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Description

Many people I meet have a view of God, themselves, and their possible place in heaven that can be caricatured as "don't-be-Hitler-and-you'll-go-to-heaven theology."

What is meant by this?

For one thing, such people like to say, "I'm a good person after all, so I'm surely going to heaven - if it exists!"

The question is, by what standards is one a good person? Some people already consider themselves a good person if they "haven't killed anyone yet" - as if you're a good person as long as you're not literally Hitler.

Others cite that they are not as bad as others. And yes, that may be true, because you will always find someone worse than you, as long as your name is not Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Tse-Tung.

But isn't that a low bar?

Just because there are people worse than me doesn't mean I'm good enough to earn eternal life, happiness and joy in heaven.

How good do I have to be to go to heaven?

The answer is actually quite simple: to get to heaven we have to be perfect! It is not enough to "not have killed anyone" or to be "better than others", but to be able to go to heaven we have to be perfect, because God's presence is so holy that nothing can stand before Him that has even the slightest flaw in it. Anything that has even the slightest stain of sin and evil in it simply burns up in God's presence.

We may always have an excuse for our missteps, but there they will no longer apply.

Are you perfect? I certainly am not!

But now comes the good news - the Gospel: The Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life in your place and mine, He died for our sins and He rose again so that we can share in His victory over death. With Him is forgiveness, He makes you clean, He makes you perfect in the sight of God.

When the Lord Jesus has cleansed you, then God's holiness is no longer dangerous for you, but the greatest happiness! Then you are ready to be flooded by His boundless love and to enjoy His divine generosity forever! And that is heaven. Heaven is the union with the God who is pure life and pure joy. It is a dream beyond all dreams you can ever dream! It is not a thing that you can easily earn or that you are entitled to anyway, but it is the grand prize in the game of your life! So valuable and so wonderful that it is worth giving everything for it and sacrificing everything to be able to achieve just this dream! So precious and so wonderful, you and I can't even earn it - but the Lord Jesus did it for us! He makes it impossible, He is the way to the perfect heaven for imperfect people!

So I invite you: Repent of your sins, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him to the end of your life, so that He may open the gates of heaven for you.

The Lord Jesus says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14,6

P.S.: By the way, many people fail even the low bar "I didn't kill anyone, I'm not like Hitler" that they set for themselves. Because when they support abortion, for example, they support mass murder by the millions. Because every aborted girl or boy is already a human being, loved by God.

Description

Many people I meet have a view of God, themselves, and their possible place in heaven that can be caricatured as "don't-be-Hitler-and-you'll-go-to-heaven theology."

What is meant by this?

For one thing, such people like to say, "I'm a good person after all, so I'm surely going to heaven - if it exists!"

The question is, by what standards is one a good person? Some people already consider themselves a good person if they "haven't killed anyone yet" - as if you're a good person as long as you're not literally Hitler.

Others cite that they are not as bad as others. And yes, that may be true, because you will always find someone worse than you, as long as your name is not Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Tse-Tung.

But isn't that a low bar?

Just because there are people worse than me doesn't mean I'm good enough to earn eternal life, happiness and joy in heaven.

How good do I have to be to go to heaven?

The answer is actually quite simple: to get to heaven we have to be perfect! It is not enough to "not have killed anyone" or to be "better than others", but to be able to go to heaven we have to be perfect, because God's presence is so holy that nothing can stand before Him that has even the slightest flaw in it. Anything that has even the slightest stain of sin and evil in it simply burns up in God's presence.

We may always have an excuse for our missteps, but there they will no longer apply.

Are you perfect? I certainly am not!

But now comes the good news - the Gospel: The Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life in your place and mine, He died for our sins and He rose again so that we can share in His victory over death. With Him is forgiveness, He makes you clean, He makes you perfect in the sight of God.

When the Lord Jesus has cleansed you, then God's holiness is no longer dangerous for you, but the greatest happiness! Then you are ready to be flooded by His boundless love and to enjoy His divine generosity forever! And that is heaven. Heaven is the union with the God who is pure life and pure joy. It is a dream beyond all dreams you can ever dream! It is not a thing that you can easily earn or that you are entitled to anyway, but it is the grand prize in the game of your life! So valuable and so wonderful that it is worth giving everything for it and sacrificing everything to be able to achieve just this dream! So precious and so wonderful, you and I can't even earn it - but the Lord Jesus did it for us! He makes it impossible, He is the way to the perfect heaven for imperfect people!

So I invite you: Repent of your sins, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him to the end of your life, so that He may open the gates of heaven for you.

The Lord Jesus says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14,6

P.S.: By the way, many people fail even the low bar "I didn't kill anyone, I'm not like Hitler" that they set for themselves. Because when they support abortion, for example, they support mass murder by the millions. Because every aborted girl or boy is already a human being, loved by God.