Good People Go to Heaven . . . Don't They?

If good people go to heaven . . . then how good do they need to be?

I suppose if you don't believe in God, and think that after you take your last breath that you cease to exist, then for you heaven doesn't matter because it doesn't exist.  For you, this one life is, well, this is all that there is.  Live life and enjoy! Some day your number will be up and that's that . . . that's all there is.

It's interesting to me that some people believe in heaven, but not in hell.  In trying to think through why we would have a heaven but no hell the only sound conclusion is that we simply don't like the idea of hell.  "It's not fair!" We whine. Why should some get to go to Heaven, but not others? It's just not fair!"  

So what happens to the bad people?  I mean, if there is a place for "good" people . . . shouldn't there also be a place for "bad" people?  


There are bad people, aren't there?  

Yet most people don't seem to believe in hell.  There's a heaven . . . but there is no hell.  This is very fuzzy logic, to me. How can you have one without the other?

What must we do - what must I do - to get into heaven? Other than dying, of course.  That's a given. If good people go to heaven, what's the definition of good? How good is "good"?  

I like volunteering at the Salvation Army and working with the homeless. When you serve a hot meal to someone whom you know will be lucky to find shelter that evening it is a very humbling experience. There, but for the Grace of God, go I. They are so appreciative . . . yet I am so humbled by how many of them thank me and bless me because I took one lousy night out of my week to come and serve food at a cafeteria style institution.  A few measly hours out of hundreds or thousands I squander to come and spoon warm food onto styrofoam plates to strangers that would startle me if I saw them standing on my driveway. 

They shuffle in with their possessions tied up in a plastic bag, or they carry a brown paper sack or shopping bag, and you know that they will wander around all night and the next day because they have no where to go or be. The city doesn't want them in the park, under the bridge, down by the docks . . . in fact, let's just make their lives even more bloody miserable and push them off out of the city.  You know, we rich people don't like looking at the homeless.  They are an inconvenience and we don't want to have them ruining the beauty of our town square or city. It's bad for tourism and bad for business.

Then there are the ones who come in to eat because, although they have a place to live, run out of money before they run out of month.  They keep trying to make ends meet . . . but someone keeps moving the ends just out of reach.

It's very hard not to weep in front of them, the homeless.  Broken lives, disconnected from friends and family, often unable to fit into society, hold down a job . . . and who would hire them looking like that, living  existing without a permanent address or phone to even get the callback to come to work?  Every day it's a fight for food, a place to stay, a search for bottles and cans to turn in for change . . .  


Some appear quite sane, others not.  No one loves the homeless with their mismatched clothing and unkept appearance, but they are so easy to love because in each and every one you can see the reflection of Christ's suffering.  You know that what they do to survive . . . how they live . . .  it can't be easy. It can't be peaceful. It must lonely.

So, if good people go to heaven, does serving the homeless make me good enough?

I like and have spent a great deal of time visiting people in hospital or nursing homes, although frequently my experience as a Deacon visiting parishioners in nursing homes has caused me to view some nursing homes as warehouses for people waiting to die - but that's another blog post.  So because I put up with the rancid smell of urine and the smell of the sick and dying, seen disfigured twisted and frail bodies strapped into wheelchairs that align not so sterile hallways, and because I took the time to pray with them, and to beg God to remember their faithfulness to the Church and to Him . . . is this good enough?

I practice random acts of kindness . . . helping the elderly load their car at the Walmart, buying a few gallons of gas for a single mom who has obviously run out money before she has run out of week . . . is any of this good enough to get me into heaven, and if it is, then what happens to the "bad" people?  Where do they go?  

Oh, by the way . . . I am one of the bad people, too.   I speed like a demon, go nuts when someone ties up the left 'passing' lane, occasionally curse when trying to pull out onto Hwy 377 but can't because no one will move out of the right lane into the "all clear" left lane so that I may ease out into the traffic.  Just like this morning - on my way to church, no less - the left lane was all clear but no one in a line of cars moved over, car after car, to let me out onto 377.  


By the way, even though I have been giving ten percent of the money the Lord gives me back to the Lord, sometimes I don't.  Sometimes there are more bills than checks coming in, so I make the Lord wait.  That's bad. First fruits, and all. I am shameful.  

Of the ten commandments, I'm pretty sure I've broken most of them.  Of the seven deadly sins . . . I've probably done most of those as well . . .  By the way, I think I may be a hypocrite. I know I'm a republican and that's probably just as bad. 

So, knowing what you now know about me, am I going to heaven? If the good outweighs the bad, do I get membership into the club? Who decides? How good is good, and is a little bad okay, or do I have to be very, very bad to be kicked out?

Society has reached a level of political correctness that wants to affirm everyone's god and religion. We must all be the same because different is not good.  This politically correct god is the same god, a loving, benevolent god, and the only acceptable conclusion to this 'universal' god is that because he, or she, is a good god then we all get to go to heaven.  The common denominator is goodness within.  I am 'good' therefore I am going to heaven.  

There is the fallacy of everyone gets into heaven if they're good. Right there! 


Additionally, wouldn't there have to be a litmus test of some sort, and who is the proctor for the test?  Is it all of your relatives who went on before you?  If there is no God to judge, I mean.  If this is the case, I hope my brother doesn't get there ahead of me. I can assure you he will not let me in, but will lock the door and laugh from the other side while I stand on the other, crying.

Unfortunately, as much as I struggle with a few parts of the bible, I believe it is the infallible word of God. Years and years ago I actually thought that "man" had tweaked the book to control the masses and place men over the authority of women, but I've since rethought that.  Back then I also didn't believe in organized religion . . . yet one day I walked through the doors of Mandarin Presbyterian in Jacksonville, Florida, and I believed. 

From reading the Bible I can only find two ways to get to heaven: one, is to obey all of God's laws.  You must be sinless.  I can't manage the "Big Ten", the ten commandments, much less the rest, how about you?  

The other means to get into heaven, which by far is the easier, is to be a believer and a follower of the Christ, the Messiah.  Through Christ, my misdeeds, my brokenness, are covered under the umbrella of His blood.  Under His plan, everybody gets in, but you have to subscribe to His plan.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have ETERNAL life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to SAVE the world THROUGH HIM. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only son.   John 3:16-18 (NIV)

Whoever is anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus, and that He was who He said He was, and through His death on the cross He accomplished what He claimed He accomplished. 

What about the Jews? Are they not going to heaven? God clearly has a plan for His chosen people.  The Muslims? The Buddhists?  I believe that the New Testament is very clear: 

As for good works getting you into heaven: John 6:28, 29  Then they asked Him, "what must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent." 

I don't presume to know God.  I can study the bible, read the stories, and get an idea of what He is like. It's really not that hard.   Reading and studying, we all begin to understand Him better.  No, I can't speak for Him, but I know that He uses the most unlikely people, and that frequently He will come and settle down beside me and whisper my name.  I know that He is the one true God, and that He sent His son who then died for a rascal, a skunk, like me. I am a friend of God, he calls me friend.