Heaven and the Rapture (John MacArthur)

well we have some letters from viewers who have written and we've got John in here to answer some of them for us now John thanks again for being here with us oh it's always a pleasure Tom thank you we've got some questions from some viewers Larry writes dear John the citing the rich man and Lazarus passage I believe the answer to this question is yes but I wanted to check with you my question is when unbelievers enter eternal judgment do they become fully aware of that truth of the gospel message and the fact that they rejected the truth all their lives more specifically will a theist fully acknowledge the one and only true God will followers of every false religion completely understand the truth of Christianity and the fact that they were deceived their entire lives and followed fictitious God's well let me answer it in the simple way and in Philippians chapter 2 it says that God has declared Jesus to be Lord and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow on the earth under the earth and that means that whether a person is in heaven or in hell their knee will bow to the lordship of Jesus Christ and the obvious response to that with regard to the question is they are going to know that they are under the sovereign judgement of the Lord Jesus Christ so yes they will all know that their religion was false that they have been duped and deceived and damned by that false system they're going to know that Jesus Christ is Lord but God is king of hell God is the one who destroys both soul and body in hell they're going to know that there will be a full understanding of that one other aspect of it is that they will have a fully informed conscience as to their own wickedness and their own evil and their own unbelief in their own rejection so they will be under full understanding of their own sinfulness their own rejection of the gospel the sovereignty of God and the lordship of Christ being exercised in judgment well thank you John for that that's a profound answer to me Tracy writes this one that rapture takes place and the church no longer remains on the earth is the holy spirit still present on earth or is he also gone with the church and if so out of those left behind gets saved do they just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and become saved does Jesus send the Holy Spirit to dwell on those that repent well first of all the Holy Spirit is God and God is omnipresent so there's no place that he isn't in existence so the idea that when the church leaves the Holy Spirit leaves is not only impossible but unbiblical furthermore during the time of the tribulation period the greatest revival in human history takes place you have more people converted in a seven-year period than at any other time in history and that's laid out very clearly in Scripture the whole nation Israel essentially comes to faith in Christ the rebels are purged out and finally Israel embraces Jesus Christ as Messiah looks on mmm they've pierced etc etc well that can't happen apart from the power of the Holy Spirit for is the spirit who gives life so the notion that the Spirit is going to be taken away is not true now what is true is this that there is a ministry that the Holy Spirit has now and has had through all human history called the Ministry of restraint the world is a bad place it's full of sin and evil and wickedness but it isn't as bad as it could be because the restrainer the Holy Spirit holds it back during that period of tribulation the restrainer let's go so there's a sense in which evil will reach epic and unheard-of proportions because the restraining Ministry of the Holy Spirit is released but at the same time the work of salvation will be carried on by the Holy Spirit during that period the greatest revival ever will take place because the Holy Spirit is God that's a wonderful answer how from this can ask John I understand that experiencing preaching and studying God's Word the Bible equips us for life in this world I'm wondering if the knowledge we obtained today will accompany us into eternity and if so for what purpose well first of all it will our Christian life here our Christian growth our spiritual development our knowledge of Scripture all of those maturing things that are going on in our lives as we expose yourself to the word in the power of the Spirit affect how we live how we witness how we serve the Lord and that all affects our eternal reward so when we go to heaven we're going to be rewarded there are certain crowns promised to the believer there are rewards promised promised to us for the things in our lives that you would classify as gold silver precious stones so in a very real sense our place in eternity the role we are going to be given the kind of service we will render to the Lord and the kind of reward we will receive is defined and determined by how we live our lives here and how we live our lives here is determined by how we respond to the Word of God so that is true but on the other hand it isn't going to be necessary for us when we get to heaven to reach back and try to remember some spiritual principle that we learned while we were here because the Bible says when we see the Lord we'll know as we are known so we will instantaneously have full knowledge great John thank you so much for your answers for your time today if you like hearing those answers from God's Word let me encourage you there's plenty more where that came from from resources that we have and we can make available to you from grace to you they're designed to bring biblical clarity to the question of life and they're all just a call or mouse-click away you can visit us online at WWDC one org or by phone at 888 57th grace it's our privilege to serve you in this way thank you for making grace to you part of your life and through your prayers and gifts a part of your ministry take care

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 126,196

Rating: 4.8807068 out of 5

Keywords: Sin, Christ, Lord, Jesus, Bible, God, Truth, Grace to You, John MacArthur, Gospel, Salvation, Word, Study, Preaching, Pastor, Believe, Prophecy, Ministry, Ministries, Revival, Holy Spirit, Father, Cross, Prophet, Messiah, Christian, Church, Scripture, Faith, Obedience, Questions, Viewers, Atheists, Deceived, Knee, Bow, Earth, Heaven, Hell, Sovereign, Judgment, Damned, False, System, King, Destroy, Conscience, Wickedness, Power, Life, Restraint, Crown, Reward

Id: XsOVCEEsHb0

Length: 6min 11sec (371 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 17 2012