Expert: Carl Fuglein - 7/30/2006

Question

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Followup To

Question -
Is it true protistants believe that if you do not believe in Jesus then you will not go to Heaven? I always thought Heaven was open to good people but now I hear you go to Hell regardless of whether or not you are a good person just because you don't believe! My friend is a stricter christian than me and she believes this, so she thinks most of our friends will go to Hell as most of them are not religious. They are still good people, how do I worship a God who would do that to them?

Answer -
Stacey-

Thanks for seeking help for a difficult question.

First off, there is no major difference between Protestants and Roman Catholics when it comes to going to Heaven.

It is not up to you, nor to your friend, to determine or judge who is or is not going to hell.  Being "religious" or being "good" does not get you into Heaven.

Read this from the Bible:

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard.
24  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.
25  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times.
26  And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.
27  Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith.
28  So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.


It can be a difficult passage, but what it means is this - we area ALL sinners, we have ALL fallen short.  But God has saved us from our sin because of Jesus who sufferred and died for our sin.  Being good does not get us to heaven.  Believing that Jesus saved us gets us to heaven - our faith gets us to heaven. Verse 28 says we're made good through our faith, not our good works.

Put very simply - there are 3 people voting to determine whether to get you to heaven - God votes yes, Satan votes no, and YOU get the deciding vote.  I hope you understand that - if YOU decide that God is right and that Jesus died for YOU, then and only then are you going to heaven.

Being good is nice, but being good is NOT going to get you to heaven.  Believing in Jesus is going to get you to heaven.  But WE cannot decide and say that our friends are going to hell - they and God have to make that decision on their own, and we shouldn't worry about it - what we SHOULD do is tell them how we feel and what we believe and that heaven is available to them, too, if only they believe.

I hope I've cleared this up for you.  If I haven't, please write again.

blessings,
carl


Thankyou for your answer, it was very clear and understanding.
My only problem is this; isn't the way you behave and treat others of any importance in christianity? Can people who are cruel- theives, murderers etc, be admitted to heaven as easily as people who are nice and respect their fellow human beings, if they both believe in Jesus?  

Answer
Stacey-

This question about Christianity is very much like the question, "Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?"

If we have faith, if we believe in Jesus, we will follow His commandments.  His two greatest commandments were to love God and love others.  See scripture below.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation:
Matthew 22:35  One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38  This is the first and greatest commandment. 39  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  40  All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

If you follow this teaching from Jesus, then you will treat others well, you will obey God, you will behave properly.  But this behavior is NOT what gets you into heaven - the good behavior comes because you believed in the first place.  So, yes, behavior is important in Christianity, but it is a RESULT from being a Christian, it is not a CAUSE of being a Christian.

As for murderers and thieves and others who disobey God, there is most definitely a place for them in Heaven, but only AFTER they turn from the bad and face God.  God allows everyone a human lifetime to come to him.  And even if they don't come to him until late in life, they will still be accepted by God.  Read this scripture parable:

Matthew 20
1  “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2  He agreed to pay the normal daily wage£ and sent them out to work.  3  “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4  So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5  At noon and again around three o’clock he did the same thing. 6  At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’  7  “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’”  The owner of the estate told them, ‘then go on out and join the others in my vineyard.’  8  “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9  When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10  When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11  When they received their pay, they protested, 12  ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’  13  “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14  Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15  Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?’  16“And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then.”

What this story means is that it doesn't matter when you come to God.  It doesn't matter whether it is morning, noon, or night, you will get the same reward, and that reward is Heaven.  Many people will be surprised to see some people in heaven, for surely there are some murderers in Heaven, but only because they repented of their sin, and started believing in God and Jesus as their savior.

The Bible has stories about many righteous people who were first murderers:  Moses killed an Egyptian, and he led the Israelites out of Egypt.  David had Uriah killed, and he did it for lust.  Bathsheba was Uriah's wife, and David sent Uriah to a battle in which he knew he would be killed. Yet David was the greatest king Israel ever had (read the story in 2 Samuel 11).  Paul, the writer of many letters in the new testament persecuted Christians before he came to Jesus, and he became the greatest evangelist ever.

Stacey, I know it is hard to understand how some murderes and thieves can go to heaven and good people may not, but the Bible is very clear about this.  What gets you to heaven is faith, not works.  And if you have the faith, then you will do the good works.  There are a lot of good people in the world and not all of them believe in Jesus, but being good does not assure them of Heaven.  Believing in Jesus does.  

John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is.  From now on you know him and have seen him!”

Jesus is the only way.

Hope this helps.  Please don't hesitate to ask some more.

blessings,
carl