Healing My Fear of the Afterlife

When it comes to the afterlife in fundamentalist Christianity, I can only speak from the perspective of the teachings I received from my church and family growing up.

I was taught that our whole purpose in this earthly life was to get right with God so that we could be in relationship with him forever in heaven.

If we failed to get right, that meant that we would spend eternity in hell.

If you remember from episode two, I walked you through the Roman's road.

That explains how we are sinners in need of a savior and that savior is Jesus.

You have to recognize and admit your sin, repent of it.

You have to say that you're sorry and genuinely try not to do that sin anymore.

You have to acknowledge that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead.

Ask God to forgive you and ask Jesus to come live in your heart.

If you do all of those steps, then you are saved.

In Christianity, being saved means that you have a transformed life while you're here on earth.

It means there's less sin in your life.

Not no sin, because nobody's perfect, but less sin.

You have more blessings from God.

You have peace that passes understanding.

You're living in right relationship with God.

You have no fear.

You have a purpose for your life.

You have guidance and wisdom.

If you're unsaved, I was taught that meant you would live in confusion and anger, constant sin and fear.

You would have no purpose or meaning in your life.

And you would make foolish choices because you would lack the wisdom from God.

But by far the most impactful and dramatic benefit of being saved is that you will supposedly spend eternity in heaven rather than hell.

I was taught that if you die in rebellion against God, you will suffer in hell for all eternity.

And you might wonder, what does it mean to be in rebellion against God? Who is in rebellion? And I was taught that anyone who hasn't repented of their sins and gotten saved is in rebellion.