We have concluded our series on the holiness of God and will soon begin journeying through Ephesians. Today, though, I want to address something I heard this weekend that I found most disturbing.
In church on Sunday, my pastor told our congregation that, in the midst of all the media coverage of Pope John Paul’s death, a Catholic Bishop from Oklahoma was being interviewed. At some point during the interview, the bishop said, “I believe that Jesus died for all people. Therefore, all people are going to heaven.”
This seems like a very nice thought. We don’t like to think of anyone going to hell. However, this view, known as universalism, is unbiblical. And I marvel at how someone who claims to believe in the Bible can hold a view that is in direct opposition to the teaching of the Bible.
According to the Bible, not all people will go to heaven. In fact, Jesus stated very plainly that more people will spend eternity in hell than will go to heaven. He said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).
In Romans 2, Paul says that God “’will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality: but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of every man who does evil” (vs. 6-9).
Where our Catholic friend got the notion that all people are going to heaven, I do not know. He certainly did not get it from the Bible. And my point is this: A few days ago, I told you that the Bible is the holy Word of God, and we need to treat it accordingly. When a man claims to believe in the Bible and then claims to believe something contrary to what the Bible declares to be true, he is not treating the Word of God as the holy thing it is.
Furthermore (and I close with this), if I am going to call myself a Christian; if I say that I believe in the Bible, then I need to be consistent in my beliefs. I do not have the freedom to pick and choose which portions of the Bible I want to believe and which portions I don’t. If the Bible says that those who do not accept Christ are going to hell, then I have to believe that, and I have to seek to reach out to the lost with the gospel in the hopes that they will accept Christ.