Sometimes I wish we Christians had more courage

by Shannara Johnson, in Diary of a Stumbling Saint

There are some very basic truths in Christianity that somehow never get talked about in church.

One of them is: Who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell, and why?

No pastor, priest, or deacon I’ve ever heard a homily from (in real life—online is a different matter) has mentioned this from the pulpit. Perhaps it’s too uncomfortable. Tender feelings may be hurt. Parishioners may walk out and never return. If it’s talked about at all, then only in a very weasley, tip-toeing, cotton-ball sort of way.

But it’s so necessary to say this quiet part out loud. In my opinion, we don’t hear this nearly often enough.

Every once in a while, a gutsy Christian speaks up in some interview, which then gets millions of views and is forgotten by next week. But one can always hope that the message has reached a few souls and really sunk in, and so I try to do the same and keep repeating the inconvenient and uncomfortable here until people get sick of me.

I just saw this clip from an interview with top UK podcaster Steven Bartlett (the podcast is called “Diary of a CEO”) and evangelical Christian Wesley Huff. It’s a must-watch.

I don’t agree on everything with Wes, but this is a masterful example of courage and standing your ground (unlike Bishop Robert Barron, who a few years ago shamefully caved under pressure and told orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro that “Jesus is the preferred way to get to Heaven” when he should have said that He is the only way). Fulton Sheen would not have been proud.

TRANSCRIPT:

Wesley: So God isn’t better off or worse off if we love Him or worship Him or believe in Him. He really isn’t. He has existed in love, in relationship. And yet, the story of the Bible is that God chooses to create, out of an outpouring of His love, knowing even that we are going to rebel against Him, we are going to sin—do wrong against how He has actually created us to be—and still desires to have that relationship.

Steven: So do you believe that there is a Hell and a Heaven as we sort of typically understand it—a place that is great to go to after we die, and a place that is very… hot?

Wesley: I think that it’s more so that you will experience the full weight of the separation from God’s goodness. Not necessarily a separation from God, because I think God’s punishment and His wrath are going to be felt there. But if we’re talking about, like, a good place/bad place, in the very simplest of terms, YES. But Heaven isn’t full of good people. Heaven is full of people who understand they are not good enough.

And so I mentioned that, like, justice/mercy thing. Justice is fulfilled on Jesus. So, because justice is fulfilled, now mercy, which is not getting what we do deserve, is able to be given to those who put their trust in Jesus.

Steven: So if I don’t believe in Jesus, and I don’t believe in the Bible, but I live a good life—I’m nice to people, charitable, try and be kind wherever I can be, and I don’t believe in God. Am I going to Heaven or Hell as it relates to the Scriptures?

Wesley: Well, I don’t think… if you’re living your life rejecting God, God is not going to force you into His presence.

Steven: So I’m not going to go to Heaven, then?

Wesley: No.

Steven: Where am I going to go?

Wesley: Well, you would… you would go to Hell.

There’s more to the video than this… but oh, what a clear, distinct, brave message!

I recently had a very similar conversation with my sister in Germany. Her view was like Steven’s; basically, what is called “moralistic-therapeutic deism” (maybe even minus the deism if you don’t believe in God at all): If you’re a somewhat decent, honest, law-abiding person, you should be going to Heaven.

She got very upset when I told her no, only Christians go to Heaven, and to be a Christian, you must believe in Jesus Christ and aspire to follow Him as His disciple. Should I have not told her to spare her feelings? I don’t think so.

One thing, though, that really stands out for me is how desperate people who purportedly don’t even believe in God are to get confirmation that they will go to Heaven. If there’s no God, what are they so concerned about?

I believe that all of us, deep down, know the Truth. We know the reality of Heaven and Hell, and we subconsciously also know where we’d be going if we died right now. It’s just that we have built such a thick sound-proof cushioning against this knowledge around our soul that the little voice telling us the Truth has been muffled.

At Mass today, Deacon E. quoted Mother Teresa of Calcutta saying that we should “be the living expression of God’s kindness.” Kindness, he said, saves more souls than strictness.

I agree… to a degree. Most people are hungry for love and kindness, and to feed them that way is most definitely a very good and holy thing. Many Muslims reportedly have been converted by encountering Jesus’s boundless love, in comparison to the stern, disapproving manner of their own god.

However, I also think that misguided kindness, where the Word of God is so watered down for the benefit of the listener that the (inconvenient) Truth is obfuscated, is the opposite of real kindness. Especially if someone broaches the subject on their own, don’t we owe it to them to tell the Truth? Sending a person to Hell because we are afraid to hurt their feelings or make them mad at us is the worst kind of cowardice.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been guilty of this too. The urge to be nice and talk about nice things and keep the peace in order to have a pleasant afternoon with non-believing friends and family members is often just too hard to resist. But I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to account for that when we meet Jesus eye to eye. Sometimes, providing tough love is the most loving thing we can do.

And “go along to get along” has never been the definition of a Christian. On the contrary, as Jesus said,

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also.”

—John 15:18-23

Sometimes we forget that those “who hate Jesus,” and therefore us if we talk about His teachings, might not be ferocious enemies from faraway lands. They might be your grandma or your best high school friend.

I pray for all of us that we may become (more) skilled in helping Jesus to save souls.

God bless you!