Most Evangelicals Believe Good People are Heaven-Bound

sermonindex Dec 18, 2010

The majority of Protestants and evangelicals believe that good people and people of other religions can go to heaven, according to author David Campbell.
Campbell, who co-wrote American Grace, How Religion Divides and Unites Us, contends that surveys of 3,000 Americans, used to write the book, show that American people of faith, though devout, are very tolerant. So much so that most believers also believe that good people, despite their religious affiliation, can go to heaven.

Among the faiths, 83 percent of evangelical Protestants agreed that good people of other religions can go to heaven. Ninety percent of black Protestants also believe good people can go to heaven. ...

sermonindex Dec 18, 2010

This matches what Barna was saying. His organisation interviewed 5000 people for his stats. This speaks to the state of evangelical Christianity that they can believe that which is fundamentally opposed to the very tenants of the faith. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and there is onnly one way to the Father and that is through the Son.

This has to be attacked by the enemy for the upcoming apostate church..........brother Frank

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Areadymind Dec 18, 2010

It is not a comfortable thing to see such suspicions validated...

sermonindex Dec 18, 2010

Isn't this exactly what new age Ecumenism is? Many roads lead to the same God...and the frightening thing to me is the inroads that Satan has made within the walls of the CHURCH!

Will God receive you if you believe in your heart, that there are several other paths than Jesus to Heaven and His throne? The answer is an unswerving No!. You will be damned for believing and following a lie; another path than the BLOOD of Jesus given for our sins.
Collosians.
15. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

17. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
WHY?

19. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,

20. and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

21. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled

22. in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

23 IF IF IF IF .... indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven,.....

2 Thessalonians 2.
and.. 9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

That they ALL WHAT? Your OK...
I'm OK...and God is love, right?
We need to learn to love Jesus, fear Him, and honor Him. This is why we were born.

G

ginnyrose Dec 18, 2010

I have been thinking along this vein ....

On the practical level, why is that when someone dies people are quick to say they are in heaven? Even when this religious person was a jerk, who made life difficult for those around him/her?

I know one wants to believe they are with the LORD, you do not want to see any loved ones in hell. When people made life miserable for others and now when they die people are quick to say they are in heaven...I cringe. Their fate is sealed and what any earthling will say will not change that. In sharing condolences with their loved ones one must be very careful. Do we realize this? Seems to me the best we can do is point them to Jesus for their own personal comfort.

ginnyrose

sermonindex Dec 18, 2010

why is that when someone dies people are quick to say they are in heaven?

So right GR. It's probably due to loved one's in denial. They had hoped that they would receive Christ, and in the end they hoped that they had uttered something that was salvation worthy at the 11th hour. I know of several people that have said their loved ones were in heaven just because they wanted them to be there in their minds, for their own sanity they think that way.

I wonder if it was that "letting down" that acceptance of Catholicism through the Charismatic renewal back some 50 years ago. That teaching that if your good, you somehow receive eternal life on the basis of your goodness.

We need to draw the line again.

T

therick2018 Dec 18, 2010

Like one preacher said, in addressing a group of secular college students. " Your problem isn't just that God is wrathful toward evil, your greatest problem is that God is good!"
It isn't preached very often anymore that it is God's own goodness that condemns us and puts us at His mercy. Somehow we have lost sight of the holiness of God in america, even the holiness, uniqueness of each one of His attributes.
Something thats been on my mind lately is this. A lot of times when you hear "christian" testimonies it sounds a lot like, well i started to make good choices, i just needed to turn my life around, a little reformation here, turning over a new leaf there, makes it sound an awful lot like its what we did,,,,,
somehow i believe we need to get back to the old testimonies, i was an enemy of the cross, i was dead in sin and trespasses, i was a wretch, i did not seek Him or give thanks and then if we in turn give all the glory of salvation to God in reconciling us to Himself and then by His grace our lives are a living testimony to it, maybe this will convice people that "self righteous good works" will not grant eternal life.
One time i was witnessing to an aethist at a fair, he was not happy about it at all, i almost decided to quit but then just asked him straight up. "Do you consider yourself to be an enemy of God?" and he said yes, then I told him that I used to be as well , because all I did was sin against Him, but then He saved me and I no longer want to sin but instead live for Jesus. It was interesting, he suddenly calmed down and said that he believed what i was saying.

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ArtB Dec 20, 2010

I am an evangelical, but I do not believe that Good people are Heaven-bound simply because there are no good people, with the sole exception of Jesus our Messiah, the Son of God, the only begotten God of God.

And it is good for us that Jesus was/is good, because He was the only human to keep the entire Mosaic law right through His death on the cross. And in lieu of all the blessings that accomodates keeping the entire Mosaic law, long life and great blessings as speeled out in the Mosaic Law, Jesus chose to take upon Himself the curses of one not keeping the Mosaic law, He was rejected by the masses, brutally whipped and flogged, and He nailed upon a tree till death. He took upon Himself our scourges, we who believe in Him and accept this gift from God, of eternal life and life abundantly.

When Jesus died upon the cross, God annihilated the Mosaic Covenant, the only bilateral covenant He made with the peoples, because they insisted on such a contract. As was prophesied in the OT:

Zech 11:7-14

7 So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me. Then I said, "I will not pasture you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be annihilated, let it be annihilated; and let those who are left eat one another's flesh." I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. So it was broken on that day, and thus the afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the LORD. I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, THAT MAGNIFICIENT PRICE THAT I WAS VALUED BY THEM." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. Then I cut in pieces my second staff Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. NASU

There is only one bilateral covenant God made with people, and it was the Mosaic Covenant. the other covenants were unilateral.

Jesus was the perfect Lamb of God, and His blood has wiped away all my sins, past, present, and future. Because of Jesus's finished work on the cross, I have eternal life through Him Because I believed God and accepted Jesus atoning blood as washing away all my sins for all time. And I am not saved because I am good. I'm not good, I still sin continously. I am saved because God is good and I believe Him.

i hereby submit this post after having read Matthew 12:36, James 1:26, Colossians 4:6.