It's a cliche, but it's true!

I heard a statistic yesterday that I've heard the essence of for as long as I've been a Christian. By some ridiculous ratio, of those people who believe in both a literal Heaven and a literal Hell, the VAST VAST majority believe they themselves are going to Heaven. Yesterday's ratio was something like 122 to one; I've heard 29 to 1, 34 to 1, 39 to 1, all sorts of ludicrous proportions that don't match anything the Scriptures have to say on the topic.

Jesus Himself laid it out as plainly as you can ask for, in the Sermon on the Mount (so presumably He actually said it many times, as that Sermon is supposed to have been repeated on many occasions) in Matthew 7:13-14 →

   "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Pretty clear, wasn't He? Here's another set of passages from that same sermon, in Matthew 5. Tell me with a straight face that the majority of people - even the majority of Christians! - are going to Heaven under these criteria:

   "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says 'You fool!' will be liable to the Hell of fire." (5:22)

   "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into Hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Hell."  (5:28-30)

    "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in Heaven...If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."   (5:44, 47-48)

It's hard for me to read these passages and think that I'm going to Heaven, and I'd be hard pressed to believe I know more than one or two people who would under these conditions! Yet I know God is merciful, and grants Grace to many of us undeserving fools. Heaven is not a place for good people, or saints, or even people who try hard. 

Heaven is for forgiven people.

There are indeed many roads to God. However, there is only one road to Heaven, and that narrow road is through acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Both terms are significant! He must be not only your Savior, the One Who died on the cross to give payment for your sins so that God would grant you a "clean bill of health", sinfully speaking; He must also be your Lord, your master, the One Whom you obey the teaching of. God grants you grace for your mistakes, but not for not trying to follow Jesus as Lord.

And that's where I differ in my opinion of Scripture from many of my fellow teachers. 

I hear so many of them agree with those easy-go lazy folks who say that once they made their commitment prayer, they were in Heaven when they died, no matter what. 

I strongly disagree. And I disagree because God is omniscient - all knowing, especially through time.

If you make a statement and don't follow through with it, God knows you won't follow through with it, and so He knows better than to ever accept your supposed prayer of contrition in the first place. And to prove it, we once again return to the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us so in Matthew 7:21-27, the very conclusion to the Sermon:

    "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father Who is in Heaven.On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Don't just hear the Word - follow it. 
Build your house upon the Rock.