I went to church for about twenty years. At church they often would talk about how to be sure you’re going to heaven. They wanted to make no-one was confused about this vitally important topic.
They taught it’s necessary to believe certain things and then pray a particular prayer. They said God will always answer the prayer if you mean it.
Someone summarized what you need to believe and the prayer into four Spiritual Laws:
- God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
- Man is sinful and separated from God.
- Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.
- We must individually receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. (this is the prayer)
These laws are all about me and fixing my problem. They remind me of commercials which assure me that my life will be so much better or easier if I buy what they are selling.
Lots of people don’t seem to know the Four Spiritual Laws. Or maybe they do and they just disagree with them. Most of them who believe in heaven seem to be hoping that if they are good people and are kind to others, that will get them there.
I found places in the Bible where it seems like Jesus agrees with them. One time Jesus said people who did the following things would go to heaven:
- Gave food to a hungry person
- Gave drink to a thirsty person
- Invited a stranger in
- Gave clothes to someone who needed them
- Looked after a sick person
- Visited someone in prison
Jesus didn’t say anything about what they’d believed or whether they’d prayed any particular prayer.
Jesus also didn’t say how many of these things people had to do and how much. But, I don’t think Jesus would ask people to be kind to others if he wasn’t planning to be kind to them. So I think in his decisions about who did enough he will be kind.
Another time a man actually asked Jesus how to make sure he would go to heaven. First, Jesus said, do these things:
- Don’t murder
- Don’t be unfaithful to your wife
- Don’t steal
- Don’t tell lies about others
- Don’t cheat
- Honor your parents
These are mostly from what Christians call ‘the ten commandments’. Jesus only mentioned the commandments about how to treat other people. He didn’t mention the ones about God or keeping the Sabbath holy. I don’t know why he left them out.
The man replied he’d already done what Jesus said. So then Jesus added, do one more thing: “sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, then come follow me”.
Jesus didn’t tell him he had to believe three things and then pray a prayer. What he did say was hard. I don’t think I would be willing to sell everything I have. I think Jesus will be kind when he decides if this man did enough.
Jesus’ way of getting to heaven makes sense to me. If I was in charge of heaven, I’d like to have people there who were kind to others, not people who just prayed a prayer. (If they did both that would be fine) I’d like to be on earth with those people as well.
It was confusing that my church said it was very wrong to think doing good things like being kind to people was how you get to heaven, yet Jesus said that.
I decided to quit church and hope Jesus was right.
Helen, i like your thoughts, not least as they add an extra depth/dimension to what was an effective but still relatively reductionist approach to the kingdom of God – that seems to me the invitation that Jesus was issuing – not so much one of do ya want to go to heaven, more do you want to join/be part of my kingdom…
I think to that end doing good to people is the actual living out of God’s kingdom – it’s about for me the putting into practice the beliefs that say ok my life is not just about me and what i can take/get/do my life is about something bigger/harder which is loving and caring for this planet and its inhabitants.
Now the nub I find is that when i try and put into practice that sort of kingdom living i find that i quickly run out of the resource that is needed – i am just limited in my love and ultimately i am quite selfish and self interested and therefore any acts of goodness that i do are usually offset with equal amounts of crap born out of my own insecuriy, vanity, addictions etc.
It is I think the reason i decide to follow Jesus cos i realise that my own goodness is limited and the best chance i have of being able to love people, being able to break the cycle of self is to have a higher power that is actively interested in helping me – and actively requires me to admit my own limitiation, my own self centredness and say I need help – I need help from God and I need help from the people who follow God if i am gonna live out the values that God espouses/values and love/serve/give to the people in the communities that i inhabit…
Paul, I understand that you are saying this out of humility.
But I don’t like what it seems to imply – which is that people who don’t ask for God’s help can’t be as good as those who do.
If I looked around me and saw that people who ask for God’s help are noticeably more good, then I’d think, wow, I guess that really is the only way to attain a certain level of goodness.
But what I actually see is people being basically similar in how good they are, regardless of whether they are asking God to help them be good or not.
Why is that Paul? Can you explain it? Is it my eyesight – do I need to look harder? 😉
I think everyone has the capacity for good but then i think we also have a high capacity to do crap – i don’t like that fact either but having seen all the dark that swims in my soul i’m more than happy to say that following Jesus helps me to be good more often…
I like Paul says in ephesians about how we follow Jesus he leads us into doing good works that he’s already set up – where as i am a lot more variable on my own… 🙂
I like that verse too, Paul. In fact I wrote about it for a devotional once. Thanks for your response!
FYI. The only Way into heaven is by the faith to repent of the one sin of Jesus’ murder for the forgiveness of ALL sins.