Question: Who Will Go to Heaven?

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed… There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” – Acts 4:8-12

Wow.                      

I was at a high school Bible study yesterday and the teens were asking some great questions. Among them, they asked (in several different ways, in fact): Who will go to heaven? Just Christians? All people of good will? Could an altruistic athiest go to heaven? What about a child who has never been baptized? After all, it clearly says in Scripture that there is no other Name but the Name of Jesus by which we can be saved....

What does that mean???

Again, wow. A loaded question.

At one point, one of the young ladies spoke up: “I don’t think that’s a fair question to ask. It is not for us to judge who goes to heaven and who does not.” True! Ultimately, God alone knows each and every human heart and He alone will be our Judge, perfectly just, yet perfectly merciful. He knows the extent of each person’s knowledge of Him and their opportunity (or lack thereof) to encounter Him, and He takes everything into account. But let us not let this attitude of non-judgment degenerate into one of indifference towards our own responsibility to seek and to share truth.

What do we make of this statement that there is no salvation through anyone else but Jesus Christ? Elsewhere, Jesus calls Himself the gate (John 10:9) and says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Not just one possible way among many comparable options. THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. That sounds pretty serious.

If I have heard all this, if I know it, I have a certain responsibility:

1.      To seek to know more about this Jesus, because hopefully, the more I know, the more I will understand, believe and fall in love. If Jesus is the Truth (and He says that He is), I should find myself more attracted to Him as I develop a deeper relationship with Him, because Truth is inherently beautiful.

2.      To seek Baptism. After St. Peter finishes making his famous speech on Pentecost, the people present are “cut to the heart” and say to him, “What are we to do???” Peter replies, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37-38). Often, it goes without saying or it is presupposed, but truly Baptism is a necessary “next step.” It is necessary because Baptism is what restores God’s divine life within our soul (lost through original and/or actual sin), makes us children of God and members of His Church (leaving an indelible mark of this new identity on our soul), and is a gateway to the other Sacraments of the Church.

3.      To share this with others. Jesus’ Great Commission was to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19). If Jesus truly means something to me, if I truly love Him, and if I truly believe that He is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life – not just for me, but for all people – then how can I justify my refusal to share this with others? How can I let them wander around on some other path, believing some half-truth, and never experiencing the fullness of life that they could find in Christ, if only they knew? “How can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How can they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?” (Romans 10:14)

Pope John Paul II wrote this to the bishops of Asia in 1990: "Although the Church gladly acknowledges whatever is true and holy in the religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam as a reflection of that truth which enlightens all people, this does not lessen her duty and resolve to proclaim without fail Jesus Christ who is 'the way, and the truth and the life.'...The fact that the followers of other religions can receive God's grace and be saved by Christ apart from the ordinary means which he has established does not thereby cancel the call to faith and baptism which God wills for all people."

The Sacraments of the Church are the ordinary means Christ has established for us to receive His grace and come to share His divine life. Though a person who, through no fault of their own, has never heard the message of Christ, could still receive His grace through “extra”-ordinary means, and even come to enter heaven by following as best as they can the truth that they know [because God is not bound by His Sacraments (CCC 1257)], the Church always invites these persons into the fullness of Truth and the safety net of the Sacraments.

Who will go to heaven?
I can’t say for certain. I am not God.
But whoever is in heaven, baptized or not, they are there because of Jesus Christ and His mercy and His redemptive act on Calvary. They are there because He made it possible for them.
After all, "there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved."