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Homer Simpson has been to hell and back. And not just once. Actually, he's been to both heaven and hell so many times, you'd almost think there were direct flights from Springfield. Instead, Homer's choked on broccoli, had a heart attack, sold his soul to the Devil for a donut and been accidentally sent to hell by Saint Peter. Bart, too, once went to heaven, but was ejected to hell for spitting off a staircase.

So what are heaven and hell like according to The Simpsons? Well, in the show's heaven, Benjamin Franklin plays air hockey with Jimi Hendrix. In hell, a courteous Satan keeps track of who belongs there with a computer and Homer complains of "guys in red pajamas who keep sticking me with pitchforks."

The Simpsons' take on the afterlife is a lot like the visions of heaven and hell I've seen in a lot of movies and TV shows: a cloudy, spectacularly bright heaven and a fiery, red–tinged hell.

Heaven is pretty boring in most shows—angels just sit around on clouds, playing their harps and gabbing. In Little Nicky, the biggest excitement for those in heaven is to watch everything going on down on Earth. In ABC's Desperate Housewives, a woman in heaven spends all her time keeping track of what her friends are doing. Heaven's apparently so boring in the movie Dogma that even God leaves once in a while just to play skee–ball on Earth.

When I see hell in the movies, I usually feel like it's just not taken seriously enough. Satan in The Simpsons and South Park isn't such a bad guy. Demons in Little Nicky and Hellboy can be good. And all the torment and pain of hell is pretty much limited to working hard in a hot place.

With all the ideas of heaven and hell out there, we can't help but wonder: What are they really all about? The best place to look, of course, is the Bible. Christian writer Peter Kreeft says this about heaven: "We have a very good friend in Jesus who has been there. He came here and told us about it and showed it to us."

Think about Kreeft's words a moment. Jesus did paint some powerful word pictures of heaven (and hell). More than that, though, he lived a pure life and talked a lot about a new kingdom that was so different from this world we live in (Matthew 5). Jesus also healed hurting people and offered hope to the hopeless. I think it's fair to say that Jesus brought a little heaven to Earth. In a sense, to see Jesus—to know him and to hear his life–changing words—is to catch a pretty good glimpse of heaven.

Of course, Jesus and the Bible don't answer all of our questions. They don't mention whether there will be pets, or harps or air hockey in heaven. We don't know exactly what it will be like. But they tell us the basics: In heaven, we'll be with God (2 Corinthians 5:8, Revelation 21:22-22:3); those in hell will be without God (2 Thessalonians 1:9,Revelation 21:7-8). That's the bottom line. If Christ is our Lord and Savior, we live in God's house or community. If we die without Christ, then we're shut off from God and all the love and happiness that come from him. What does this mean? I like to think of it as the difference of either living with or without the sun. In the sun, life grows and everything is bright. Without the sun, living things wither and die.

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