It is better to go to heaven because you cannot imagine the pain, the anguish, the suffering, the bitterness and the sorrow that hell will offer. The reason people do not take hell seriously is because they cannot imagine what hell signifies and how painful hell can be. If people can imagine how hell will be like, they will behave much better here on earth.
Luke 16:19-31 tells us the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was a beggar who sat by the gates of the rich man and begged to be fed by the crumbs from the table of the rich man. But the rich man would not feed Lazarus. He rather fed sumptuously and wore rich clothing, while the dogs licked Lazarus’ sores.
One day as it is bound to happen, both of them died; while Lazarus went to heaven, the rich man went to hell. In hell, the rich man said “I am in torment in this place; please father Abraham, send Lazarus to dip his hand in water to cool my thirst.”
The Bible says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell. If people can visualise the pain that will be present in hell, they will spend more time investigating how they can get to heaven and spend less time trying to hang desperately unto life here on earth. A lot of people spend too much time trying to live permanently here on earth. We spend so much time trying to preserve our health, trying to preserve our beauty, trying to preserve our wealth and trying to preserve everything else we think belongs to us. Nothing, however, including our bodies, belongs to us.
The most painful thing about heaven and hell is that it is the decisions that you make here on earth on an everyday basis that make either heaven or hell possible for you. There are certain things that you do here on a daily basis that decide where you will spend eternity.
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we discover that the rich man was born again (repented) – because he called on father Abraham, while he was in hell, to send someone to go and warn his brothers still alive on earth. This man paid his tithes, donated his first fruits, gave big offerings, went to church regularly, did not commit fornication and adultery and yet he still ended up in hell. The rich man went to hell because he was not compassionate to Lazarus, the beggar.
Some people are not talking to others because they feel aggrieved by such people. Such resentment won’t take you to heaven. There are people who are bitter at their parents, their husbands or their wives; such bitterness won’t take you to heaven.
There are people who are just concerned about themselves, as they don’t have a husband or a wife or children. The husband or wife or children or lack of them won’t take you to heaven. The rich man went to hell simply because despite all that he had, he was not ready to give it all up and help the beggar who was always waiting at the gate.
But we will discover that even helping the poor is not enough to get someone to heaven. Even if you give everything that you have to the poor, you still might not make to heaven.