What Have You Chosen?

J. A. Moore

Introduction

It has been said that nothing clarifies your mind like knowing you will be hanged in the morning! Equally, the vital question “Will I go to Heaven when I die?” demands the full focus of our thoughts. It is inevitable that we will die, and for any of us it could unexpectedly happen in the very near future.

Most people establish their spiritual belief from their family, peers, friends and life’s experiences without giving it much serious thought.

This belief can be that God does or does not exist.

If they believe that God exists, many think that because “God allows bad things to happen to good people”, he must be a distant, callous God. That doesn’t fit their worldview image of what God should be like and they don’t want to have anything to do with him.

Others believe that God is a “lovesick” God who will not turn anyone away from Heaven, irrespective of what they may have done or thought.
Then suddenly an incident happens and the time for serious thought is gone, forever! What happened to the people in this story is what “God’s Instruction Manual”, the Holy Bible, says they would have experienced.

Let’s hear their story.

The Story of James and Louise

It was the start of an exciting day. But then something happened, and suddenly their lives were changed forever.

If you had met James and Louise you would have had the feeling that you had seen them somewhere before. They were a typical, modern young couple, full of vitality, tolerant, with ambitions to have the best that life could offer. They were newly married and felt it was too early to consider starting a family.

First they wanted to establish their careers and pay off the dream house they had just bought.

They had been taught at school that the world had evolved through the process of evolution, and as everything had evolved from nothing, there was no need for God. But when they saw a beautiful view across the environment or read about the exceptional designs that are in every part of the human body, they had some nagging doubts as to whether it all could have occurred by accident.

There had been an occasion once when some Christians had talked to them about God loving them, and said something about Jesus dying on the cross for their sins. But James and Louise felt they weren’t sinners. And in any case, if they got involved with a goody-goody like Jesus, they might have to change their lifestyle—perhaps stop partying and having a good time. It would be so boring and they would lose control of their lives.

Control was very important to James and Louise! They wanted to be in control of all the decisions that affected their life. That way they would not be put in any uncomfortable, embarrassing or potentially painful situations. They would decide who their friends would be and how many children they would have (maybe none, if it was going to upset their comfortable lifestyle).

And they would make sure they had all the enjoyment and good things a modern life could offer. When it came to dying, that’s when they really wanted to be in control—euthanasia would be the way for them. There would be no pain, suffering or indignity. When they felt it was getting too much, they would end it all.

By being in control they were sure they could look after themselves very well, and they certainly didn’t want to be controlled by anyone else. “Life is very good at the moment, thank you very much!” they said. Above all they didn’t feel they needed any of the guidance that God was supposed to have written in the Bible.

Anyway, didn’t Christians say that their God was a God of love who couldn’t, wouldn’t, reject anyone? So everyone who died would go to Heaven, wouldn’t they?

Well, that’s what James, Louise and all their friends thought.

When someone died they said things like “Mum lived a good life; I know she’s up there now looking down on us”, or “Bill, he certainly enjoyed a beer. I can see him up there now, leaning on the bar, having one beer after another.” As far as they were concerned, going to Heaven (if it existed) when you died was a sure thing—it didn’t matter how you had lived your life.

And then the unthinkable happened.

James and Louise were driving up a winding road to a mountain resort. It was early in the morning, just as dawn was breaking. The air was cold and crisp following a heavy frost.

James was driving fast to get to the resort, so that he and Louise would get there in time to go on the twenty kilometre, naturalist hike. The mountain road was narrow, with tight bends. As he came down a steep slope approaching a hairpin bend, he was travelling a bit too fast, so he applied the brakes. But with black ice on the bitumen, suddenly the car slewed sideways. James instinctively pushed harder on the brake pedal, but this only made things worse. Louise screamed as the car shot over the edge of the road and grabbed the seat as the car hung in mid-air over a 100-metre drop. Then it plunged down the mountainside, striking rocks and trees on the way and ending as a crumpled, steaming wreck at the bottom.

When James and Louise became conscious (or thought they were), they found themselves hovering above what remained of the car. They could see two lifeless bodies in the twisted metal. As they looked down, it gradually dawned on them that the bodies were theirs. They had been killed in the crash

“Why are we seeing this!” said Louise. Abruptly the implications of what she was experiencing started to sink in. “There must be life after death after all,” she continued in anguish. “Everyone who said there was nothing after death, just oblivion, have been deceived and we have been fools to believe them!”[i] She started to sob. “All we had, our new house, our car. Everything we’d planned, our holidays in Europe. It’s all no use to us now.”

“I’m so sorry,” said James, his voice trembling. “I didn’t mean to drive so fast. It was … it was just so exciting. How stupid I was! We thought we had it so good, and now, in a few seconds, all we valued has vanished. For us it doesn’t exist anymore. What’s going to happen now?”

As if in answer to their question, they suddenly sensed themselves being transported, as if through a mist of clouds, to another world. When they looked around, they found they were in a queue of people, men, women and children, of all nationalities and languages. The queue led to a big wall, the top of which went up as far as they could see.

In the wall were two doors,  a narrow one on the right and a much wider one on the left. Over the narrow door there was a sign that read To Heaven; a similar sign over the wide door read To Hell.[ii] In front of the wall, between the doors, was a big table. On the table was a large Book, and behind the table was a man dressed in glowing white. Somehow they both knew he was as angel.

All Bible quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Versionâ. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

[i] Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

[ii] Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.