Will not be where? In heaven. I know there is a lot to unpack with regard to who will be in heaven and who are the wicked that will not be there. There are a lot of items to discuss and a lot of questions to answer. Where I do believe that the answers are found in God’s Word, I am going to only address the wicked, and will only scratch the surface for those with lots of questions.

“⁵Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.”

— Psalm 1:5-6 (ESV)

First thing here is that we find the wicked, well they will not be in heaven. They will be somewhere, but their time has come and they reap what they sow, wickedness. They are not granted life everlasting in heaven with Christ. So, just who are the wicked. That is a great question.

“Wicked – 1: morally very bad: EVIL” – Merriam-Webster Online

So, they are the very bad, or evil individuals. But what does that mean. Well, again, there is a lot to it, but what I believe to be the thing is that there is a conscious effort of them to inflict harm, whether physical or emotional or social or cultural or in any other sense to others. In short, as the definition above notes, morally very bad people. These are those who are only “happy” when others are experiencing hardship and likely that hardship is the doing of the wicked person.

But what about the second part of verse 5 above you ask. “Sinners” will not be there either. Aren’t we all sinners all the time? Well, yes we are sinners and do not deserve the gift of eternal life in heaven. But, we have been saved by grace through our acceptance of the gift of salvation. We are sinners, Just that we are working to not be active. Think of alcoholics. They are always alcoholics, but when they have gotten “on the wagon” they are not active are are identified as a recovering alcoholic, but an alcoholic none the less. We are recovering sinners but sinners none the less. The sinners that are referenced in verse 5 above are not recovering and have not accepted the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus.

All wicked are sinners, but not all sinners are wicked. The thing is that sinners are still separated from God and will be dealt with in the same fashion as the wicked. Both will be eternally separated from God as they will not be in heaven with those who have accepted the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus.

What is your view of the wicked and sinners? Are your thoughts that they will just go through a different more harshly regulated gate to heaven? What if you were to reconcile that they had every opportunity to accept the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus and will not be there at all?