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Do you believe, or know someone who believes that all good people regardless of their faith will go to heaven?
This belief is becoming more popular these days, and there’s a problem with it, as I share with you this story that happened to me not too long ago.
One time on my lunch break from work, I went out to pass gospel tracts.
As I was going through this one part of town, I came across a bunch of nursing students who were on their lunch break as well.
One of the nurses was a gentleman who was sitting on a bench wearing a blue nursing uniform.
So I went up to this nurse, and I gave him one of my favorite tracts, the million dollar bill.
The million dollar bill is a great gospel tract from Living Waters
I’ll call the man on the bench Frank. I gave Frank the gospel tract, and I asked him if he’d ever seen one of them before.
He said that this was his first time that he’d seen a million dollar bill.
As I explained the million dollar tract to him, Frank began to open up to me, and he started to tell me about his life.
As the conversation progressed, Frank said that he was a Christian for more than 30 years.
He was half way through his nursing program, and he appeared to be well-versed in the scriptures because he could recite a number of verses from memory.
“Oh great, of all the people who I could have given a gospel tract to, I had to give it to another Christian,” I thought silently to myself.
As I was looking for ways to end the conversation so that I could find someone else who wasn’t saved, something just didn’t feel right.
So as I began to dig deeper and started to ask Franks some questions, I was shocked to learn about some of his beliefs.
These were some of Franks beliefs that ended up making me concerned about him. Frank believes that:
- Good people can go to heaven as long as they don’t kill, or steal, and as long as they try to help others.
- If an atheist dies, he can go to heaven as long as he has done good things in his life.
- If a person of any faith is a “good person”, then they can go to heaven when they die.
Holy smokes!
As I dug deeper, Frank had many of the markings of a false convert (there were many other things that he said that I won’t write about in this blog post).
What was I going to do? How could I show Frank that what he believed about heaven is the opposite of what the Bible teaches?
Does the Bible Teach That Good People Will Go to Heaven Regardless of their Faith?
No way!
This is a heretical teaching, and something that the enemy would love for many people to believe.
The Bible says:
- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -Romans 3:23
- “There is none righteous, no, not one” -Romans 3:10
- “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” -Romans 3:19
All of theses verses, and so many more show us that we are all guilty under God’s law.
But thank God that by His grace, we can be saved if we repent & put our faith in Jesus. Click To TweetThe Bible specifically states that when it comes to Jesus, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
One Parable You Can Use to Show Others the Truth
Here’s what I told Frank to correct him about his wrong perspective on heaven:
I want you to imagine that you’re talking with someone on the street when all of a sudden, they purposefully step on your feet.
I don’t mean the kind of stepping that’s an accident. I mean the kind where someone just really stomps on your feet, as if they meant to do it on purpose.
Can that person that just stomped on your feet go to the person that’s standing behind you on the street, and apologize to them for stepping on your feet?
The answer is,”No.”
Can they go to the person that’s standing 100 feet away from you, and apologize to them for stepping on your feet?
The answer is still, “No.”
Why is that?
The answer is that since that person stepped on your feet, he has to come to you, and apologize to you.
He can’t apologize to anyone else for stepping on your feet.
Likewise, we have all sinned against a holy God, and broken His commandments.
Can I go to Buddha and apologize to him for the wrong things that I’ve done? Nope.
Can I go to the Muslim god, the Hindu god, or any other god and apologize for my sins?
The answer is no. I have to go apologize to the one and only God against whom I have sinned against.
And the truth of the matter is…
Why You Should Give a Parable
Jesus spoke in parables all the time.
A parable is just a story that you can use to illustrate a point.
Jesus knew that parables are one of the most powerful ways to help people understand a point that He was making.
So the next time that someone tells you that all good people can go to heaven regardless of their faith, may I suggest using the parable of the stomping feet?
I hope the other person will understand that they have to go and apologize to a holy God for the sins that they’ve committed, because they’ve sinned against the only true God, the God of the Bible.
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Comments 11
Thanks for sharing your interesting interaction with Frank, Peter. Whenever I hear that point of view I always think of Jesus’ words: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”
That’s a great verse Kurt, thank you for bringing that up. Of course, using scripture is a great way to combat this lie since God’s Word never returns void.
I still have yet to visit God Running this week. I’ve been a little behind since last week I was on vacation.
The truth is like a sword:
Matthew 10:32-34 “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.”
“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”
Amen Eva, what great scriptures to use!
I had already replied to your comment a couple of days ago but something must have happened and my comment must have gotten deleted.
By the way, I passed on your information this morning to the person I was telling you about. I hope she’ll get in touch with you soon.
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dear Peter, thank you for a rich insight into this subject, this morning my mind was churning some random thoughts about existence of God (though i am a strong believer of Jesus but live in India, a multi cultural, multi Gods country with hindu majority and trust even my origins must be hindu, as my grandfather was the one converted by some missionary pastor), in order to move around preaching about my god i need to really accept and understand hindus also since if there is one God Yahweh then we are all his creation regardless of what we believe.
i need you to guide me on what do you think and advice about authenticity of hindu matrix of Gods and the complex religion they follow; i eagerly wait for your reply.
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That is a great question, Pradeep-Ivon. Personally, I don’t see any compelling evidence that supports that the Hindu gods exist. Of course, for any in-depth guidance, then there would need to be several articles written on this topic. However, I know that there have been many articles that can be found through Google.
Jesus taught that forgiveness from God is attained by forgiving others.
Paul’s quotations in Romans 3 are all directed against Atheists, Molech-worshippers and hypocrites. Paul takes, quite intentionally, verses 2-3 from Psalm 14, and leaves out v. 1. Unless there is a Jewish meaning behing the Greek that is unwritten to us but understood by his audience, Paul is twisting scripture to condemn everyone as unrighteous, despite many times the Bible openly saying that Job and Zachariah were righteous people. If Paul’s words mean what they say unfiltered, he is turning Jesus’s love for mankindinto a deadline-to-get-right threat instead of an assurance of an eternally opened way to heaven.
To say that “no one coming to the Father except through Jesus” means that Christian religious selection is necessary, would mean that God is only the Father, and not Jesus. And if God is not Jesus, then Jesus isn’t God.
Otherwise, the statement is about happenings in heaven, not earth, and anyone who worships God, whether or not they get His name incorrect (We call him Jesus despite his name being Yehoshua), is still someone who is worshipping Jesus unawares.