Why Doesn't God Give People a Second Chance After Death to Choose Him?

This essay argues four things:

1. Scripture teaches that the human choice becomes final at death.

2. God withholds nothing that could genuinely save a person.

3. The impossibility of post-mortem repentance arises from God’s nature and moral law, not a lack of mercy.

4. Human character solidifies through a cumulative spiritual process that eventually becomes irreversible.
   
   
   
   Is a Person's Choice Definitely Over at Death?
   Many have wondered "Why is a person's choice for or against God sealed at death?" "Why doesn't God give people another chance after death to choose Him?" Since God is all-loving and infinitely merciful, why does He close the door at death, and not give people as much time and as many chances as they need to make the right choice?
   Let's first establish that a person's chance to choose God really does end at their death.
   
   "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"

Hebrews 9:27

And here we see in Hebrews that a person's chance definitely is up at death, because after death they face judgment, and if they still had not made their final choice, then judgment certainly could not be meted out and apportioned.

Why Doesn't God Do a Miracle to Convince My Lost Family Members to Believe in Him?
If you are a converted Christian, I'm sure you've engaged in the thought exercise where you try to imagine what it would take to bring your unconverted family members to believe in Jesus. You've had long conversations with God about what to pray for on their behalf, and what He could do to bring them into the faith. Perhaps you've wondered if a miracle would convince them, and maybe you've wondered why God doesn't seem to be doing as many miracles in our day as He did in Jesus' time. Will the reduction in the amount of miracles in our day and age affect a person's choice? Are we supposed to do something about this and pray with more faith so God can do more miracles to reach them? Or perhaps you've considered that when a person is converted and changed from death to life - spiritually - that this is indeed the greatest miracle of all, and you're hoping that your family will be able to witness the true conversion of someone as a witness that will bring them to Christ. I'm sure you've prayed and asked God to do whatever it would take to save them!

And then when He didn't perform a miracle you may have been tempted to wonder, "Is God not willing to do whatever it takes to save them? Is God holding back?"

God is Merciful and Loving Enough to Give More Time!
I believe the truth is that God is certainly merciful and loving enough to do whatever it would take to save someone. Including giving people as many chances as it would take for them to choose Him. When He gave His own life as a sacrifice for their sins He showed that there wasn't any good and right thing that He wouldn't do to save them. In that sacrifice we see that there is nothing God would hold back; that His love is infinite. The Bible tells us God is patient and gives people much time, hoping they will turn to Him and repent. This is the reason God has allowed the world to go on for so long even though there is suffering and sin here. He is unwilling to prematurely close the door on people who might turn to Him in the end.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
2 Peter 3:9

The Reason He Doesn't Give a Chance After Death Is Impossibility
The Bible actually gives us the clear answer as to why God doesn't give more time. The scriptures aren't ambiguous on this subject. They tell us "it is impossible" for those who have once believed and been filled with the wonderful fellowship of God's Holy Spirit, and who have tasted the goodness of His Word, if they fall away and choose to ultimately reject Jesus in this life...to be converted after death.

And later we will see that this same truth also applies to those who never became Christians in this life, but heard God's voice speaking to their soul and rejected it in a final way. They too can not be brought to repentance after this life is over.

Impossible, really?

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance..."

Hebrews 6:4-6

But Aren't All Things Possible With God?
At this point you might be thinking "But I thought all things are possible with God?"

It's important that we understand that when the word "impossible" is used about God in the scriptures, it doesn't mean the same thing it means when it is used to describe people. "Impossible" for us means we lack the power or ability to do something. This is due to the limits of our finite nature. But since God is almighty, there is nothing that is too hard for Him to do. His power is limitless.

“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?
Jeremiah 32:27

The Bible actually uses several different Greek words in the New Testament for "impossible."

In Matthew 17:20, rebuking the disciples when they could not cast out a demon, and explaining it was because they lacked faith, Jesus says: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

In this passage the Greek word adynatēsei is used. This word means to lack power, to be unable, to fail due to insufficient capacity.

Jesus is saying here that nothing will fail due to your inability if you have faith, because God is all-powerful. This verse is referencing power specifically.

In Gospel of Luke 18:27, speaking of how it is impossible for a rich man to get into heaven, but what is impossible with man is possible with God, the scriptures use the word ἀδύνατα for "impossible." This word means “outcomes that lie outside the human capacity-space”. This is not a reference to something being impossible for us due to lack of power, but due to incapacity. A statement showing the same concept might go like this:

“It is impossible for a student to forgive debt — but possible for the bank to do so.”

or "It is impossible for a paver to lift a car, but a crane can do it." The paver may have just as much horsepower as a crane, but it lacks the capacity to lift.

More power won't help in this scenario. In the same way, our inability to get into heaven isn't just a power issue; it's an incapacity problem, and this Bible verse highlights this aspect specifically.

Similarly, in Jesus prayer in the garden to His Father He saus "Abba Father, all things are possible for you" and He uses the word dynata, which means having an effective ability-path towards an outcome. That can mean having the power, having the capacity, or the thing being within God's will. The context determines which way this word is meant to be used. In this case Jesus is speaking here about power, acknowledging there is nothing God is not powerful enough to do.

But then Jesus does something interesting. He says "if it be possible take this cup from me." The fact He uses the word again in a way that would contradict His faith in His Father if taken the same way we took the original statement, shows us this second meaning is not the same as the first. The same Greek word is used here but the context changes it from the original meaning. In this instance, it is about realizability. If it be possible -- if it is feasible or realizable within the bounds of God’s will and purpose -- take this cup from me.

And we learn it is not possible for God to forgive us any other way other than Christ dying the second death in our place and taking the wrath of God for us.

Speaking of this deep spiritual truth Paul says:
"without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Hebrews 9:22

This second kind of impossible is different from lacking in power or lacking in capability, it points to something that is incompatible with God’s own nature, justice, and redemptive order—a moral and covenantal necessity rather than a limitation of strength.

The Only Way In Which Impossibility Applies to an All-Powerful God
Let's think about this for a moment: what are the only ways that "impossible" could apply to an all-powerful God? Well. what are the only things an infinitely loving, all-powerful, indestructible divine Being cannot be or do?

He cannot die or be destroyed.
He cannot stop being perfect love.
He cannot make a mistake, whether a moral failure, or any other kind of mistake.
He cannot have things He doesn't know or that are outside of His knowledge.

Do you see? Let's dig a little deeper here. It turns out that "be" is more correct than "do" when it comes to God. God's essence is not separate from His actions. He doesn't do good; He is perfect goodness. He also isn't limited by space or time, or capability, thus for Him to do an action doesn't involve Him doing it with hands, or muscles, or within the constraints we are used to thinking of when we think of human beings. Being is inseparable from doing.

His Word is "alive and active" (Hebrews 4:12), and He does actions through His word.

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"
Hebrews 1:3

Notice in this verse in Hebrews how His almighty power and His Word are inseparable. It is through His Word that His power is displayed.

"He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.
He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?
He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow."
Psalm 147:15-18

"And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."
Genesis 1:3

As created beings we are used to thinking about actions that involve comparing oneself to God's standard and deciding whether or not to lie, whether or not to tell the truth, whether or not to honor our parents, whether or not to harbor jealousy in our heart over someone who has something we wanted. This is what it means to be human, to choose our actions in light of God's perfect Standard. But God is under no one; He is not a subject, He is the King and Governor. Thus He is the Standard itself who others align with and measure themselves by. Without Him there would be no way to tell whether a thought or action was loving or selfish, no measuring stick, no moral truth.

Being the Standard isn't the same thing as God doing whatever He wants and vacillating by whims. For thousands of years popes said same sex relationships were a sin; but the pope before the one we have now sanctioned them as long as the two partners remained unmarried. How could right and wrong change after thousands of years just because a church leader made this verdict? The God of the Bible is not like this! This kind of action where one claims authority gives them the right to change morality, shows they don't really have divine authority at all, for the true God who is Himself The Truth cannot change His law, for this would be equivalent with His own character changing. God's 10 commandment law is set in stone because His own character is set in stone.

God is a true anchor in the cosmos, that never shifts. He not only never desires to shift, by being indestructible in His Being He never can shift; it's impossible.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
James 1:17

It is impossible for Him to ever be anything else other than perfect Goodness Personified. It is impossible for Him to ever lack a single divine attribute like omnipotence, omniscience, etc. This is the only way that "impossible" applies to God.


It Wasn't Possible for God to Forgive Without Christ Dying
What does this mean? It means that Jesus being the only way to be saved isn't arbitrary.

Thus if a person rejects this blood shed on their behalf, there is no way they can be saved. It becomes 'impossible'. The only way to eternal life is by the blood of Christ.

If it were possible for God to have saved us without Christ dying, you can be sure He never would have sent Jesus for no purpose or reason. God does not delight in pointless, senseless death. And He would never close the door on someone who could still be saved, never. you can be sure that God would not close that door.

In fact the scriptures say He is actually in a sense delaying and waiting, and is endlessly patient so that as many as possible will come to Him to be saved.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

-2 Peter 3:9

The reason this world has gone on so long - for thousands of years - and God has not cut things short even though there's been much pain and suffering, and people mistreating one another, is because God is giving everyone the time they need to choose Him.

Impossible Not Because of a Lack of Power, but Because of God's Nature and Goodness
Forgiving people without Christ's death, for God to lie, or for people who have rejected Jesus in this life to repent, are not impossible due to a lack of power on God's part. They are impossible because of God's nature and His goodness, which His spiritual laws reflect and are based on.

We spoke earlier about how God cannot change. This applies to His spiritual laws too. God cannot be anything other than perfect goodness, and as the Governor over reality and the Source of all truth, the spiritual laws He presides over must be based on truth.

The way a person is lost or saved has to work a certain way which is accordance with His goodness and rightness.

The way a person forms character has to work a certain way that aligns with what is good and right.

The terms and conditions must always be right and good in every aspect of this government.

This goodness cannot be abolished or changed, and God would never want that.

There is a law that people reap what they sow, and this law applies equally to the physical world, when engaging in activities here, take gardening for example, as much as it does to the spiritual world, where we reap the rewards of faith and right actions.

The scriptures even go so far as to say that God would be mocked if this law were to fail. In other words, this law is so tied into God and His righteous government that if it could cease to exist, God would cease to be faithful, God would cease to be God. (Galatians 6:7)

And this right here is the crux of the matter for why salvation must work a certain way. The core idea here is that right actions must hold reward, and wrong actions must hold negative reward. Reward -- or effects -- are behind why the heart hardens or softens when we make moral choices. If one's heart didn't harden or soften when one made moral choices, it wouldn't mean anything to make a right choice. There would be no right and wrong; they wouldn't exist in a tangible real way, just as ideas on a page, not as living realities.

And God can never be mocked in such a way. He exists, He is good, and he is eternal, and thus goodness is forever, and we live in a moral world with real cause and effect laws for our moral choices.

Spiritual laws aren't created things, and they aren't arbitrary. The scriptures say "In Him all things hold together". Colossians 1:17 This verse is not just a reference to God's power holding up the world, but also a reference to their properties and attributes coming from Christ Himself who is the Origin of all Truth. All truth derives its properties from Him. This includes scientific truth, moral truth, and spiritual truths.

This is why the spiritual laws must work the way they do, and why the door must close at death for making a choice for salvation.

The truth is spiritual laws govern physical things in this world. This is why when Adam sinned, the world broke down, physical death entered the picture, and natural evils like cancer and disease came onto the scene.

The Bible explains the relation of the spiritual laws with the physical ones this way: "The wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23 What this means is the effects of sin -- or the breaking of the moral law -- results in death to the living physical created things in our world.

The spiritual laws govern the physical ones.

In an attempt to gain closure from seeing relatives die unsaved (only God can make the final call but this is the way it appeared), I've engaged in thought exercises that ask "Could it be possible for God to take a loved one who died in rebellion to Him and transport them back in time to a time when their heart was soft towards Him and give them another chance to choose Him?" After all, God inserted Jesus into time, formed a human body for Him, and performed other amazing miracles to save us, so we know He is certainly powerful enough to do such a thing and loving enough to do it too.

People Aren't Just Physical Matter Come to Life; We Are Also Our Record
I found the answer when I realized that as moral beings, not merely physical ones, human beings aren't just matter come to life. We are also our record of good and bad deeds, all of our choices.

Only Jesus can free us of this record. And if a person rejects Jesus ultimately and fully, there is no freedom from the record.

This is why God could not re-create a loved one and have them start over without their memories, or transport them back in time for a do-over.

A person isn't just their unique DNA, their unique brain structure, and their personality, as a moral agent under the government of God, they are the record of their deeds.

I found verses like Psalm 139:16:

"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

This caused me to ask "If people are inside of time, why is their record outside of time?"

In this verse David speaks of a record in heaven which is outside of time, existing in the mind of God. Before David was born or even lived one of the days of his life, all of his entire life record was recorded in God's eternal book, and known to the mind of God.

This is a very deep philosophical truth. If you really think about it information is not material. In this world we are used to thinking of information and materiality as one and the same, because our brain thinks, stores information, and retrieves it using neurotransmitters which are physical things, computers send data using radio waves or satellites which are electromagnetic physical things. But the information itself is actually not physical; it is just information. We send signals and symbols, facts can't be sent; they just are.

But all information exists independent of any physical thing, outside of time, in the mind of God.

This doesn't mean the decisions we make aren't happening in linear time -- they are. It just means the information about them is eternal. All created things exist within time; information about them exists outside of time in God's mind.

This is how the scriptures could say: "they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is." Revelation 17:8

What these verses are telling us is the choices we make in this life are eternal ones, so eternal that those who are lost are said to never have had their names written in God's book from the foundation of the world.

But how could a person who is inside time, make a choice that lasts eternally?

It's because as created beings who exist in time, we can only make choices in time; that's the only way we make choices. That's how choices are done by created beings. And once that choice is made fully and completely, it is a final one. This is because for God to try to go back and give the person more time would be to erase that person. They have formed a character up completely, all the way to making a final choice, and their record and their "self" are one and the same.

Animals have a physical body without a record, but people as moral agents do not. To pull a family member back in time to have a chance to make another choice is to erase that person and really you have another person there instead; they aren't your family member.

Ok, But Why Does the Choice Become Fixed?
This is the part I struggled with for a long time...Since Jesus is willing to forgive any and every sin that exists, even the worst sins a person can commit, why does a person's choice become fixed; why can't anyone repent at any time?

The spiritual process is cumulative and involves degrees.

There is a spiritual process to hardening or softening one's heart and it is cumulative and involves degrees of change.

The Bible describes a system of Hysteresis:

Definition (technical):
A system in which the effect of a change depends on the history of prior changes, such that returning to a previous input does not return the system to its previous state.

If we could endlessly go back and forth from rebellion to repentance then people could always repent, and actually no one would ever be solidified through all of time. There would never be any real character consequences to sinning, and never any real gains from doing right. It would be like playing a video game where the consequences don't matter and aren't real and can be reset at any time. Thus it doesn't work this way.

In reality, even though Jesus has grace to forgive any kind of sin, God's law of right and wrong still exists, and the spiritual laws connected with it that sin hardens a person's heart in a cumulative way (more hardening occurs the second time you do the first sin than the first time you do it) still exist, even in this backdrop of redemption and grace and mercy.

The cumulative nature of sin and the hysteresis of sin is how the concept of "Today" comes about in the scriptures. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Hebrews 3:15

"But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."
Hebrews 3:13

This is why there are so many admonitions to not wait, and to seek Christ today and part with sin today. It is never safe to parley with sin.

"Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near."
Isaiah 55:6

The Only Sin That Won't be Forgiven
In the book of Matthew Jesus tells us the only sin that will not be forgiven.

"Truly I tell you, the sons of men will be forgiven all sins and blasphemies, as many as they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of eternal sin.” - Matthew 12:32

Notice that he explains 'eternal sin' is not forgiven. There is a type of sin that solidifies it and makes that person's choice eternal. Eternal sin is different from regular sin.

What makes something an 'eternal sin'? It is not the kind of sin. Notice Jesus says any and all kinds of sins will be forgiven. Any kind of sin can be forgiven, from lying to adultery, to murder, to blasphemy. Even some of the people who shouted "Crucify Him" at His death later repented and were forgiven.

So if any kind of sin can be forgiven, what's different about the eternal sin?

"If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries." - Hebrews 10:26

If We Go On Sinning, the Sin Becomes an Eternal One
The book of Hebrews gives the answer. It says if we "go on sinning" after receiving knowledge of the truth...if we live a whole life of unrepentant sin, and never turn to Jesus, this is the eternal sin. Jesus' blood cannot cover a person who has not repented and turned from their sin. He can forgive them at any point leading up to full hardness of heart, but if they persist in hardening their heart again and again until it solidifies in rebellion, and form up a character against God, then their choice becomes eternal.

And this is what everyone does in this life; this is what this life is for and what it accomplishes. Everyone has time to form and develop a character for or against God. To hear God's Holy Spirit many, many - millions - of times speaking to their heart and convicting them of their sin and their need of a Savior, and they either follow Jesus more and more and soften their heart over and over, or they reject Him over and over and harden their heart again and again.

The end result of a lifetime of the Holy Spirit speaking to a person again and again, is a solidified, eternal choice is made.

People do not endlessly go back and forth from rejecting God to accepting Him, and back again. Their hearts do not stay malleable. The only way people would stay malleable is if they remained in ignorance forever, but because the convicting voice of God's Holy Spirit is powerful and effective, it works change in the person - big changes over time - ultimately either for life or for death, depending on how they respond.

The Process of Hardening or Softening One's Heart
This process is explained in the book of Hebrews.

"Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.

But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned."

Hebrews 6:8-9

The rain is a reference to the Holy Spirit and also to the doctrine of God.

"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

We all start off in this life with only a little knowledge about God. We hear His Holy Spirit's voice convicting us, but we have only a small general knowledge of God and of right and wrong.

But as time goes on in our lives, we learn more about God. We may meet people who are Christians or we decide to read the Bible to see what it is all about. We might attend church with family or friends and learn about God this way.

This is the gentle drops of dew, given to the young plant. It would damage and kill the young plant to have powerful showers fall on it, so God gives just dew drops at first.

We have more experiences where we see more of the justice and mercy of God - the goodness of Him. We learn that Jesus died for us personally and loves us personally. We learn more of what that sacrifice entailed and means. The rain goes from dew, to light rain, to showers.

We choose whether to respond to that convicting voice - all the weight of evidence that God has provided in His Word and in the natural world around us that testifies to a loving Creator - with repentance and faith that produces fruit, or with hardness of heart and a refusal to repent and yield fruit.

Why is It Impossible? Because the Land Itself is Ruined in an Eternal Way

Let's read the verse one more time, asking the question why is it impossible to renew the land?

"Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned."

It's impossible because the land that refuses to yield a crop from the rain becomes ruined. The land itself reaches a condition where it's fully and completely ruined.

This is a different kind of ruined from how we were ruined in character after we committed our first sin. That kind of ruined involved being fallen, cut off from God, and selfish in character, but redemption was still possible.

But this kind of ruined that happens at the end of a person's life isn't like the ruined of being lost where the person can be redeemed and their state is revocable. This second kind of ruined is permanent; it's eternal, irrevocably ruined.

And the reason it's irrevocable is because the person has had the rain and rejected the rain. They'd had great light and rejected the light. And the full rejection of god hardens the heart completely and irrevocably.

They are now in a state just like the evil angels, and the fact evil angels reached this state before us, shows us such a state is possible, and is in fact the final outcome of a rebellious being.

One Cannot Go Endlessly Back and Forth; Attempts to Stay in the Same Place Result in a Cumulative Downward Effect

If we sin a certain sin, then get convicted on the wrongness of that sin, give it up, then go back to that same sin later on (I'm talking about a lifestyle of embracing said sin, not a slip up), the second time we embrace the sin our heart hardens more than it did the first time we did that sin.

So repetition here -- going back and forth -- is not just a repeat of the sins of the past. It's a deeper hardening of the heart the second time around.

What this amounts to is it creates a situation where you can't go endlessly back and forth.

So let's say the person wanted to live a worldly lifestyle, but they didn't want to become more evil than they were. They come up with a humanistic plan of repenting of sin, getting a new heart for a while, then going back into sin. So that over the course of their lives they would stay in basically the same moral place.

They would find this to actually be impossible. They wouldn't be able to "trick" God in this way -- or as the Bible says 'mock' God (Galatians 6:7). Let's say whenever they repented with this plan it was actually genuine. They actually did come to a place of full repentance.

This plan still wouldn't work. Even if the repentance was genuine each time, because they kept going back into sin, each time they rebelled their heart would get harder than the previous time, causing a downward trend. They could not tread the "water" of being kind of bad but not too bad and staying in that same place overall.

This process is why everyone eventually reaches a point where they make an eternal choice for God or an eternal choice against God.

The Bible talks about this process, calling it "committing an eternal sin".

We All Eventually Reach a Point Where Our Character Solidifies
By the end of our lives - and for certain individual's in the Bible, while they were still living (like king Saul) - everyone reaches a point where more rain won't yield a different result. God only has rain to give. There is no powerful force in the world to reach people than the still small convicting voice of God. If that doesn't work, nothing will.

Think of the often referenced verse about God hardening Pharoah's heart in Exodus 7:3. It says God hardened his heart by sending him signs and wonders - evidence that the God of Moses was the true God. It was this unmistakable evidence and conviction from God that resulted in Pharoah's heart hardening.

This evidence was effective! For others, like Rahab the prostitute in Jericho who heard of these wonderous acts of God, this same evidence worked repentance of heart and a true conversion. It was powerful and effective evidence, thus it had a powerful effect on everyone, for good or for ill, depending on how they chose to respond.

In the book of Luke Jesus tells an allegorical parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich who shunned the poor during his life, and used all his money for his selfish pursuits and pleasure, finds himself after death lost and in agony in hell...There is no way back for him, but he begs Abraham to allow him to go back to the land of the living to warn his brothers of the realities of hell and of being lost. He thinks that if they see someone come back from the dead they will choose to believe in God and follow Him. But what is he told?

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:32

If no one could ever make a final choice, not only would this show there's no reward for choosing rightly, but it would also reveal that God's voice is ineffective. He can't convict us adequately. I think you can see how this couldn't be true.

When Do Human Beings Reach This Point?

When Jesus comes back at the end of time, He is portrayed in the book of Revelation as having a sickle in His hand. This is a reaping tool. We are told He is coming back for the harvest.

This depicts a state of things where everyone on earth has become like the loyal angels or the demons; they've responded to God's conviction until they reach the point where their heart is either hardened completely or softened completely. This is what is meant by every person being "ripe."

Harvesting the Earth and Trampling the Winepress
"I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested."

Revelation 14:14-16

These are the two things Jesus does at the end of time. He harvests His people, and He "tramples", or destroys the wicked because they have not born good fruit but have refused to repent of their sins.

When does this happen?

"As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:29

Jesus doesn't delay judgment on the wicked or rewards on the righteous. As soon as the harvest of the earth is ripe, He returns.

The Hearts of People at the End of Time

Other verses confirm this state of things. Describing all the people at the time of the end the Bible tells us:

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
Revelation 22:11

Notice how no one at this point changes "camps." If wicked they remain wicked; they do not repent and become righteous. If righteous they remain righteous; they do not return to their life of sin.

Notice in these verses how the wicked are described.

"The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony

and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done."
Revelation 6:10-11

They do not repent, even when God sends judgments on them. Throughout the Bible, in most judgments God sends, there are always some people who repent. Some harden, some repent. But at the time of the end, no one changes sides.

"Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft."

Notice how it's not just the wicked hit by the plagues who refuse to repent; it's all of the wicked who refuse to repent. "The rest of the wicked" means all the wicked people on the earth.

If People Won't Listen to Bible Truth They Wouldn't be Converted Even if a Miracle Were Performed in Their Presence
This parable answers the question many of us have had about whether a miracle would convince our family members to believe in Christ. Who are Moses and the prophets? This is a reference to the Bible - to the Old Testament. Jesus is saying here that if a person will not listen to the very Word of God Himself, then there is nothing else in all of the universe that they will respond to.

In fact not only does this parable show this truth, but in living color we see this acted out in the life of Christ. Jesus daily did miracles in front of the Pharisees and yet they chose not to believe. The miracles could only convince those who wanted the truth and hungered after it, and who were responding to the Holy Spirit's conviction to become converted; it couldn't convert people who did not want to listen to the still small voice.

The Still, Small Voice of the Holy Spirit the Most Powerful Thing God Can Use
God taught this same truth to the prophet Elijah when after Elijah had called down fire from heaven - a miracle that showed the Israelites who the true God was - he became discouraged and disheartened by the unbelief of his fellow Israelites, expecting more of a response of dedication to God from them on their part after this wonderful display of power, and Elijah ran from the wicked idolatrous queen Jezebel and hid in a mountain.

God appeared to him and told him to stand beside the mountain where God would pass by him.

"And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?"

1 Kings 19:11-13

Here God teaches and shows Elijah that displays of power and miracles are not the most powerful thing He can use to convict people. Those are just tools, object lessons. But the voice of God Himself is the most powerful thing He can use, and there is nothing in all of the universe that is as effective as this.

God Uses the Most Powerful Method Every Single Day on Our Hearts
Knowing this gives us confidence that God is every single day using the most powerful and most effective way to draw people to Himself. Every single day His own voice speaks to them and convicts them. Every single day the "rain" falls on them.

If they will not listen to the convicting voice of God Himself, there is no other power or tool left for God to use to work their conversion.

The land that often drinks in the rain, either yields a crop, or it is spoiled in the end. It does not remain good land with nutritious soil that can be endlessly worked. At the end of this life, everyone's choice is an eternal one. This is why God does not give us more time. More time would not change anything.

In fact, we see from the experience of the angels in heaven, who rebelled against God and became demons, that they have never repented, or thought even one good thought after they committed the 'eternal sin'. They have had six thousand years passed the time when Satan tempted Adam to sin in Eden, and no angel has ever repented.

More time has not helped them, and in the same way that more time didn't work a change in evil angels, it would not work a change in people who choose in this life to reject the still small voice.

God Claims He Could Not Have Done More
God makes a powerful claim in Isaiah, the claim we all need and desire Him to make. Referring to His people - and all the people of the earth - in an allegorical way, He says there is nothing more He could have done to save them. He calls on us to judge between Him and His vineyard to see that He did everything possible to save fallen human beings.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?"

Isaiah 5:3-4

He's telling us here that there is nothing more He can do than what He has done and what He is doing in their lives. He is faithful to the core and infinitely loving.

It's only after calling on us to see and judge that He has done all He can that He pronounces the judgment of destruction upon the unrepentant.

"Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled." (verse 5).

He doesn't want us to think He will destroy people in the judgment fire of hell who had a chance to be saved, and who would have responded to Him if given more time. He would never do such a thing. These are people who have hardened their hearts to the point of it being an eternal sin, with no desire to come back.

This is what Jesus means by saying "whoever speaks a Word against the Holy Ghost [the still small voice, my emphasis added] will not be forgiven either in this age or the one to come."

Matthew 12:32

He means that they will never repent at that point, and thus God cannot forgive someone who will never repent and like the evil angels has sinned in a fixed, eternal, unrepentant way.

Let's go back to Hebrews 4:6 and look at it again after having studied this topic out...Let's read it in the NIV version this time...

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit...

and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance..."

Hebrews 6:4-6

See what is impossible? For them to be brought to repentance. The text is saying if they reject Jesus in a final way in this life, they will not repent. They can't be brought to a place where they will repent. It isn't saying God is closing the door on them. it's saying they will not ever again choose to repent. And thus Jesus cannot forgive someone who will not repent. They have eternally shut their heart on God.