancy she had a difficult delivery because the baby was over ten pounds and had a large head. Suddenly, she realized that she was rising from her own body, and she saw a group of physicians and nurses working busily around her bed. A voice said, “Don't worry. You’ll be all right.” Then she discovered that she had returned to her body. After that event, she asked the physicians, nurses, and family members who were in the room during the event, but no one admitted to saying those words to her. After hearing her story, I was excited. This was the first person I had ever met who had an out-of- body experience. I asked her if I could share her experience with other people. She agreed because her story was completely true.

The Reality of Heaven and Hell
If life never ends and our spirits never die, then where do we go after our physical bodies die? The answer is very clear; either heaven or hell. There is no other choice. Most Bible scholars believe heaven or hell is the final destiny of people after Jesus comes again to judge the world. Before Jesus returns, the spirits of deceased Christians and non-Christians temporarily go to paradise or to an outer darkness.

Heaven is a real place and is referred to as “the third heaven” by the apostle Paul where he was once taken by God (2 Cor. 12:2-7). Some scholars think the atmosphere surrounding the earth is the first heaven, the outer space where the stars exist is the second heaven, and the third heaven is where God resides. What does God’s home look like? In the book of the Revelation, heaven is described as having green jade walls, gates of pearl, and streets of gold. Though this description sounds beautiful, the reality of heaven is hard for us to understand. According to the Bible, several points are clear. In heaven, “There shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

Heaven is also where the saints reside. Not only will we join our Christian relatives who have already died, but we will also see and communicate with the saints mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, the great leaders of the church since its foundation, and believers from every tribe and nation. Heaven is a holy, happy place where God’s people worship and serve Him, sharing His presence in everlasting joy. Heaven is not a dream or a fantasy; it is a real place. During the Last Supper, the Lord said to His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you: for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going” (John 14:1-3).

Hell is as real as heaven, mentioned in the Bible many times as a place of everlasting punishment. It is an eternally dark, painful place where God pours out His wrath, and it resounds with weeping and the gnashing of teeth. There is no passage between heaven and hell, but they are both eternal places. Hell is such an extremely gloomy and frightful place that many people do not want to think or talk about it. However, hell is real. Therefore, when Jesus was on earth, He talked about hell many times. Before He was crucified, Jesus spent his last time with His disciples teaching them about the last judgment. Those who were cursed would enter the eternal punishment prepared for Satan and his followers. The righteous would enter into eternal life (Matt. 25: 41-46). The truth about hell is frightening and abhorrent; everyone must face its reality.