Harvest Church | Eternity :::

Some people want to believe that there is no heaven or hell and, in fact, NO life after death. The Bible clearly tells us that there is both a heaven and a hell and Jesus warned about it. Jesus frequently spoke of the devil, Satan, as our enemy (Matthew 4:1-11; 13:39; 25:41; Mark 4:15; 8:33; Luke 10:17-19; 13:16; 22:3-4, 31; John 8:44; etc.) and about hell as an undesirable place to go (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; and Luke 12:5). Some Christians and some churches dismiss talk of the devil and hell and really don’t seem to believe that they exist. Joyce Meyer, the teacher-evangelist who has a television ministry that is on over 130 television stations in this country plus being seen on television in more than 18 other countries has said that although she had been in a denominational church for many years she had never even heard of the devil as being anyone or anything real until she read “The Late, Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey. This, unfortunately, is the case with many Christians who have been raised in denominational Protestant churches. Martin Luther recognized the existence of the devil and his malevolent influence in the world. Unfortunately, many of the modern clergy of denominational Protestant churches have succumbed to the philosophy of the modern secular-humanist movement and their psuedo-scientific psychological explanations of spiritual matters. The Catholic church recognizes the existence of both the devil and hell. At Harvest Church we believe that the Bible is the word of God and that Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God who was born of the virgin Mary, died on the cross at Calvary for all of our sins, was resurrected from the dead and sits now at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us. That being the case, if Jesus says the devil seeks to harm us and that hell is real, we must take that to be a fact as a matter of faith. Not believing the devil exists will not cause him to not exist any more than not believing in gravity or electricity causes them not to exist. Rather, it makes the one who doesn’t believe an easy target for the devil and his demonic forces.

The Old Testament also speaks of hell as a real place (Psalms 9:17; Proverbs 5:5, 7:27; 15:24; 27:20; Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 31:15-17; 32:21, 27; and Amos 9:2 among others).

In addition, there are many reports of death experiences where individuals found themselves in heaven or on the way to hell. One of the more recent such experiences involved a pastor in Nigeria who was killed in an auto accident and found himself with an angel showing him around heaven and then showing him the reality of hell. The angel told him that everything was in readiness in heaven for the end times. The angel told the pastor that the only thing delaying the end time was that the church wasn’t ready yet. Then the pastor was sent back to earth to give that message to the church and the world. He had been declared dead by two different doctors and his body had been prepared for burial by a mortician. His wife however insisted that before he could be buried his body must be taken to a church where Reinhard Bohnke was having a revival was in progress. At first the church leaders did not want to let the corpse be brought into the church while the revival was in progress but the wife was so insistent that they finally relented. After the body was brought into the church, the dead pastor slowly began to come back to life. He is now fully back to his pastoral work.

How Can I Be Sure That I Will Go To Heaven?

Yes!

The Bible tells us in Romans 10:9-10, “....that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” and in verse 11, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame”, and verse 13, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’”

In John 14:6 we read, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ These are the words of Jesus Himself.

Later in Acts 4:12, we learn, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is the guarantee to eternal life in heaven.

What Must I Do To Be Certain?

God loves you and He demonstrated that love for you when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for your sins. He wants to bless your life and make it full and complete. He not only offers you abundant life in the here and now but eternal life as well. (“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16)

If you want to be certain that you will go to heaven when you die, follow these 4 steps to accept Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, as your Lord and Savior:

1.) Admit to God that you are a sinner and are separated from Him, and that you recognize and admit that only the Lord Jesus can save you. (“...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,..” Romans 3:23)

2.) Repent of your sins by turning away from your old life of sin and submitting to God. You may say “What sin? I’ve not done anything bad.” See Romans 3:23 above. The most basic sin is not believing so if you haven’t believed on the Lord Jesus the Christ, you have sinned. (“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:5)

3.) Believe that the Lord Jesus, the Christ, died on the Cross and shed His blood to pay the price for your sins, and that He was then placed in the tomb and resurrected on the third day and CONFESS to God the Father that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. (“....if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9)

4.) Ask God to forgive your sins and save you. (“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” Romans 10:13)

To accomplish this, pray this simple prayer out loud:

Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I now realize that I have to make a choice about my life. I believe that Jesus died for me; shed His blood to pay for my sins; and that He rose from the dead to make a way for me to have fellowship with You. I turn my back on my old way of life that I led without You. I choose to follow Jesus from this time forward. Lord Jesus, I ask You to be the Lord of my life and to come into my heart, live there and change me. I thank You, Almighty God, that You love me, have forgiven me, and have accepted me as your child, and that right now, this instant, You have made me a new creation, born of God. Thank You, Heavenly Father. Amen.

What About Baptism?

In Acts 2:38, “...Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So baptism is an important part of your salvation. Jesus commanded it in Mark 16:16, when He said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

It is important to not only be baptized in water but also in the Holy Spirit. Under “Teachings” section, we recommend that you double click “Basic Principles” and at the bottom of the introductory page, click and read “Water Baptism” and “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. In fact, we’d recommend that you read everything under “Basic Principles”.

Your New Life

When you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, been baptized and “born again”, you are destined for heaven but it isn’t something you can do now and then go back to your old lifestyle. Following Jesus means following Jesus and living as He has told us to live by His words in the Bible. However, it’s not an arduous task to follow Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Bible tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” It’s sometimes hard to do only because the devil will keep trying to lure you back into your old lifestyle and your flesh (your baser instincts) will want to go in that direction. But you can resist him. In fact, the Bible tells us in James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The devil can only hang around if you let him. For further guidance on dealing with the devil and his demonic spirits, look here under “Teachings” or on the sidebar and click on “Warfare & Victory”. You will find much helpful information there.

To do this as a brand new Christian, you will almost certainly need help. If you already have a Bible-based church and you’re happy in it, start attending regularly. Join a small group if your church has small groups (also called cell groups, care groups, TLC groups, G-12 groups, etc.). If your church does not have small groups, find a friend in the church who is serious about following Jesus and with whom you can study the Bible and pray. It should be someone who is strongly anchored in the Lord.

If you don’t already have a Bible-based church, we invite you to visit us at Harvest Church.

You’ll find a lot of other information about Harvest Church and what we believe on this webpage. We encourage you to read the various entries under “Teachings”. It will give you a better idea of who we are and what we believe. Also check out “Miracles” to see what kind of things the Holy Spirit has been doing at Harvest Church.

A Final Word

Many people think that if they have been going to church regularly over the years, they are saved. Just going to church will not get anyone saved. Many people have gone to church regularly for years and have not been saved because they were in churches that did not help them get saved or never gave an altar call. Some years ago the Pope had a gathering of priests from around the world come to Rome for a meeting. An American priest serving in the Vatican, Father Forrester, organized the meeting for the Pope. At that gathering, the Pope told the assembled priests that he felt that the Catholic Church had done a marvelous job of evangelizing people around the world but there were too many Catholics sitting in the pews of their churches every Sunday who had never been saved. They thought that going to mass every Sunday and to confession regularly and leading a “good” life was all that was needed to get into heaven. (Remember Matthew 19:17, when Jesus said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”) This is true in many Protestant churches as well. This is like a husband who when his wife asks if he loves her replies that if he didn’t love her he wouldn’t still be there. That may work with some wives but it won’t work with Jesus.

You need to take stock of yourself and determine if you have ever asked Jesus to be Lord of your life and committed your life to Him. You need to ask yourself if you have been baptized in water as an adult and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you’re not sure of these things then you’re not sure of your salvation and it’s time to get moving on those things. It is every person’s responsibility to do a self-evaluation to insure that they are indeed saved and therefore going to heaven when they die. No one knows the day or hour when they will die so you need to make sure that you are ready right now. If you’re not ready right now, take steps to make yourself ready as quickly as you can. We’re here for you.


	Whether You Go To Heaven Or Hell Is Entirely Up To You! Choose Heaven! Make Your Reservations For Heaven Now! Reservations can be made at Harvest Church or at any Bible-based Church that preaches the Full Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Is There Really A Hell? Some people want to believe that there is no heaven or hell and, in fact, NO life after death. The Bible clearly tells us that there is both a heaven and a hell and Jesus warned about it. Jesus frequently spoke of the devil, Satan, as our enemy (Matthew 4:1-11; 13:39; 25:41; Mark 4:15; 8:33; Luke 10:17-19; 13:16; 22:3-4, 31; John 8:44; etc.) and about hell as an undesirable place to go (Matthew 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; and Luke 12:5). Some Christians and some churches dismiss talk of the devil and hell and really don’t seem to believe that they exist. Joyce Meyer, the teacher-evangelist who has a television ministry that is on over 130 television stations in this country plus being seen on television in more than 18 other countries has said that although she had been in a denominational church for many years she had never even heard of the devil as being anyone or anything real until she read “The Late, Great Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsey. This, unfortunately, is the case with many Christians who have been raised in denominational Protestant churches. Martin Luther recognized the existence of the devil and his malevolent influence in the world. Unfortunately, many of the modern clergy of denominational Protestant churches have succumbed to the philosophy of the modern secular-humanist movement and their psuedo-scientific psychological explanations of spiritual matters. The Catholic church recognizes the existence of both the devil and hell. At Harvest Church we believe that the Bible is the word of God and that Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God who was born of the virgin Mary, died on the cross at Calvary for all of our sins, was resurrected from the dead and sits now at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us. That being the case, if Jesus says the devil seeks to harm us and that hell is real, we must take that to be a fact as a matter of faith. Not believing the devil exists will not cause him to not exist any more than not believing in gravity or electricity causes them not to exist. Rather, it makes the one who doesn’t believe an easy target for the devil and his demonic forces. The Old Testament also speaks of hell as a real place (Psalms 9:17; Proverbs 5:5, 7:27; 15:24; 27:20; Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 31:15-17; 32:21, 27; and Amos 9:2 among others). In addition, there are many reports of death experiences where individuals found themselves in heaven or on the way to hell. One of the more recent such experiences involved a pastor in Nigeria who was killed in an auto accident and found himself with an angel showing him around heaven and then showing him the reality of hell. The angel told him that everything was in readiness in heaven for the end times. The angel told the pastor that the only thing delaying the end time was that the church wasn’t ready yet. Then the pastor was sent back to earth to give that message to the church and the world. He had been declared dead by two different doctors and his body had been prepared for burial by a mortician. His wife however insisted that before he could be buried his body must be taken to a church where Reinhard Bohnke was having a revival was in progress. At first the church leaders did not want to let the corpse be brought into the church while the revival was in progress but the wife was so insistent that they finally relented. After the body was brought into the church, the dead pastor slowly began to come back to life. He is now fully back to his pastoral work. How Can I Be Sure That I Will Go To Heaven? Yes! The Bible tells us in Romans 10:9-10, “....that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” and in verse 11, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame”, and verse 13, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” In John 14:6 we read, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ These are the words of Jesus Himself. Later in Acts 4:12, we learn, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Jesus is the guarantee to eternal life in heaven. What Must I Do To Be Certain? God loves you and He demonstrated that love for you when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for your sins. He wants to bless your life and make it full and complete. He not only offers you abundant life in the here and now but eternal life as well. (“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16) If you want to be certain that you will go to heaven when you die, follow these 4 steps to accept Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, as your Lord and Savior: 1.) Admit to God that you are a sinner and are separated from Him, and that you recognize and admit that only the Lord Jesus can save you. (“...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,..” Romans 3:23) 2.) Repent of your sins by turning away from your old life of sin and submitting to God. You may say “What sin? I’ve not done anything bad.” See Romans 3:23 above. The most basic sin is not believing so if you haven’t believed on the Lord Jesus the Christ, you have sinned. (“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Luke 13:5) 3.) Believe that the Lord Jesus, the Christ, died on the Cross and shed His blood to pay the price for your sins, and that He was then placed in the tomb and resurrected on the third day and CONFESS to God the Father that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. (“....if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9) 4.) Ask God to forgive your sins and save you. (“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” Romans 10:13) To accomplish this, pray this simple prayer out loud: Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I now realize that I have to make a choice about my life. I believe that Jesus died for me; shed His blood to pay for my sins; and that He rose from the dead to make a way for me to have fellowship with You. I turn my back on my old way of life that I led without You. I choose to follow Jesus from this time forward. Lord Jesus, I ask You to be the Lord of my life and to come into my heart, live there and change me. I thank You, Almighty God, that You love me, have forgiven me, and have accepted me as your child, and that right now, this instant, You have made me a new creation, born of God. Thank You, Heavenly Father. Amen. What About Baptism? In Acts 2:38, “...Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So baptism is an important part of your salvation. Jesus commanded it in Mark 16:16, when He said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” It is important to not only be baptized in water but also in the Holy Spirit. Under “Teachings” section, we recommend that you double click “Basic Principles” and at the bottom of the introductory page, click and read “Water Baptism” and “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”. In fact, we’d recommend that you read everything under “Basic Principles”. Your New Life When you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, been baptized and “born again”, you are destined for heaven but it isn’t something you can do now and then go back to your old lifestyle. Following Jesus means following Jesus and living as He has told us to live by His words in the Bible. However, it’s not an arduous task to follow Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Bible tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” It’s sometimes hard to do only because the devil will keep trying to lure you back into your old lifestyle and your flesh (your baser instincts) will want to go in that direction. But you can resist him. In fact, the Bible tells us in James 4:7, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” The devil can only hang around if you let him. For further guidance on dealing with the devil and his demonic spirits, look here under “Teachings” or on the sidebar and click on “Warfare & Victory”. You will find much helpful information there. To do this as a brand new Christian, you will almost certainly need help. If you already have a Bible-based church and you’re happy in it, start attending regularly. Join a small group if your church has small groups (also called cell groups, care groups, TLC groups, G-12 groups, etc.). If your church does not have small groups, find a friend in the church who is serious about following Jesus and with whom you can study the Bible and pray. It should be someone who is strongly anchored in the Lord. If you don’t already have a Bible-based church, we invite you to visit us at Harvest Church. You’ll find a lot of other information about Harvest Church and what we believe on this webpage. We encourage you to read the various entries under “Teachings”. It will give you a better idea of who we are and what we believe. Also check out “Miracles” to see what kind of things the Holy Spirit has been doing at Harvest Church. A Final Word Many people think that if they have been going to church regularly over the years, they are saved. Just going to church will not get anyone saved. Many people have gone to church regularly for years and have not been saved because they were in churches that did not help them get saved or never gave an altar call. Some years ago the Pope had a gathering of priests from around the world come to Rome for a meeting. An American priest serving in the Vatican, Father Forrester, organized the meeting for the Pope. At that gathering, the Pope told the assembled priests that he felt that the Catholic Church had done a marvelous job of evangelizing people around the world but there were too many Catholics sitting in the pews of their churches every Sunday who had never been saved. They thought that going to mass every Sunday and to confession regularly and leading a “good” life was all that was needed to get into heaven. (Remember Matthew 19:17, when Jesus said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”) This is true in many Protestant churches as well. This is like a husband who when his wife asks if he loves her replies that if he didn’t love her he wouldn’t still be there. That may work with some wives but it won’t work with Jesus. You need to take stock of yourself and determine if you have ever asked Jesus to be Lord of your life and committed your life to Him. You need to ask yourself if you have been baptized in water as an adult and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If you’re not sure of these things then you’re not sure of your salvation and it’s time to get moving on those things. It is every person’s responsibility to do a self-evaluation to insure that they are indeed saved and therefore going to heaven when they die. No one knows the day or hour when they will die so you need to make sure that you are ready right now. If you’re not ready right now, take steps to make yourself ready as quickly as you can. We’re here for you. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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