“There won’t be any Catholics in Heaven” he said, nearly knocking me off my bar stool.
That’s how my first serious conversation with the pastor of a Redwood City church got started. Why he picked me out as a prospect for conversion I’ll never know, but somehow, I ended up in his crosshairs.
I had just told him that I was raised a Catholic and while totally “lapsed,” still took some pride in my so-called spiritual credentials. There I was drinking, carousing and living a totally godless life, yet trying to hide behind the flimsy veil of past religious affiliations.
My pastor friend, Ray, would have none of it, and his opening volley about no Catholics in Heaven really got my attention.
Wait a minute, I thought, I did “the whole deal” — baptism, catechism, confirmation, sacraments, church attendance, confession, etc. “I’m in, right?”
Ray went on.
“There won’t be any Jews in heaven either,” he said, apparently casting aside the 5,000-year-old Jewish religion like a used chewing gum wrapper.
He was waiting for a response, but by then I realized I was in a bar fight with a spiritual Mike Tyson and held off until I could figure out where he was leading me.
“Yeah, yeah, I know where he’s going,” I thought. This is another Martin Luther-like, “we have all the answers” claim that Protestants are always pushing.
Then Ray really upped the ante when he said, “There won’t be any Protestants in heaven either,” totally catching me off guard. He said the same of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and every other major religious belief system.
Then he just sat there in a pregnant pause. He was just waiting for me to “bite.”
My response was something like, “then heaven is going to be a very lonely place, I guess.” He said, “no, it will be filled to the brim with joyous, grateful, blessed inhabitants, but not because of their earthly church affiliations. Something else entirely.”
Now, he had my undivided attention.
So, Who Gets into Heaven?
“So, who does get into Heaven?” I asked sheepishly.
Now I was on his turf and he started by claiming that getting into heaven has nothing to do with what church, synagogue, Buddhist temple or mosque that you regularly attend. Nor does it have to do with what religious tradition you were born into.
It has to do with whether you are properly “covered” when you reach the so-called “pearly gates.”
“Covered by what?” I asked.
“Covered by the blood of Jesus,” he replied.
“And how do I do that?” as I leaned in intently.
“Being covered has nothing to do with you doing anything,” Ray stated. “It comes entirely by believing what Jesus Christ has already accomplished for you on the cross.”
The fog was beginning to lift.
Our seminal conversation ended at that point, but the seeds had been planted and, after many months, they took root, eventually leading to my conversion — not to a religion but to a relationship with Jesus.
Here is what I subsequently learned about how anyone can reach heaven …
It’s Not About Me
The Apostle Peter once wrote:
“… knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like … your futile way of life … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”1
There’s that “covering” that Ray mentioned — the blood of Christ. Peter described a “business transaction,” a redemption, in which Jesus “bought believers back” from the slave market of sin. He paid the entire “bill” once for all with his own precious lifeblood.
Jesus Christ became our connecting principle, breaking down the barriers between cultures, religions and races — covering all believers by the same blood.
How About You?
Are you willing to throw off your religious crutches, hiding behind your good deeds, and stand naked before God? Then pivot away from yourself toward Calvary and fix your gaze upon the One who died as your innocent substitute.
Will you abandon your “do, do, doing” and stand upon the “done, done, done” work of Christ?
“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come … and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”2
Back then, I had to accept the inconvenient truth that I was born alienated from God and in need of divine intervention to have any hope of heaven. Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!”3 The work is done. Now rest in it.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
1. 1 Peter 1:18-20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
2. Hebrews 9:11-12 NASB
3. John 19:28-30 NASB