Who is going to go to Heaven? Will there be any athiests there? Will any Buddhist or Muslem be there? Will the Jewish believer make it?
People are scared of this question because it makes people point fingers and say they are judging others. But the question is still legitimate. Some of us will not see the face of God after Judgement. There has to be an answer to this question because not everyone can be right.
The answer is: It is up to God.
We can not possibly know what is in the hearts of all mankind nor (especially nor) the heart of God. Scripture does say that He wants all man to be saved. However, more importantly scripture also says that only those who call on the name of Jesus Christ will be saved. If we say then that the Muslem will not go to Heaven because he believes in Allah and Mohammed as his messenger and refuses to take Christ as his savior then it is not we who are judging, it would be the Word of God. God's Word is truth. We can not fight that. We can not change that.
We are here not to judge but to tell the truth. We can not make the final decision for any individual but we can let the message out that Jesus is the only way to eternal life.
2 comments:
Tim,
I could not agree more! Only God knows. Only He can deal justly with mankind. Whatever He creates only He can change ,modify, delay, add to, punish, commute, forgive, relinquish and so on. Theology by nature when man is in control has the tendency to always go farther than where it meant to go, or paints us into a corner that was never meant to be! Some will even use the words of Jesus to prove their belief (or I should say misuse). Like the road to Heaven…..only a few / handful will find it. If they were honest, the opposite side of their logic would be something like …..“For God so loved the world that He gave His Son, in reality that Who would ever be lucky enough to hear the offer and received all the correct information and do everything the right way, would be saved”. Then you got those that use the 144,000 thing going for them. I like what John said…a number that no man could count.
I wrestle with the traditional concept that God's absolute thinking is centered soley on what I / we do. What I mean is that others eternal destiny rest on the decision that I make for them. This to me sounds odd.
Some will say that the Bible is clear as to who will go to Heaven. I often need to remind myself that the Bible does reveal truth but it does not exhaust all truth. I think there is a very large fundamental problem as well. Here we are down the road of Christian history with thousands of variations of Christian interpretation and sects, all claiming to have the truth. We see the various translation issues and how they have brought about many concerns. The absolute lost picture or reality and hope for unity seems only a theory. I don’t think we can ignore the fact that there is a serious problem in trying to obtain the whole truth. Over my life time in my journey for truth and in the midst of my own frustration I think I am finally finding an area of rest and understanding of a loving God with a greater blessed hope.
Post a Comment