Question: I have been worrying lately about dying. I am a Christian, but I worry about where I will be going after I die. What exactly will heaven be like? I don’t know, maybe I’m just afraid to leave the earth. This has been bothering me for some time, and I hope you can help.

Answer: It’s only natural to be concerned about dying and death. There’s an old spiritual that goes, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” How true it is!

It’s also natural to worry about what happens when you die and where you will be going. Even Christians have concerns about this. So you’re not unusual.

Part of the challenge in this whole issue is that there isn’t any “evidence” for heaven. In other words, it’s not like somebody goes to Paris, and then comes back and tells you all about it and shows you pictures. The only “picture” we have of heaven are some verses in the Bible, and even that is sketchy.

Here’s the way we suggest you approach this. First, you have to have faith, and we’re not just talking about “blind” faith. It’s faith based in the evidence that you have. You believe that there is a God, not because you hope and wish that God exists, but because you have reasonable evidence to believe He exists.

If God exists, then you take the next step and find all those ways that God has revealed himself to you. There are two categories of revelation. One is the world around you–the universe, the earth, and all that’s in it. The heavens and the earth point to God (Romans 1:19-20). This is called “general revelation.” The other category of revelation is “special revelation,” and this comes through the written word of God, and the living Word of God. In other words, the Bible and Jesus.

The Bible is God’s written word to us, giving us all we need to show us who God is and what God is like. Jesus is God in human flesh, sent to earth to truly show us God.

So you take all of this, and you believe in God and His word and His Son, Jesus, not because it’s a fairy tale, but because it’s true. You have good reason to believe that God exists, that Jesus came to earth and died for you sins, and then rose again.

You believe the Bible, not because it’s a fairy tale book, but because it’s God’s revelation, and because it is accurate and trustworthy to the last detail. With this belief, you trust that what God has said in His word is true. You trust that what Jesus said about heaven is true. You can believe Jesus when He said to His disciples:

“Don’t be troubled. You trust in God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there” (John 14:1-4).

(If you want a partial description of heaven, read Revelation 21. Or you can read 1 Corinthians 2:9 and just try to imagine how glorious heaven will be.)

As for dying, yes that’s tough to think about, and it can be terrifying. But we don’t need to fear death, because Jesus has conquered death for us already. That doesn’t make it any easier, but it does give us assurance that when we die, we will be with Jesus.