There are five views about who will go to heaven within the professing church.
- Evangelical exclusivists claim that only those who have been justified by God through faith in Christ will go to heaven. This view is facing increasing hostility and declining advocates.
- Traditional Roman Catholic exclusivists claim that only baptized, practicing Catholics go to heaven after an undefined period of time in purgatory. Mel Gibson initially proclaimed this view when he released “The Passion of the Christ.”
- Inclusivists believe that confessing Christians plus at least some advocates in other religions, still based on Christ, go to heaven. For instance, Dr. Billy Graham stated, “[God is] calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus…”
- Pluralists believe all the world's religions lead to the same God, but not all advocates within those religions will go to heaven. Many prominent religious and political leaders have expressed this popular view.
- Universalists categorically state that all will go to heaven.
Stand before an interfaith meeting or crowded college cafeteria and proclaim, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. Put your faith solely in Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, if you want to go to heaven.”
Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, New Agers, Agnostics, Mormons, most Protestants and nearly all Catholics will tell you that Jesus is not the only way and/or you have a different God. Therefore, we are not all praying to the same God and believing in the same way.
If there was another way why should Jesus have to come, suffer and die in our behalf? Let us please God rather than men by adhering to the biblically congruent first view.
