Everyone goes to Heaven

A few years ago, Ruth and I spent the winter in the West Indies, on the island of Trinidad. The island is predominantly Hindu with the balance being Muslim and Christian in its various forms. I spent a lot of time witnessing to Hindus but found it difficult because they subscribe to the notion that there ar many roads leading to heaven, they all, however, end at the same destination and that is a place called heaven. Having a multitude of gods from which to choose you would naturally come to the same conclusion. But doesn’t Christianity teach the same thing? All variations of Christianity promise heaven as our final home. If you have gone to a Christian funeral lately you would have noticed that the pastor spends most of his eulogy telling the listeners that this person is in a better place, a place of eternal ecstasy. It makes no difference that this person that they have gathered together to honor held no regard whatsoever for the Lord or even made an attempt to serve Him. Every funeral promises that same destination. Even so, it is my belief that everyone still goes to heaven. Now hold on before you hit the little x in the upper right hand corner of your screen and let me qualify my statement. In Revelation chapter 20 we get a glimpse of the great white throne in HEAVEN where God is judging the inhabitants of the earth. They all are standing before Him in HEAVEN. Let’s look in at what will occur. Verse 11 says, “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide..” It looks like these folks are somewhat ashamed to stand before their creator and give an account of their lives. Verse 12 continues, ”I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before the God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.” Verse 13, “The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.” Verse 14, “Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.” Verse 15, finishes the account, “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.” Herein lies the catch, everyone indeed does go to Heaven, BUT, this is critical, not everyone gets to stay. Only those whose names are recorded in the Book of Life are allowed to stay. I would be remiss if I didn’t address the question, “How do I get to stay, since I too will one day stand before God in Heaven? Let’s look at another of John’s writings. John chapter one verses 12 and 13 says, “But to all who believed and accepted Him, (Notice it is in the past tense) he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” If we jump ahead into John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus tells a man by the name of Nicodemus how he can enter God’s kingdom. “Jesus said, I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, (or born from above), you cannot see the kingdom of God. There we have it, everyone does indeed go to Heaven, but not everyone gets to stay. It is my hope that you will be on the winning side and get to stay.