A fuller version of the question is:
“I have gone through Sunday School as a child, have been attending church regularly, tithe regularly, do my best to be a good person, and sometimes read my Bible and pray. Does this mean I’ll go to Heaven when I die?”
If you were a Catholic, you would word the question as:
“I have successfully completed Confirmation, attend Mass regularly, take Communion regularly, tithe regularly, go to confession regularly, do my best to be a good person, and sometimes read my Bible and pray. Does this mean I’ll go to Heaven when I die?”
Whether Catholic or not, the answer to both questions is the same: no.
According to John 10:10, Jesus came that we might have abundant life. Unfortunately, the impression many churchgoers have is that church attendance will do that, or Communion will do it, or being good will grant life. But all these things are helpful only in a person who has already invited Christ to work in his life. These activities make sense only when the person’s aim is to know Christ more, for Christ Himself is the way to Heaven.
If mere church attendance hasn’t cured your physical ailments, why do you think it has power to raise you from the dead? If being nice hasn’t stopped you from aging, why think it has any power at all to open the door of Heaven? These activities we perform have no power over spiritual realities. It’s our relationship with Jesus that makes the difference. He has the power to raise us from the dead, open Heaven to us, and transport us there. Communion and other religious duties and rituals don’t come packaged with this power.
One of the reasons we think these activities will get us into Heaven is because we have simplified our theology to the extreme. We’re unaware of the nuances of Scripture. Week in and week out we are told in church to be good and to do good and we are inspired in that direction; to simplify it all, we compress all the teachings into, “be good and do good, and you’ll go to Heaven.”
Unwittingly, we often distort truths when we simplify them. When my wife asked me which of the two kinds of cookies I liked better, I chose the first cookie. She summarized it with, “You don’t like the other cookie.” That was not true. Those were not my words. I answered her question exactly as she asked it, and she read more into my response than was there. Many political discussions are like this.
We forget the words and remember our impressions and feelings about the topic or the person. If I discuss a movie with someone and say that I thought one actor wasn’t playing his role very well, I can later hear from a third party that the person I spoke to told them that I did not like the movie! From talking about a single actor to disliking the whole movie – what a leap! But this simplifying is going on so much that we no longer recognize when our minds are habitually rejecting truth in favor of easy-to-remember opinions and impressions. Clever television ads try to leave us with a favorable impression of the product and not encumber us with much information. We are those who act readily upon impressions better than those who sort out bits of information.
Unfortunately, we have done this with our theology as well. “If I just keep the Golden Rule – do to others as you want them to do to you — I’ll do fine.” Well, what about the verses on conviction of sin that leads to sincere repentance? What about obeying the Lord? How does this help you to be conformed to the image of Christ? Will you be more holy? We simplify and simplify, and we adults end up with the theology of children in Sunday School instead of those who have mined the riches of God’s Word ourselves.
“But we pay the pastor to do that!” That logic is the same as a group of women gathering to play bridge, and one asks another, “So, what is your boyfriend like?” And she responds with, “But that’s why I can here; so you can tell me. I don’t know anything about him. I have nothing to do with him.” Yet the bride is the one most interested in the bridegroom and wants to spend time with him to know him. If we have an interest in Christ the Bridegroom, and pursue Him to know and love Him, and desire to be with Him forever, then we will find meaning in the preaching, Bible-reading, and prayer, and in the good works.
Without a foundation, a building collapses. Without a relationship with Christ that influences what we do, say, and think, our religious works are meaningless. And Heaven remains closed.
