Recently I read that for going to Heaven you just need to recognize Jesus as your lord and saviour and that beeing a good person is not enough. Isn't that unfair for people who have never heard about Jesus? What's your opinion on the path to heaven? -Anita
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Thanks for writing in, Anita. You're right... it doesn't seem fair to those who never heard of Jesus, and that is because it isn't. It is my single biggest problem with Evangelism culture... the idea that the Eternal Creator of Everything would leave the fate of an immortal soul up to whether or not I get up in the morning.
Seems... irresponsible. (In case it isn't immediately obvious, you are getting my interpretation of things here. There will be other Christians who will disagree with me, some vehemently. Some even violently.)
There is a theological concept known as works righteousness that is usually derided by most Christians, at least in name. Works righteousness is the idea that Heaven is earned by what we do in life. We are told by the Bible to reject that thinking, but many people have difficulty with the idea. So we end up with a lot of buts... you can't earn your way to heaven but...
I mean, pick your poison. You can't earn your way to heaven BUT you have to be properly baptized. You can't earn your way to heaven BUT you have to confess Christ. You can't earn your way to heaven BUT someone else must have talked to you about Jesus at some point.
Particularly with that last point, it feels as if we have only traded our own works righteousness for someone else's. And unless that someone else is Jesus himself, I don't think that holds water.
You see, I'm fairly old school reformed in that I don't think any actions, including any mentioned above, have ANY bearing on whether or not someone gains admittance to heaven. The doctrine is known as predestination though the word often gets misused by detractors. The main thrust of predestination is that it is God's choice, not ours, that determines admittance to heaven.
To say that some people would have problems with this is a major understatement. Entire denominations have put the words Free Will in their names in rejection of the idea. And I know more than a few non-christians who are just as bothered by it, which makes sense. I mean, if you spend your whole life rejecting the concept of religion, the idea that religion might just snap you up anyway could be rather offensive, I admit.
One of the louder objections I hear to this is the question of why, then, we should bother being Christians in the first place. What's the point of everything we do here on Earth if God might just snap us up anyway?
My answer is that we live the lives we live not to earn God's love, but rather in gratitude for it. Assuming that simply being a good person isn't reason enough on its own (which many of my atheists seem to be doing just fine with) if you need a reason for putting up with all this Christian stuff, think of it as an act of gratitude for the promise you've been given.
Because one of the things I have noticed coming out of the "being a good person isn't enough" culture are a lot of people for whom that means "being a good person isn't important." They think their faith is all they need, and then, coincidentally I am sure, go on to be rather horrible to people in the name of that Faith. And even if you don't think that will be a deal breaker with God, given that whole "Love One Another" command, it sure seems like a smack in the divine faith to me, an attitude with almost no gratitude at all.
So back to your question, Anita... I do believe that Christ is the path to heaven. But I think that path has many names to many people, and if a person finds peace under another name, or even no name, that God will see to it they end up loved in the end. For those of us who know the path as Christ, I think we are called to live joyous lives of loving and caring for others.
It won't earn us heaven, but earning heaven wasn't our job to begin with. It is, instead, how we show gratitude; loving others, because God first loved us.
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