Do all Christians go to heaven?

The short answer to this question is:  I really do not know, because I do not know what relationship that person has with God.  What I do know, though, is that many people consider themselves Christians, and therefore assume that they are also going to heaven, when in fact the Lord does not use “Christianship” as a requirement for heaven.  He is forever looking at hearts.  Your heart-attitude is important to God, not whether you tick off the “Christian” block on a census form. 

 Let us start with the Old Testament: (All underlining, italics and bold type my own):

 2 Chron 15:2 - …The Lord is with you while you are with Him.  If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you become indifferent and forsake Him, He will forsake you.

 We know that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  His character cannot change, so the principle stated in this verse is just as applicable to us in the New Testament as it was for Israel in the Old Testament. Note that it is not “if God becomes indifferent” – it is your heart attitude of forsaking Him. Forsake means to turn your back on Him, actively denounce Him.

 In the New Testament, Jesus Himself said in Luke 13:23,24 & 28 – And someone asked Him, Lord, will only a few be saved?  And He said to them,

Strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

There will be weeping and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves being cast forth.

  I ask the question:  the ones that will try to enter, surely consider themselves believers in God and therefore saved, for non-believers will most certainly not try to enter heaven, will they?  They simply don’t believe that it exists. Or they may be people who do believe in heaven, and will try to enter heaven, but believe that there are other ways of entering into heaven than through Jesus Christ alone. The people He was addressing were Jews:  people who would consider themselves religious people, so in their eyes definitely eligible to enter heaven.

 Mark 11:25 - And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop, in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your failings and shortcomings and let them drop.

 In this verse, it is shown that our Father’s forgiveness of us has to bear the fruit of our forgiving others in our lives. This is also upheld in other verses in Scripture, most notably in the Lord’s prayer, where we pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (See also Matt 6:12,14; Matt 18:21-35; Mark 11:25; Luke 6:27; Luke 17:3,4; John 20:23).  As Guzik in his commentary writes: The forgiven heart will forgive others. If we have hard, unforgiving hearts, it calls into question if we have ever received or appreciated the forgiveness God offers us.

 Matthew 25:1-12

Verse 12: But He replied, I solemnly declare to you, I do not know you.

 This portion of Scripture of course paints a picture of the rapture.

All 10 virgins had knowledge of the heavenly Bridegroom, for otherwise they would not know to wait for Him.

All 10 had oil for their lamps, meaning that they knew that they had to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them.  It would seem, though, that 5 of them were relying on the false holy spirit – why else would Jesus deny them entrance?

But only 5 had extra oil, meaning that they were Holy Spirit-filled, Spirit-led people, in an intimate relationship with their Bridegroom, with hearts continually turned to Him (Oil throughout Scripture is used as a symbol for Holy Spirit). They knew their Bridegroom through personal relationship and had been storing up Spirit anointing through encounters with Him. It is their heart attitude, once again, that shows here, not their actual activities, for we all can only walk in the knowledge we have at that time.

 Elsewhere in Scripture we read that God knows those who truly love Him. (1 Cor 8:3) What does truly love Him look like?  It again has to do with your heart attitude.  Are you loving your God with all that is in (the broken) you?  Which has nothing to do with what other people think is the right or wrong way of doing things – it only has to do with your own sincerity before God, and your own desire to find His pathways in the Word and through the Holy Spirit.

 Shocked?  Thought that “once saved, always saved?”   In Hebrews we read:

Heb 6:4-6 – For it is impossible to restore and bring again to repentance those who have been once for all enlightened, who have consciously tasted the heavenly gift and have become sharers of the Holy Spirit.

And have felt how good the Word of God is and the mighty powers of the age and world to come.

If they then deviate from the faith and turn away from their allegiance – it is impossible to bring them back to repentance, for as long as they nail upon the cross the Son of God afresh and are holding Him up to contempt and shame and public disgrace.

 The underlined parts depict a saved person, filled with the Holy Spirit, working under anointing, witnessing signs and wonders done in faith.  Yet the writer of Hebrews mentions that they can deviate from the faith, by turning away.  This implies that they chose with their own free will, to turn away from God.  An active decision to denounce Him in all your ways, to publicly ridicule and shame and revile Him. It is then impossible, says the writer of Hebrews, to bring them back to repentance while they persist in this way of thinking and behavior.  And a sinner not repenting of his ways, will not enter heaven. But God will always wait for you to repent and return – read the parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11).

 What of the Scripture that says:  Nothing can pluck you from the hand of God?  Of course nothing can do that.  But if and when you decide to crawl out of God’s hand of your own free will, that is an entirely different matter.  God will never force you to do something - He respects man’s free will in all situations.  He does not create puppets that He then controls by pulling all the strings. Note again that this was a personal choice from your side, that you chose to denounce Him.

 Matthew 7:21 -  Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.

 Now if you call Jesus your Lord, you are implying that you already have chosen to follow Him, and this means to be under His authority.  Non-believers will not make this choice. But this verse says that only those who actually do what God says, in other words act out their faith, will enter into heaven. You cannot own Jesus as your Lord and persist in your previous sinful activities. It is to be questioned whether someone calling Jesus Lord and then not following His lead, ever made the heart decision at all. We must at all times guard our heart-attitude:  God is looking for people with the heart of a son, not the heart of a slave. People who follow His heart, and not religious rules and regulations.

 1 Cor 10: 1-6 – For I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, that our forefathers were all under and protected by the cloud, (therefore accepted God as their Protector) and every one of them passed safely through the Red Sea.(A picture from the O.T. for us in the N.T., of being baptized under water)

And each one of them allowed himself also to be baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

And all of them ate the same spiritual food.

And they all drank the same spiritual drink…. (A picture from the O.T. for us in the N.T., of taking Communion)

Nevertheless, God was not pleased with the great majority of them, for they were overthrown and strewn down along the ground in the wilderness (they did not go into the promised land)

Now these things are examples for us not to desire after evil and carnal things as they did.

 We know that it was only Joshua and Caleb, and the children born out of their generation, that went into the promised land.  The Bible says that they had a different spirit.  Meaning, they had an intimate relationship with their God.  Of course Moses, Miriam and Aaron also had a love-relationship with God, but were barred from entering the promised land as a consequence of personal sin.

So I am not implying that all those who left Egypt are not in heaven today. But the Scripture says the great majority of them will not be there, even though they partook of all the blessings that God bestowed upon them, and experienced God’s wonders first-hand. They persistently chose to live out their evil and carnal natures, and not live whole-heartedly for God.

 Rev 3:16 – So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.

The book Revelations was primarily written for Christians – it addresses “the saints” and “his servants” throughout. So it implies that Christians can be cold, hot, or lukewarm. If God spews you out of His mouth, you are not ready to go to heaven. It is interesting that this verse implies that it is better to be cold, than lukewarm. This shows God’s mercy and loving-kindness to all sinners. He knows that if you are cold (still living in your sin), you will understand His mercy (not receiving the punishment you deserve) and grace (receiving all God’s gifts even though you do not deserve them) even better, because you will experience the radical difference He makes in your life!  It is His will that nobody will perish, but that all will come to Him.  (John 3:16) Lukewarmness is the result of continual choices to put other things first in your life, above Him. This hardens your heart eventually.

 Taking all of the above into account, I have to conclude that not everyone who consider themselves Christians, will eventually go to heaven. Some people think that being baptized as a baby automatically makes you a Christian. Some people think that, because your parents were Christian, you are also. Some people think that you have to earn your right to go to heaven by doing all the “right” religious stuff.  Some people think that all religions will lead you to heaven. These assumptions are all unscriptural.  I think that your heart attitude must be to aspire to be a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, born again Christian, who yearns to have an intimate relationship with Abba Father, with Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. It is this attitude of the heart, and not where you really are on your walk with God, that matters to Him.

 These verses are not meant to discourage you, rather to encourage you to evaluate your walk with God.  

Do you maybe think that you have to follow “rules” and “requirements” of tradition in order to go to heaven?  Or that you have to keep wondering if you are at all good enough, keeping track of every word spoken, every deed done?  Then I have very good news for you!

God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.  Nothing you can do, can make Him love you more, you already have 100% of His love.  And nothing you can do, can make Him love you less, His love stays at 100%.  All God asks of you in return, is that you love Him!

 IN SUMMARY:  Do not ask the question: “Have I done enough to earn my way into heaven?”

Rather ask the question: “Is my heart His?”

 

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