Q: Can’t Church Be a Place Where Believers Encourage One Another in Their Collective Journey?

A: First of all, life with God is not a collective journey.  He seeks a relationship with each and every person.  Jesus doesn’t affiliate with groups, for then He would have to work through the organization’s leaders to get to its members.  Rather, He affiliates with individuals.  Therefore, you cannot walk with God collectively; you can only walk with Him individually.  Secondly, believers can encourage others anywhere.  They are not restricted to certain locations or times.  Lastly, if you’re seeking to receive encouragement about your faith rather than give it, then you may be looking in the wrong direction.  Look to God, not to people for the strengthening of your faith.

Q: Can’t Church Be ‘a’ Place to Worship?

A: No more so than any other place.  Jesus said that He came to eliminate places of worship so that we could worship God in spirit and in truth.  Thus true worship occurs at all times and in all places by a human heart devoted to Him in truth.

Q: What if My Faith Is Not Strong Enough to Believe that Everyone Is Going to Heaven?

A: Whenever faith is weak, take it as a sign that you should pay more attention to the word of God.  Faith comes from hearing His voice.  The more you listen, the stronger your faith; the less you listen, the weaker your faith.  We should be meditating on the thoughts of God all day long.

Q: Isn’t Heaven Just One of the Places Someone Could Go After Death?

A: No; there’s always been only one place to go when you die.  Before Jesus saved the world, everyone who died – good and bad – went below to a place the Hebrews called Sheol and the Greeks called Hades.  Since then, everyone who dies – good and bad – goes above to heaven.  As one’s place in Sheol was determined by how his life was lived on earth, so one’s place in heaven is also determined by how he lives his life on earth.  Yes, everyone is going to heaven but it still makes a difference how you conduct yourself on earth - both in this life, and in the one to come.

Q: If the Gate Is Small, How Can Everyone Be Going to Heaven?

A: Indeed, Jesus said that the gate is small that leads to life and, conversely, the gate is wide that leads to destruction.  He was speaking of the choice we have in this life – the choice to follow Him and experience true life, or to avoid Him, as most people do, and thereby experience destruction.  He was not speaking of a choice at death, for everyone dies.  There is no choice about that.

Qualified to Serve

Are you qualified to serve God?  Yes.  What qualifies you?  Actually, it’s not what, it’s who.  Jesus Christ qualifies you by virtue of His sinless life and selfless crucifixion.  When He qualified you, He qualified everyone else as well.  Therefore, you are no more qualified, nor any less qualified, than any other human being to serve God.

For this reason, we ought not to look down on people – as if we were qualified to be their judges.  Nor should we look up to others – as if we could never attain to their level of holiness.  Rather, we should determine in our hearts that we will look up to God and live up to His standards.  He will accept our movement in His direction.  His ultimate expectation is perfection, but His initial expectation is merely progress.

We are qualified to serve Him.  If He is the one who qualifies us, who can disqualify us?

Live your life morally, not in comparison to others, but in comparison to Him.

Motivation: Gratitude!

What is our motivation to live in a world where everyone is going to heaven?  Gratitude!

Sure, we live in a world where the judgments for our sins and the sins of others fall all around us.  But through our Lord, we can endure all these things and know that they are only temporary.  Everything in this life will pass.  What is eternal and secure is our place in the loving arms of our Creator. 

Let us show gratitude by serving Him with reverence and awe each and every day.  This is our fundamental repentance: to be grateful for life, and that it is eternal.  With this motivation, we can pursue the moral excellence He wants from us.

He Has Snatched Victory From the Jaws of Defeat

Before Jesus, no one went to heaven when they died.  No one even considered such a possibility.  Rather, people went below to a place called Sheol.  Everyone went there – good and bad.  This is what the Bible records. 

While there were many things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ that were startling to the minds of antiquity, perhaps the most startling was that resurrection meant being raised not just back to earth – but all the way to heaven!  Our modern minds have been hearing about resurrection and heaven for hundreds of years and so we’re dulled to the striking sound of the idea.  It was staggering to first century minds and explains much of their wildness of joy at the hearing of the gospel.

When the ancients lost a loved one, they had a hope of seeing them again if they had a hope of resurrection.  Prior to Jesus, however, that hope had no specific shape.  No one knew what a resurrection would look like.  When Jesus said that in the resurrection that humans would not marry and would be like angels in heaven, people were stunned.  Aside from the astounding glory of it, they now had a defined hope for seeing deceased relatives – it would be in heaven.

Therefore, death which had previously been the ultimate judgment of man’s sin, now became to the doorway into an eternity with God in the heavens.  Oh, can’t you hear the crowds listening to the apostles teeming with excitement over this turn of events!  Through Jesus Christ, God had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a way that has never been equalled…nor ever shall.  Oh my, oh my, what a God we serve!

It Takes One to Know One

If you think it’s amazingly wonderful that Jesus is going to take us all to heaven, then prepare yourself for something even more mind-stretching: Jesus’ plan is to teach us to be like Him.  Whoa!

Yes, Jesus intends to reproduce His character in us.  If He’s caused us to be born again, then our destiny is to grow up.  Why then don’t we grow up?

There are too many infants walking around, professing to born again, but continuing to engage in infant behavior rather than grow up.  For this reason, the name Christian gets a bad rap and unbelievers give themselves a pass for not accepting the truth.

Let us fulfill our destiny.  Let us who believe in Him and listen to Him, become like Him.

Then we will truly know Him, for it does take one to know one.

Does It Bother You That Everyone Is Going to Heaven?

I hope it doesn’t.  How could you be bothered that everyone else will receive the same benefit that you are going to receive?

If it does bother you, you might consider what that says about your character.  It’s not as if you’ve earned the way to heaven.  Jesus Christ paid the price for you.  You wouldn’t have a chance without Him and neither would I.

Just because everyone is going to heaven doesn’t mean that there’s no such thing as sin, or judgment, or consequences for behavior.  On the contrary, all these things are true also.  We receive judgment for our sins in this life and in the next.  God will be fair.  But He is not going to sentence anyone to an eternity without Him.  Would you want Him to? I hope not. 

If you’re happy that everyone is going to heaven, be happy and repent of your sins.  If you’re sad that everyone is going to heaven, be sad and repent of your sins including the sin of wishing such evil on your brothers and sisters.

For those who would like a fuller explanation, see Everyone Is Going to Heaven.