Heaven and Hell are two concepts which are taught in majority of the religions, though in different ways. Those who believe in God also believe (generally) that there is a place of perfect peace and joy for the good people to go to or a place of extreme pain and misery for the bad ones to go. At death, the soul departs from the body. The body lay dead and returns to the earth. But where does the soul go? ‘It goes nowhere’ is no answer! They definitely go somewhere! The soul was actively operational in the body: thinking soberly, feeling sensibly, deciding logically, worshipping consciously, behaving morally, etc. All of a sudden, they ceased to exist. It is illogical and insensible to believe that the soul ceased to exist. After all, matter and energy cannot be destroyed!
Its natural that one may ask what’s the purpose behind Heaven or Hell? If you believe in a purposeful God, then you can find the purpose behind Heaven or Hell. On earth, we see both good people and bad people live together. Where ever you go, you see a mix of good people and bad people. The good people to a certain extent are tolerating bad people or they have no option. And good people have to suffer because of the misdeeds of bad people. In certain places, we see gated communities based on their religion or beliefs, where they keep themselves secluded from the other communities. Seeing the wickedness and violence in this world, at-least once in your lifetime you might have thought that why don’t all the good people live together in a secluded place and all the bad people live in a different place. Everyone who loves peace and happiness might be longing for a system like that.
If we look at God’s nature, we see God is a holy God. When God gives an opportunity to be with Him after death, He expects those people to be holy. God cannot coexist with evil. So God set up two different places to send the judged humanity. Only the righteous will live with God in Heaven and others in their place(Hell) prepared for them. Unfortunately, the Bible says all people are unrighteous, no matter how good they seem. They don’t meet the standards which God has set. So all people are doomed to live apart from God in hell.
How then can someone inhabit heaven? When we say God is holy, He is also a loving God. He loves His creation. He loves you and me. He offers a way out of hell. By becoming right with God, people can enjoy fellowship with Him forever in Heaven. The time for being right with God is now – your time on earth. Do you long to be with a community where there is peace and happiness? Do you wish to be with the God ? Do you want to know how can you be right with God ? Then Bible has a good news for you.