Good People Don’t Go to A Better Place

There is a myth that smart Christians believe.
The myth is when any person dies they go to a better place.
You heard all kinds of responses from this video  (click on the pic to watch the first two 1/2 minutes of the video).

• One person said, “you go to a happy place.”
• Another said, “You just decay and rot like other animals
• The atheist said, “you go nowhere because I don’t believe heaven or hell exist.
• You heard a couple of people say that they know they will spend eternity in hell.
• You heard a couple of guys share that they know they will spend eternity in heaven because they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The truth is and the scriptures are quite clear;  the wicked don’t go to a better place. There is a real hell. It’s not the devils playground. It is not a perpetual party. It’s Satan’s worse nightmare.

It’s just not the wicked that will spend eternity in hell …. The sweet lady neighbor lady next door who would never hurt a fly but would also never bow the knee to Jesus. Or the morally upright cousin who just happened to also be a card-carrying member of cult claiming that Jesus and Satan were brothers and God was once a man. Or the sincere Buddhist coworker who graciously and heroically battled cancer without trace of bitterness thanks to his deep trust in the tenets of his faith.

Matthew 7:13-14 says,

You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (Jesus Speaking)

The scary part about this verse is the last 6 words – “only a few ever find it”.

Matthew 21 tells us who the few are,

I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. 32 For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.

The broken are the few who find it! The truly repentant are the few who find it! Those who believe and are willing to follow are the few who find it. Those who refuse to repent, those who refuse to change, those who refuse to bow down and call Him Lord and those who are like the older brother in story of the prodigal son are not part of the few who find the gateway to life.

If the words of Jesus and the teachings of the NT mean what they say then all these wonderful people and friends aren’t going to a better place either. All the people with good hearts, all the people who are sincere in what they do, or those people who give a nod towards God but never give their life to him. It’s wishful thinking to think they are going to spend eternity in a better place.

I went to a viewing a number of years ago that was one of the most bizarre viewings I had ever been to. It was two viewings at once. These young girls had been murdered by the same guy who was from the church I was an associate pastor at. The murder themselves were of a bizarre and evil nature. What was bizarre at the viewing was that one of the girls had about 24 bottles of Miller lite laying in the casket with her and no family members were present. As I stood there and looked at her I remember praying, “God, this girl must have had a rough life. This is so unfair to happen to her at such a young age. I hope she found you in her moment of desperation.”

I really wanted to wish this young girl into a better place (perhaps she was in a better place. I don’t want to assume she didn’t know Christ)  because she didn’t deserve to die at such a young age but no amount of words or wishful thinking was going to take her to a better place. Only finding Jesus in her moment of desperation was going to take her to a better place. I looked at her hoping she had.

I am pretty sure my life was much different from hers. I had incredibly godly parents. I had incredible Christian brothers and sister who cared about me and held me accountable. I had an incredible grandma who I watched and listened to her reading her bible and cared whether or not I was a Christian. I had a wonderful church and great mentors in my life. I had great youth leaders and other church leaders in my life.

But I was no different from her in the sense that in order for me to spend eternity in heaven – I needed to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The scriptures are pretty clear that a relationship with Jesus is the only way you get to spend eternity in a better place.

Just because I was raised in Christian home didn’t mean I was going to a better place
Just because I went to church all the time didn’t mean I was going to a better place
Just because I listened to Christian music didn’t mean I was going to a better place.
Just because I went to church camp didn’t mean I was going to a better place.
Just because I was basically a good kid didn’t mean I was going to a better place.
Just because I had great people in my life didn’t mean I was going to a better place.

The only way anybody gets to go a better place when they die is if they have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You can make up whatever personal theology you want. You can have all the wishful thinking you want about who gets to heaven and who doesn’t  but the scriptures make it clear that Jesus must be the Lord of your life. There really is no way around this truth.

The Pharisees were very religious people but Jesus was not the Lord of their life. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again. Meaning there is something that needs to happen in you. It’s not simply a prayer of salvation.  It’s a commitment to being his disciple.

This myth that good people get to go to a better place is steeped in a much deeper myth that says all roads eventually lead to the same place despite what Jesus may have said. This myth is more deeply ingrained in us than we realize. This myth is so ingrained that it really doesn’t make a difference what is proclaimed from the pulpit. We believe what we want to believe. We hear what we want to hear. We live our life the way we want to live our life.

When I get to have this kind of conversation I try to convince them in a loving way that they are wrong.  What’s so scary about THIS myth is that many Bible believing Christians believe this to be true. We are no doubt living in a global village, and the more culturally diverse our nation becomes many Christians are making a broad gate by wanting to include everyone as a spiritual family member  especially those we love and have a deep relationship with. The truth is only those who are willing to acknowledge God as THEE Father and Jesus as Lord of their life will they become a part of your spiritual family.

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a young man who said he was a Christian.  He had this belief that these other religions have their own Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit. They just call them by different names. This was my response:  “I guess that is possible because I believe God is a big God but unless the person they call Jesus died, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven. Then it’s not Jesus. Unless grace is at the center of their teaching – then it’s not Jesus. If they don’t teach compassion mercy, forgiveness only comes through Jesus then it’s not Jesus. Unless their Jesus was fully human and fully divine then it’s not Jesus they are talking about. It’s somebody sorta like Him.”

Watch this little clip about someone being “sorta like someone”

Some one sorta like him is not the real deal. Jesus himself said in John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Jesus is simply saying I am the real deal. There is no other way to God except through Me.

It’s really difficult to grasp that a really good Jehovah witness, or Mormons as nice as they are, or the nice the Muslim I met this last Summer are only following someone sorta like Jesus.

The truth is there is a hell and good and wicked people go there.  Many think that people with good morals are going to heaven.  Many think that people who do good works are going to heaven. Many think that people who live a good virtuous life are going to heaven.

In the gospels Jesus bluntly warned the Pharisees and other religious scholars that when they died, there was no way they’d be waking up in a better place. Jesus bluntly points out to Nicodemus (The Billy Graham of Pharisees in his day) he must be born again. Jesus bluntly points out obedience is the defining mark of what it means to love God, follow God, and live for God. John bluntly points this out in I John 2:4,

The man who says, ‘I know him’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Paul bluntly point out in Galatians 5:19-21 if you persist in a pattern of willful disobedience you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

There is a heaven and a hell. All of us will spend eternity in one place or the other.
Whether we like it or not or agree with it or not, the wicked and the good and moral person receive the same fate. Only those who are broken, truly repentant, and  willing to follow Jesus will find the narrow gate.

Where are you spending eternity? Your friends? Your Coworkers? Your spouse? Your kids?

This is a  pretty important question to answer before you are in the ending moments of your life.