Could an Earthly Death be the key to gaining entry into Heaven

How many times have you heard that a person, who died, here on earth, told someone who were there at the time, that they were tired and ready to go?  Maybe they told someone earlier that they would not be here much longer before they took that last breath.  Ever wondered how they knew?  I remember Dr. Martin Luther King saying that he had been on the mountain top and had seen the Promised Land, and then he said, I might not get there with you but I promise we will get to the Promised Land. 

The Bible says that hell is a place full of pain and suffering which describes living on this earth to a tee.  It would explain why the Bible asks us to rejoice upon the earthly death of a loved one instead of morn.  It may explain why the Bible told us, so long ago, that the wages of sin was death and tells us to not fear death and that if we must fear death, fear not the death of the body but of the soul.  Leaving here, this earth is only death of the body.  Maybe that is why the Bible tells us that God’s church is not man-made, that the body we occupy now is man-made, that God’s church is our individual souls and even if we lose this earthly body, only God can cause death to the soul.  I preference my real question by all this to help maybe give you a bit of clarity and purpose to the question.  The question is could an earthly death be the key to getting passed the gates of heaven?

In the later part of the Book of Mark Chapter 8 beginning with verse 35, Jesus is quoted as saying “If you hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.  And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your soul?  Is anything worth more than your soul?  If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  In Mark Chapter 9 verse 1 he is quoted as ending that statement by saying “I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power.”

For those who continue to be confused about which lesson to heed, I ask you this.  Would it not be prudent to heed the words of the one closest to God?  I believe that when Jesus is talking about hanging on to life, he is talking about our earthy life and when he speaks about giving up that life, he is meaning more concentration toward treating people as we would like to be treated and believing with all our mind, body and soul that he is Lord and did rise.  I believe that our soul is our treasure and entrusted to us by God to protect and keep safe from Satan.  We do this by choosing to do good regardless the cost and humbly asking for forgiveness when we fail.  I believe that when he talks about being shameful of him, he means that in certain crowds we take on certain ways.  In a crowd of unrelenting sinners we join and become as they are and in a crowd of true believers who treat people as they wish to be treated we morph and move further toward the front of the crowd to be seen also.  

And finally when he is quoted as saying that some of you will not die before the Kingdom comes again, I think he means that those who do not die are those who may be left behind and those who have died, has already served their time in hell and accomplished the mission that God has sent them to do, which can only be completed by that particular person.  No one else can do the job God sent you to do, only you and after it is done he can relieve you of all this pain and suffering, bring you home, place you in that perfect body he has created just for you and say to you, rest now my child, your job is done on earth.

Maybe this is what is meant by “his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Might his will be spreading the Good News as you know you should not so much by words but by believing in him and treating others as you would like to be treated.  So maybe those times you considered yourself lucky and avoided an earthy death had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with the unfinished task that you were sent here to do.  We all have a job to do here on earth and since none of us know exactly what that job is or when we will finish it, wouldn't it be prudent to follow the lessons of the one closest to God and begin now to believe in him with all our mind, body and soul as well as begin to treat others as we would like to be treated.