“Ugh...my head hurts.”
“Well, it should. You were involved in a six car pileup on the beltway.”
“Urrrrggh...sorry, who are you?”
“Peter.”
“As in Saint Peter?”
“The very same. Check out my swag key.”
“I'm pretty sure 'swag' isn't in the Bible.”
“Well, you know. Been one of those days.”
“Yeah. My head feels like it's splitting.”
“Right. Six car pileup, remember?”
“Now that you mention it, a bit is coming back to me, yeah. Are those...gates?”
“Yep.”
“Mmm. Nice, huh? Ivory?”
“Pearl.”
“Right, right.”
“Okay, well...it's time to decide if you should get into heaven.”
“Oh.”
Pause.
“Well, I'm a Christian. I believe that Jesus died for my sins.”
Pause.
“I...uh...accept Jesus as my personal savior?”
“That's wonderful...Look, to be honest, I'm just waiting for you to give me your name.”
“Oh.”
“I have a roster.”
“A roster. So you do.”
“Name?”
“Martin Owens. O-W-E-N-S.”
“Let's see...O...w...nope. Not here.”
“What do you mean 'not here'?”
“I mean you aren't on the list. Sorry. Guess it's eternity in hell for you.”
This topic is all about heaven. And how to get there.
First of all, I think it's by design that we don't know much about heaven. Our best look (Revelation) is blurry, and tricky to interpret. The best advice I can offer is not to worry too much about what happens after death. There's things to do on earth first.
But if you must (and I suppose everybody must) I have to ask for a universal admission that we're scared. Whether you believe in heaven and hell, reincarnation, or nothing at all, we're talking about a vast unknown. Fear sometimes rules what would otherwise be a logical discussion, so let's put that fear aside.
As a Christian, the afterlife is one of the few things I cannot make much of a logical argument about. I do strongly believe that the human soul wouldn't be capable of understanding eternity the way it can if it were not made to live there. Aside from that, my purpose here isn't to argue that there IS a heaven, it is to assume that there is one and explain what it takes (maybe) to get there.
Outside of the material world, everything is God. When you die, your spirit leaves the physical realm and enters the realm of pure spirits. This is to say it enters the presence of God. Automatically. Good or bad, Christian or Muslim, old man or child.
There are only really two reactions to God's presence. Infinite joy if you have loved him while on earth. And infinite sorrow if you fought against him on earth.
Heaven. And hell. The same “place,” the same cause. Different reactions.
Do not, by the way, assume that by “purely spiritual realm” I mean that heaven will be some kind of airy type of outer space. I think that God likes physical things. He will re-perform Genesis, if you will, but this time there will be no ability to sin. We will have bodies, and there will be trees, and animals. But we will have already made the choice to love God, so it will be Eden perfected.
(This is why a perfectly good God can “send people to Hell.” Obviously he doesn't want that in anyones case, but the way people choose to react to God can make their experience into Hell.)
Now one of the most quoted passages of the Bible tells us that faith is required for salvation. Another passage claims that faith without works is worthless. What's the takeaway?
Well, what saves you is faith. Not what you do or don't do. So that's good. No one can earn salvation. Counterintuitively, that doesn't mean we shouldn't care about actions. Faith is forged in works, it is increased through works, and it can only hit the dimensions needed for salvation through works. If you really want to know the technical side, it is grace that saves us. Grace is hard to define. It's like spiritual steroids. It's the override button for reality. It's when God does something that realistically shouldn't be allowable (like humans going to heaven). Grace is a gift given to all, but it's just like raw materials until refined in faith and works.
Faith, you ask, in what? This is the real crux of the argument.
Is it faith in Jesus' status as Son of God? I hardly think so. Even Satan acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God. Is it faith in Jesus as savior? Maybe. That seems more correct. Again, though, one can accept that and still be pure evil.
It is, it seems, faith in the principles Jesus stood for. Those are the true measures of who Jesus is, and consequently the best explanation behind faith “in” him. Principles like love, compassion, mercy, truth, charity, etc.
By that statement, shouldn't atheists and Muslims and others get into heaven?
Yes. The exclusive “Christians only” theology is terrible. But then, you may ask, why bother being a Christian if being a compassionate, truthful atheist is “good enough”?
In all but a few cases, I believe the more you understand about compassion, the more you are drawn to the figure of Jesus. God alone knows what's going on in any of our heads. It is not my place to explain exactly what atheists or Christians are thinking.
I just know that that question doesn't bother most Christians, who wouldn't trade their religion for anything.
YOU ARE READING
Essays on Religion
Non-FictionA series of informal essays from a Christian perspective. Topics chosen by popular demand. PM me if you want something answered. Cover is St. John the Theologian, in the hope that this work will be helped by him.
