Where I live, end-of-life issues don’t always refer to long-term health care, but whether you are going to heaven or hell. Heaven is certainly the destination of choice. Some traditionalists wonder if hell has become too bland in popular thought with scarcely a whiff of brimstone. 

In a recent book Love Wins by Rob Bell, 2011, he began: “A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. . . . This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear” (p. vi). [You can read Kim Shippey’s book review of Love Wins, “Understanding Bell’s hell,” on p. 19 of this issue.]

His book has ignited a theological firestorm. Is there a hell? The Scriptures say yes. Is there a heaven? Steven Hawking, the famous British physicist, says no. He recently stirred debate by claiming that heaven is a fairy tale. He believes that the brain is like a computer, and when it breaks down, life is over. Lights go out . . . the end. 

We don’t die into the kingdom of heaven. We live into the kingdom of heaven. Actually, we already live in the kingdom of heaven, or rather the kingdom of heaven lives within us. 

Where does Christian Science stand on this discussion of heaven, hell, and salvation? Christian Science stands firmly on the Bible. Jesus began his healing and saving ministry, declaring, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Jesus implies here that heaven and hell are states of thought. Repentance is changing one’s mind and actions to be in alignment with God. Heaven excludes envy, hatred, revenge, and evil, which are the stuff of hell. Repentance is the doorway through which one enters the gate of heavenly harmony to bask in the presence of God’s love. Holding stubbornly or ignorantly to sin fuels the fire of hell’s mental anguish until the suffering is sufficient to spark the sinner to seek salvation through Christ, the beacon of heavenly purity and harmony.

Repentance

The way of salvation is through repentance. If it were easy for human beings to discern the difference between good and evil, happiness would be universal and repentance would be unnecessary. But there seems to be some confusion. “My human opinion is always right, isn’t it? Aren’t I the judge between right and wrong?” Well, actually, no. God is the Lawgiver. God’s statutes in the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes point to the path of righteous behavior. Human opinions tend to distort divine statutes. As Mary Baker Eddy puts it, “The nature of the individual, more stubborn than the circumstance, will always be found arguing for itself,—its habits, tastes, and indulgences. This material nature strives to tip the beam against the spiritual nature; for the flesh strives against Spirit,—against whatever or whoever opposes evil,—and weighs mightily in the scale against man’s high destiny” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 119). 

Personal habits may seem harmless. But arguing for pride, justifying anger, indulging fear puts the weight of our thought in the wrong scale. As Jesus said: “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way” (Matt. 7:13, New Living Translation). 

How can we make the character change that lifts us out of hellish conditions and brings us to understand our relation to God, divine Spirit? Humility is the key. Humility counteracts self-righteousness. Humility shakes loose stubborn fear, blind belief, and personal opinions. Cultivating humility isn’t giving up our individuality. Humility is the way to discover our original, unlimited spiritual selfhood created by God. 

Humility increases our love of spirituality so that we become willing to take the next step in repentance and leave all for Christ. Mrs. Eddy writes: “We are not Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ. Human opinions are not spiritual” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 192). What are we willing to leave behind in order to gain the kingdom of heaven? Leaving all for Christ includes dropping cherished points of view, old habits of fearful thinking, apathy, and criticism in order to welcome unlimited spiritual ideas that bless and heal. This change of thought and action is the practical repentance, which leads to heavenly harmony and eternal life.

Salvation 

A scriptural statement of salvation is First Timothy 2:3–5: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The original Greek word [anthropos] translated “men” actually means human beings and includes women as well. To be saved means “to keep safe, to rescue from danger or destruction.” 

God, the Supreme Being, preserves all that is good and removes whatever is sinful and evil. Jesus Christ came to reveal God’s infinite love for creation. This higher sense of divine Love redeems men and women from sin, sickness, and death. Jesus’ healing and saving works upset established human hierarchy then, even as they do now. Jesus was crucified for daring to challenge traditional beliefs. Through his bodily resurrection from the grave, Jesus proved that God, divine Life, is supreme over death as well as man-made doctrines. Through Jesus’ supreme sacrifice and triumph, he held high the torch of eternal life for all generations—including ours—not as a theoretical concept but as a daily reality. 

Christ is the message of salvation which comes directly to us so that we reject pride, fear, whatever is ungodly, and accept the forgiveness and redemption that come with changed lives. “We need ‘Christ, and him crucified.’ We must have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and victories, until all error is destroyed,” says Science and Health, in a scriptural exegesis by Mrs. Eddy on page 39. 

Sin is not simply forgiven but is also forsaken and destroyed through Christ’s precious power and love. This doesn’t mean the individual is destroyed. Only what is sinful. The process of salvation continues here and hereafter until all humankind is rescued from sin, disease, and death. All will eventually come to a knowledge or spiritual understanding of God, divine Truth, and to acknowledge God as the Creator and governor of all that is good. Then we will realize our eternal relation to God as beloved sons and daughters. 

When does salvation take place? The Apostle Paul said, “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2). Is today really the day of salvation? Often people associate the day of salvation with death and a final judgment when they go to heaven and everybody that doesn’t belong to their church goes to hell. 

So does salvation and our experience of God’s kingdom happen after death? Not if we look again at Jesus’ teachings. Jesus proclaimed, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). 

We don’t die into the kingdom of heaven. We live into the kingdom of heaven. Actually, we already live in the kingdom of heaven, or rather the kingdom of heaven lives within us. What is within us is not a place but a conscious awareness of God’s eternal, harmonious, successful action. The day of salvation is not a calendar measure but the eternal day of immortal life demonstrated by Jesus Christ. 

“[T]he judgment-day of wisdom comes hourly and continually . . . ,” says Science and Health (p. 291). This doesn’t mean that now we are going to die. It means now we are going to live the spiritual facts of being so that what is not of God is forsaken and removed. This process of purification is salvation, and takes place moment by moment through our daily life and decisions. 

I find it interesting that Paul says now is the day of salvation, not the night of salvation. Day is a “period of light.” Light symbolizes the Christ, Truth, or spiritual understanding dawning on human consciousness. Spiritually speaking, day is a state of spiritual revelation and action. Night is no thought and inaction. Notice that it’s not called judgment night. It’s judgment day in which spiritual understanding dawns in human consciousness. 

The activity of good is restful not stressful. Men and women rest in this good action because in Spirit there is no mistake or guilt to wear us out or grind us down. The day of salvation is divine Truth and Love, renewing and restoring us in one perpetual day of harmonious, joyful activity.

When the last mortal mistake is corrected and the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the battle with error is over, the victory won, and the trumpet of Truth announces there is no more error to be destroyed. This is the final judgment when all error is destroyed. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only,” said Jesus (Matt. 24:36). Until this final triumph, the process of salvation continues. 

Destination—heaven or hell?

So then what is death? The carnal mind abandoning its belief of life in a material body. What is life after death? Human consciousness continuing with its belief of body until the spiritual reality of being is perceived and the belief that one has a material body fades from thought. Then our original identity as the image and likeness of God described in Genesis 1 is restored as prophesied in Revelation 7:9–17. 

Is residence in heaven limited to only a few? The Scriptures say no. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; . . . . And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (Rev. 7:9, 14, 15). 

Is there a heaven? Oh yes. Heaven is living our eternal life in the presence of God, united in harmonious activity with all God’s beautiful creation today. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to enjoy life in God’s kingdom.

And if someone doesn’t believe there is a God or heaven? Or their concept of God is humanized or material? Well, that is hell, where the belief in evil seems to prevail. “If the sinner’s punishment here has been insufficient to reform him, the good man’s heaven would be a hell to the sinner,” says Science and Health (pp. 35–36). 

Can a person be saved once in hell—once they’ve given their consent to a dark, hellish state of thought? The Scriptures say yes. “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:10, 11). The saving Christ continues to reach human consciousness until all evil is destroyed. The concepts of death, hell, and the devil are what are thrown forever into the lake of fire. This is the second or final death in which all evil and opposition to God are forever destroyed. 

Are heaven and hell relevant to our lives today? They are to me. Rehearsing mistakes, reacting to slights, resisting progress, burn like hell until I reach out with my whole heart to the saving, healing Christ. Christ redeems what is worthy and removes from thought what isn’t. Christ reveals the way to higher modes of thinking and acting, and also the daily blessings we gain as a result. Through the laws and rules of Christ—Christian Science—we each can learn to live, not die, our way into eternal life and the kingdom of heaven. 

Today, yes, this day as you are reading this article, is the day of salvation, and all of us are experiencing and advancing toward heavenly harmony and holy being.