Who Goes There?
June 21, 2015
by Mark Stuenzi
Message 4 of 4
What are the entrance requirements for heaven? If asked, the average person would probably say that you make it into heaven by being “good enough.” To most people, this seems like the fair way to do things; after all – isn’t this the way life works? You do well in school – you advance to the next grade. You perform well at the try-outs, and you make the team. You do a good job at work and you get a promotion. We believe that heaven should work the same way. But – there are some significant problems with the “All Good People Go to Heaven” view. For instance, how do we measure how good is good enough? Is the standard for goodness Mother Theresa or Martha Stewart – do I have to be as good as Billy Graham – or only as good as Bill Gates? Perhaps the biggest problem with thinking that good people go to heaven is that it contradicts the teaching of Jesus himself. Perhaps the greatest rebuttal of this view is the response of Jesus to the dying thief when he said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”