Yes, everyone is going to heaven. This is not a clever statement that means something other than what it seems to say. Everyone who dies is going to heaven. I say this on the authority of the Bible, and of Jesus Christ to whom the Bible faithfully points.
The most common objection people offer to this idea is that they cannot imagine God letting bad people into heaven. But if He denies heaven to bad people, how would any of us get in? It’s as if people think God grades on a curve and all they have to do is be able to find someone worse than themselves. Yet God hates this kind of thinking because it makes us judges who look down our noses at other people. If anyone was ever entitled to a holier-than- thou attitude it would be Jesus. Since He doesn’t think that way, He doesn’t want us to think that way either.
The first reason we have for believing that everyone is going to heaven are the promises made in the Bible. For example, we’re told there would be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Well, Jesus was deemed the only truly righteous human ever to have lived (at least the only one who met God’s standard – that is, perfection). Therefore, He is “the righteous” that gets resurrected and the rest of us are “the wicked.” We’re also told in the Bible that He’s the Savior of the world; and that He died not just for the sins of believers but for those of the whole world; and that as in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive; and so on the promises go (1 Cor 15:22; Rom 5:18; Tit 2:11; and elsewhere).
The second reason we have for believing that everyone is going to heaven is the nature of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Assuming you know something of the life Jesus lived on earth, can you imagine Him consigning people to an eternity of fiery torment? Yes, there is judgment for sin in the earth and Jesus took pains to warn us of it – even graphically; but even the worst life on earth eventually comes to a merciful end. It would be entirely inconsistent with Jesus’ nature to put us in a place where repentance was impossible. Repenting from sin is the thing He most wants us to do.
The third reason we have for believing this truth is that God’s message of Jesus Christ is called good news. It would not be good news if some of our fellow human beings had to spend eternity separated from us and punished mercilessly. Don’t feel that way? Then you’re not loving your brother as Jesus told us to. Besides, the Bible makes clear that mankind’s biggest problem is death and that Christ solved that problem. If there’s something worse than death waiting for us after death, what’s the benefit of being saved from death?
Lastly, according to the way the Bible describes the construction and reconstruction of the universe, there’s now nowhere else for folks to go but heaven. The original universe had people dying and going below to a place called Sheol in Hebrew (called Hades in Greek). This was the place to which all the dead went – good and bad. Even Jesus went there. (After all, how could the dead be raised unless they were below to start with?) So, when Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended in to heaven, saying we would one day join Him there, well, that was stunningly good news that none of His disciples had ever expected. They were thrilled with the notion of resurrection – to find out that they’d be raised not just to earth but all the way to heaven, where God lived – well, that was more than any of them would have asked for. At the coming of the kingdom of God, and the consummation of that age, Sheol was done away and the dead from that point began going up to heaven instead of down to Sheol. Don’t think that happened? Then you must believe everyone is still going below to Sheol when they die. In that case, no one but Jesus would be in heaven at this point. But don’t fear, the reconstruction of the spiritual side of the universe occurred on exactly the timetable that Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles said it would. That is, Jesus Christ has already come again…just as He said. There is no more Sheol; there is only heaven for those who die.
Since we know we’re all going to be with God in heaven one day, what sort of people ought we to be while on earth? When you’re there in heaven with God, what do you want your memories of your time on earth to be like? He indicated to us in the Gospels that it will matter very much to us how we lived on earth once we’re finally in heaven. Live in such a way that you won’t have to hang your head in shame when you see Him. Repent.
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For a thorough treatment of this subject see the book The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven.
The Duty of a Man 
What is the implication on free will? Is this addressed somewhere else in your writing?
Though I have probably written on free will at one time or another, I can’t recall a specific place to which I could point you. However, I may be able to answer questions about it if you’re willing to pose them.
I appreciate that. Your thesis is “Everyone is going to Heaven” – can anyone choose not to go to Heaven? If not, what does that say about the relationship between creator and creation, and the significance or opportunity for true love?
God has chosen that the relationship between Creator and creation – at least where human beings are concerned – is like the relationship between a father and child. Does the child being in the father’s house limit the opportunity for true love or diminish its significance?
As for whether anyone can choose not to go to heaven, where else is there to go?
Thanks Mike, I’ll answer your 2nd question first. Hell. I’m finding that to be the mainstream view of Christian theology (outside of universalism), wide gate narrow path, etc. (from Matt. 7:14 among others). As for your first question, I am a father, and yes the fact that I can’t control my daughters’ choice to love me does make it more significant. Similar to the significance of my relationship with my wife, friends, father, mother.. anyone I claim to love, or might choose not to love, and whom I yearn to be loved by. In fact my relationship to my dog is more significant than what I would have with anything I could “create” that lacked free will -and I’m not particularly fond of my dog. So my question remains, how could that relationship creator/ creation have any significance or true love without free will? You said it’s like a father/ child relationship, Do you have children? Are they grown and out of your house? Did that relationship change as you see them making decisions in the world? If one child rejected you and another loved you would that highlight the significance of the one that chose love?
“So my question remains, how could that relationship creator/ creation have any significance or true love without free will?”
I answered it, but I’ll try again with different words. What does the location of a person have to do with true love? Just because a person ends up in heaven does not, ipso facto, mean that the person would then love God. A person could be “confined” to heaven and still have free will. Free will means the right to choose between existing alternatives, but not necessarily create new alternatives. Otherwise, free will would have to mean having unlimited power. Surely, you don’t mean that.
Yes, I have children and, yes, they are grown, and, yes, they have moved out of my house and taken their place in the world as fellow adults. At that point, they came out from under my authority because they graduated to the same status before God that I have – that of an adult human being. But none of us ever come out from under the authority of God. And if we don’t think that, then we’re like Satan. And even Satan with all his power could not create his own universe. Thus he is constantly on a mission to destroy God’s. Yet he has been booted out of heaven and is confined to earth. That’s one of the things that will make heaven so blessed for us.
I suggest that you read my book The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven, which you can find on this website at “Other Books.” In that book I address “hell.” I think it will scratch in some places you are itching. Knowing the mainstream view on something can be helpful, but it’s not as important as knowing the biblical view. Jesus considered the biblical view important enough to be crucified for, even though spouting the mainstream view of His day would probably have gotten Him off the hook.
I’m not smart enough on some of this, I will need to read your book, but I don’t follow your “free will = ultimate power” equation. If we stick with your analogy of father/child, does your child’s ability to move away or reject you give them any ultimate power over you or any power at all beyond your 1-1 relationship? Their rejection of you doesn’t change your ability to also choose to accept them, love them, take them back one day, or reject them.
I understand God makes the rules of our universe. My question points to whether he might want to create that universe with more significant relationships (for himself and us) by allowing free will, even the freedom to choose to not be with our creator.
Maybe I should have chosen a different word, rather than “mainstream” I’m sure you’re aware the traditional “biblical” view accepted by the majority of Christians and worldwide presents a Heaven and Hell after death. If you want to talk modern/ mainstream theology I’d say they tend more towards “all roads to lead to Heaven” including roads that bi-pass salvation through the Cross, unfortunately. Was Jesus ever looking to get “off the hook”? Did he not understand his mission? What was Jesus’ biblical view of John 3:16? Who would perish if he was off the hook? Who would perish if there’s no hell? I suppose if everyone is going to Heaven maybe he didn’t need to conquer death through the cross? Why did he sacrifice himself? Why are any of us here? Lots more questions when you remove free will, and the possibility of hell.
I will read your book, I think this is a very important topic to ponder and discuss healthily, and I look forward to doing that in the future, hopefully avoiding any more accusations of “thinking like satan”.
Kevin, I’m glad to hear you will read the book. It will not take you long. I am looking forward to your response.
I won’t try to answer all of your questions above here and now but will wait and see which ones you have left after you’ve read the book. I will, however, try to answer a few of them now because it could help you in your reading if you’re clear on where I stand – at least with respect to some of these easier-to-grasp issues.
– We are here to learn about our Creator, which means learning about His righteousness, which is love.
– If Jesus had not died for us on the cross, none of us would be going to heaven. He is the way.
– Jesus understood His mission, but He was not omniscient while on earth…and said so (Matt 24:36).
Lastly, some people confuse the biblical terms Hell and Hades, and most have never heard of Sheol. The book will explain and sort out these terms.
(Oh, and I wasn’t accusing you of thinking like Satan, but even if I had been, you’d be in good company because Peter was accused by Jesus of thinking like Satan (Matt 16:23). I myself am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals of the guy who unties the thong of the sandals of the guy who unties the thong of the sandals of Peter.)
Just one thing nagging me after reading this latest reply. If Jesus wasn’t omniscient while on earth (which I probably agree with), then why would you take such a literal view of his “this generation will not pass away” statement regarding the second coming – how would he have knowledge of that timing?
Just because Jesus didn’t know everything about the future doesn’t mean He didn’t know anything about it.
He could say what He did in that instance for the same reason that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the prophets could declare what was going to happen – they all knew through the Holy Spirit working in them.
Another point to remember with respect to these statements about the coming of the kingdom is the context in which they’re given. In each Gospel (Matt 24, Mark 13, Luke 21), which are all relating the same discourse, Jesus says at one point that “this generation will not pass away” (e.g. Matt 24:34) and two verses later “but of that day or hour, no one can know, not even the Son” (Matt 24:36). How can both be true? Easily. He’s saying they can know the generation (theirs) and the season (by the signs He gives them), but neither they nor He can pinpoint the day and hour. Why have people found this so hard to understand? It’s like telling your relatives, “We’re going to come visit you by spring of next year, but we can’t give you an exact date right now.” If we speak in terms like this, why do we find it so hard to understand Jesus when He does the same?
That makes sense. My church has a series on these passages this month, I’m very interested to get more information on this topic. I see you mentioned the Holy Spirit, and we’ve talked Jesus and the Father, but in your writing you reject the Trinity. I understand the word Trinity is not in the bible, but is there a better way to describe the relationship between these 3? I don’t see the link between church attendance and the trinity as you lay out. A lot of what I’ve read on this site so far seems antagonistic towards the modern church, which in many ways is an easy target. I would argue the church does more good than harm for seekers, believers, and the world at large. Let me ask this, if someone donated a building and you could relay your view of the bible, that you’ve found to be true, to a group of people with no money changing hands, would that “church” be ok? I know I’m asking a lot of questions, but you are presenting an alternative view that I’d like to understand.
First of all, I will always be ready to answer any sincere question that a person has, no matter how many of them he may ask. And when I don’t know the answer to a question, I will admit it.
As for the Trinity, it’s an idea that was not formulated by the apostles – as you say. It was formulated by church people who came later and didn’t believe that Jesus came when He said He would. It’s a confused idea, self-contradictory at its core. It’s a double-minded idea (you could even say triple-minded), formed by the minds of double-minded people – people of two minds because they 1) say they believe in Jesus, but 2) don’t believe in something He clearly said. (On the Other Books page you will also see a book titled “The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.)
Both God the Father and the Holy Spirit were revealed in the Old Testament yet we hear none of the prophets talking about a Binity. That’s the best way to start understanding how God and the Holy Spirit relate – the way the Old Testament deals with the two terms. Briefly, the Holy Spirit is simply God in action on the earth. The Holy Spirit is sent from heaven (because that’s God’s throne), but does all His work on earth. When Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit was given to be an extension of Him.
If you find this confusing, just set it aside until you see my next post about church which should come in 5-10 minutes.
You mentioned that you’re going to church. If that’s the case, you should just set my writings aside – at least for the time being. In the 8-9 years I spent writing my blogs, I was trying to speak to everyone – to any and all who would listen. This included, of course, church people.
In the time since closing down my blogs, focusing on my family, and now producing this book in the form of a website, Jesus has focused my attention on nonchurchgoers – to the exclusion of churchgoers. It’s not that I don’t care about churchgoers. I myself was a pastor for 15 years (1979-1994). I loved the church and gave my life to building it up. I didn’t leave it because of discouragement; I left it because God showed me that to continue building church after His kingdom had come was to make an idol out of it instead of serving God.
There is a great deal I could say about this subject of kingdom versus church. What I’ve written about it on this website is only a fraction of what I could write. But I don’t want to trouble churchgoers – I only want to reach nonchurchgoers. Anything I write negative about church is to keep them from taking what I’ve shown them and go to a church only to lose it. Most self-identified Christians in America today believe that going to church is essential to being faithful to God in this age. I myself believed that with a passion. But, obviously, I no longer do.
The point of all this for you right now is that having learned this morning that you are attending church, I have no interest in talking you out of that. In fact, you should probably just set my stuff aside and learn about Jesus from them. If you grow in Christ and keep growing, then no need to turn back to my stuff. On the other hand, if that experience doesn’t prove sufficiently edifying, you know where to find me.
What matters is not going to church or not going to church. What matters is knowing Jesus, living with and for Him.
(Sorry. Got interrupted. I’ll quickly finish.)
I just want to reach men who aren’t going to church, tell them they are sons of God and are on their way to heaven and that we need to start acting like it. And that all this is courtesy of Jesus Christ our Lord.
If everyone goes to heaven then why do we need to know anything about God or Jesus? We just live the way we want to and die and go to heaven. Maybe I like killing people, that seems to be okay if I am going to heaven anyway.
Then you will encounter hell on earth and shame in heaven.
so everyone is going to heaven and if I like killing people that is just going to be shamed upon but not a sin in heaven? I was always taught that sin will not exist in heaven so how can I go to heaven liking to commit sin?
Death changes our attitudes in a dramatic way. This truth is is stated in Romans 6:7 and illustrated in the Luke 16 story of an unnamed rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. No one who likes sin on earth feels the same way in heaven.
Mr. Gantt
I fully understand “everyone will make it to heaven”, it resonates with my soul and best interprets the Bible that I read, however, sometimes I will get stumped by the writings in the Bible. I am hoping you can help me understand Roman’s chapter 8. I encourage you to give your readers a sort of rewind button should others get snagged like I do at times. My snag doesn’t cause me to question my understanding, instead, I want the ammunition to give others when and if I get questioned by such scriptures. I choose to get back to the basics of your teachings when I myself get confused by the wording, I go back to the beginning painting the picture of life and it’s meaning, where we all went before the ascension of Jesus etc. etc. etc. But Mr. Gantt, that took me years of reading your writings and studying the scriptures, I wouldn’t have that type of time with a new “christian” sort of say to attempt to get them grounded again. So when in question what advice can you give to bring us back to a simplistic understanding of all going to heaven?To paraphrase Romans 8 Paul writes that those who belong to Christ have no condemnation, however, those who do not have the spirit of Christ they do not belong to Christ.
If I am going to attempt to answer this myself I would say the totality of the scriptures lead us to heaven through Jesus. However, there are moments in this life, because the Bible is constantly switching between speaking in physical terms and then spiritual terms, and often times it is difficult to distinguish between the two, but Romans 8 and it’s statements of those not being in Christ does not negate our final destination to heaven. We can all have moments of not being “in Christ” on this side of the cross in our earthly bodies, as you say, here we are never completely removed from sin. Our earthly minds are subject to an “earthly” death, further separation from God here on earth, “living a life void of Christ in our hearts would take us further than we already are” but living a life with the constant acknowledgemnt of Christ in our lives brings us closer, even though we are physically just as far away as the next guy.
So my answer would be, let’s dissect the reading and try to understand where Paul is speaking literally and spiritually.
In the beginning God made all things, so in essence all things belong to Him. When I purchase something it is mine, whether it gets stolen or not it still remains mine, if it ever gets found it will be returned to me as long as I prove that I was the owner. Eventually all of us are found, can’t escape that fact, and God is indeed our rightful owner.
Please give me your thoughts
Sincerely
Michael Diaz
Michael,
As you know, Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1. This was 40 days after He rose from the dead. Everything from Acts 2 until Revelation 22 – that is, the rest of the New Testament – takes place between Jesus’ ascension into heaven and His Second Coming.
Therefore, if you remember the sequence of events I described in The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven, everyone dying during that period of time continued to descend to Sheol (Hades) just as people had since the time of Adam and Eve. People would only start going to heaven at the Second Coming – so that’s what everyone between Acts 2 and Revelation 22 was looking forward to. (As for the Second Coming occurring late in the 1st century, remember that’s what The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact shows.)
In the following passage from 1 Thessalonians, Paul describes the change that would occur at the Second Coming when the new heavens and new earth would come into being:
1 Thess 4:13 ¶ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
1 Thess 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
1 Thess 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
1 Thess 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thess 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
1 Thess 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
When Paul says, “we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” he is speaking of how people would start going to heaven above instead of Sheol (Hades) below at death once the Second Coming brought in the day of the Lord with the new heavens and new earth.
In Romans 8, believers were still very much in the middle of things and Paul was encouraging them to continue to look forward to the great things to come.
You see during that time, only the church was in Christ. Everyone else was outside. But at the coming of Christ, ALL the nations became Jesus’ and therefore everyone came to be in Christ. The whole world has been in Christ ever since the Second Coming…and always will be. Jesus is the king of all the nations – not just the ones that recognize Him as such. (That’s why America has been struggling – too many of us have departed from the trust in Him that our founders had.)
Sure, it’s possible for people today to ignore what they have in Christ as king. Sadly, it seems the majority of our world is ignoring its inheritance. And therefore the warnings Paul gives in Romans 8 are good for us. We should strive to live godly in Christ Jesus every day. In that sense, we are separating ourselves from Christ when we ignore Him in this world. But the new heavens and new earth provide a safety net for all human beings because there is no longer a Sheol (Hades) below us. The only place for us to go when we die is heaven above. It’s the way the new heavens and earth have been designed.
In Romans 8, Paul is urging people to embrace the deliverance from evil God offers in this life on this earth. After this life, deliverance happens apart from any action on our part because, as Paul says in Rom 8:29-30, God predestined us to be His sons in heaven. To “pre” “destine” is to decide the “destiny” “ahead of time.” And that destiny is, as Paul says in the very next chapter,
Rom 9:25 As He says also in Hosea,
“I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’
AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.'”
Rom 9:26 “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’
THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.”
That’s why he could say with confidence in Philippians 2:9-11 that “every” tongue would confess Jesus as Lord.
At the Second Coming, Satan was kicked out of heaven and Sheol (Hades) was eliminated. The only place he can operate is earth – and he is obviously flexing his muscles here. But death, which used to be the doorway to his dungeon, is now the doorway to heaven. There’s an escape from this pit. (A paradise becomes a pit when sin reigns.)
That’s why Paul could end Romans 8 in this stirring fashion:
Rom 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 Just as it is written,
“FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
Rom 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That level of excitement could not be achieved if all that ended up in heaven was a fraction of the human race. There will order in heaven; that is, there will be honor to whom honor is due and shame to whom shame is due. But there will be a place for everyone. No loving father would have it any other way.
If I have not answered all your questions, or if you (or others) have other questions, keep asking. I serve at the pleasure of the Lord.