Just ideas to think about...

I decided to write a bit about the popular question, "Who gets to go to heaven?"

First of all, I do believe that through Jesus' doing, we are all able to have a loving relationship with God here on earth and after physical death. From my understanding, we can be confident in our good standing if we sincerely seek to patch our relationship with God through a faith in Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

That's all well and good, but what about everyone who doesn't have this type of relationship? I think that many Christians are convinced that everyone else goes to hell. I have heard many people talk about individuals and nations that they are convinced are in or are going to hell. I recently have heard an adult tell a group of children about someone that she "knows" is now in hell. Wow!

People seem so quick and willing to condemn billions to hell with a black-and-white standards. The following are a few things that seem like possible and, perhaps, reasonable alternatives.

1) God works differently with different people. Think back to the days of the Old Testament. God worked closely with the Israelites, and we have a record of His actions with Israel. We can also read that outsiders were welcomed to follow the God of Israel. However, what about people who never encountered Israel? Did they never get to meet God? Are they then condemned to hell? I think that God works with all people, both in the past and present, and He is able to judge them accordingly.

2) Even people presented with the story of Jesus who then reject it might not have rejected God. Wait... What??? Did I just say that? Yes. Yes, I did. I have a good reason, though! Perhaps the way God was presented was not an accurate representation of God, and perhaps this false, albeit perhaps unintentionally false, representation is what people are rejecting. This is an extreme illustration, but imagine going into an innocent, peaceful village and killing half of them at random. You then go to the remaining half and give a spiel about God's love. If they reject your spiel, they are probably not rejecting God. They are rejecting you.

I am not saying that I know how God judges people because I don't. However, I do believe that he is good, loving, just, and all-knowing. Since I am not these things, I am going to accept that I can't judge a person. Instead, I am going to spend my time trying to love people with God's love so that hopefully they can love God back.