What happens when you die?
Nmeso: You go to heaven or hell.
What are heaven and hell like?
Lewis: Hell is the place where not too great people go. God can still give them another chance, but if they waste that chance then they don’t get another chance and God sends them straight to hell.
Ayuk: I believe in the heaven and hell thing as well. Some people believe that when they die you go to purgatory. It’s a place where your soul is cleansed and you get tested before you go to heaven and hell.
Do you think Christians all agree on heaven and hell?
Lots of people: No.
Nmeso: Some Christians just believe in heaven; because God said he gives you another chance, they believe that when you die the second chance is heaven, but it’s not; when you die, you don’t get another chance, you just go to hell.
Caleb: I think most people, unless you’re a really, really, really bad person, go to heaven. It would be like the last thing God would do, to send you to hell.
How do you think it gets decided, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?
Ayuk: Judgement day: God raises all the people that are bad, they get raised up to hell. And then the people that are good get to stay down in heaven.
Nmeso: I think that once you die you get put into heaven or hell. They don’t just wait till everyone is ready to be judged. I think it happens over time.
Lewis: I have an opinion that hell is down, not up, because hell is a worse place than heaven and you can’t reach heaven so you have to be dead because God will lift your soul up. But when you are bad you stay underground.
How do you think we learn about heaven and hell?
Joshua: Reading the Bible or school.
Nmeso: We can read Revelation.
Is it difficult thinking about this stuff?
Caleb: Yeah, because you don’t know because you can’t go there and come back to Earth. So once you’re there, you’re there. Nobody knows and if you do know it’s because you’re dead and you can’t tell anyone.
Ayuk: I disagree because God can give you visions of heaven. This girl had a vision of hell and apparently she saw Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.
Nmeso: Well, how do you know those visions are true; they could just be talking rubbish?
Do you think it’s ever upsetting to talk about heaven and hell?
Caleb: Well, if you’re somebody who knows someone in your family or something, someone that’s died, then maybe it’s hard. It depends on what’s happened in your life so far.
Nmeso: I think it might be upsetting if you’re afraid, like what if there’s no God and then you just die and that’s it?
