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In my life of sin and spiritual struggle, A number of queries crop up in my mind:

• If this life is temporary and will end soon, and all those who are unprepared or fall short of spiritual victory will perish into an everlasting life of pain and suffering; why has God allowed for so many to come into existence and ultimately perish even though it is a direct result of their own choices.


• If God is indeed all-knowing, does He indeed know the fate of all individuals, and where they will end up whether in Hell or in Heaven?


• How can any sinner enter the kingdom of God? Why do we have to live this life; if there is that chance that we can fall short of salvation?

Heaven is spending eternity with God. In fact, this is why God created mankind in the first place. God is Love (1 John 4:8), and God is Life (John 14:6), and God created mankind so that He could share His Love and Life with mankind. God was not lonely because He is self-sufficient, but He created us to have an eternal Love Relationship with Him. God desires that each of us enter into this personal relationship; but He doesn't force us to. Since true love is only possible when we are free to choose, He allows us to decide whether we want to establish this relationship with Him.

God created mankind with a body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess 5:23). Our body is the physical form and our soul is our inward attitudes (a mind to know Him, emotions to love Him, and a will to choose Him). The human spirit is that part of man that enables him to relate to and know God. It was created to be dependent upon and united with God's Spirit, and was the means through which he enjoyed perfect fellowship with God.

God is omniscient, all knowing. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin but He demonstrated His incredible love for us (Romans 5:8) by giving us what we needed more than anything, what we don't deserve, and what we couldn't obtain on our own. God wanted it to be an invaluable gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), not something that we could earn.

He would also provide it at great sacrifice to Himself. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). God also wanted to initiate this love relationship "He first loved us" (1 John 4:19), and He wanted it to be expressed back to Him through the agency of faith and good works. Finally, and most importantly, God's only provision for our condition is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is deliverance from eternal death and possession of eternal life. First of all, eternal life is a gift that God gives. Jesus himself said "If you knew the gift of God" (John 4:10). Also see "the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23).

Second, Eternal Life exists in the person of Jesus Christ Himself Who is living on the inside of us. "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified" (2 Cor 13:5).

Third, you don't start your eternal life when you die. Eternal life starts the moment that an individual gets baptized and chrismated and receives the Holy Spirit because it is at that time that Christ begins to live in him (John 1:12, Revelation 3:20).

Our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated Satan, giving us the gift of salvation, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that will guide us through the road of eternal life, "Whom the Lord Jesus promised the believers that He will abide with them forever" (John 14:16 and John 16:13) and "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (John 14:26).
  
It is not God's intention nor desire that the majority of the people do not reach eternal life. Through the ages we have seen many characters whose lives were completely altered e.g. St. Paul the apostle, St. Augustine, and many more.

Strive to reach your goal, read  your Holy Bible. You know the way, and the Holy Spirit is in you to guide you. You can receive the gift of salvation, so can anyone; but you have to go to the Lord and get it. In the Divine Liturgy we pray, "You taught us the ways of salvation." We have to utilize the means, and go through the channels of baptism, repentance, and communion in order to be worthy of accepting this gift, and to be worthy of eternal life.