Going to Heaven or to Hell?

“WHAT are your chances of going to heaven or of going to hell?”

Basically, that was asked of a cross section of Americans in a recent survey. The Princeton Religion Research Center published the results in Religion in America 1992-1993.

How would you have answered? What are the chances of your mate or other loved ones going to heaven at death? Do you think it possible that you, or they, might end up going to hell?

The survey showed that 78 percent thought their chances of going to heaven were good or excellent, more than the number answering that way some 40 years ago. Hell? About 77 percent said the likelihood of going there was poor.

Were their replies based on accurate Bible knowledge? Well, about 4 out of 10 admitted attending religious services less often than they did five years ago. Only 28 percent claimed to share in Bible study groups and 27 percent in religious education classes.

If you carefully study the Bible, you will find some surprising facts. For example, the Bible pointedly says that at death Jesus went to “hell,” as rendered in some Bible versions. (Acts 2:31, King James Version; “Hades,” New World Translation) God’s Word also proves that neither King David nor John the Baptist went to heaven at death. (Matthew 11:11; Acts 2:29) Those are facts, not mere opinions from a religious survey.

Other facts that may affect you: The Bible teaches that Jesus’ apostles and a limited number of others will be taken to heaven to rule with Jesus. However, the majority of people who have died simply went to mankind’s common grave. God will resurrect them, bringing them to life on earth with the prospect of a full, happy, unending life in a restored earthly paradise.

Jehovah’s Witnesses would be pleased to help you establish from your own Bible the reliable basis for that hope.