Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Who will be in heaven?

Who will be in heaven? I have absolutely no idea.

But I am sure we will be surprised.

I don't subscribe to the idea that because God is love everyone will be there. (Incidentally, in my reading of Love Wins, I don't think that is what Rob Bell says either.) Yes, God is love but God is also just and he is not a puppet-master. And Jesus himself talks about hell and eternal punishment.

Last night in Zac's we read the story of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:21 on) about how many times we should forgive and why we should forgive. God's forgiveness is limitless and he gives us chance after chance to acknowledge what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross. I wouldn't be surprised if a non-believer on the pathway from life to death is gifted a Damascus Road experience i.e. a meeting with the risen Christ. Paul was after all in his own words 'the worst of sinners' and yet God chose him. It's not God's will that any should perish but if then man still refuses to acknowledge and accept Christ then God will not make him. 

We might think it would be impossible for man to meet Christ and still turn away but the devil has met God, knows him well and yet he still has the arrogance to think he has the greater power and that he can defeat God. If someone who has known God almost from the beginning can turn away why would not mere man?

So who will be in heaven? Again I say, I don't know. I'm just thankful that it's not me who has to judge or decide. My job is to love and to treat others as Jesus would.


3 comments:

Rose said...

Love your last line--if only everyone followed this rule, wouldn't the world be a wonderful place? I always said the one person I was sure was in heaven was my grandmother, and I'm pretty sure my mother will be there one of these days, too.

Ole Phat Stu said...

144,000 Jews (12,000 each from twelve different Israelite tribes), no gentiles.
Sez so in Revelations 7 and 14 ;-)

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Everyone but me , probably !