Not Everyone is Going to Heaven

Not everyone is going to heaven. Jesus warned us on many occasions to make sure we have a relationship with God through faith in Him. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). We don’t get to heaven by trying to live nobly or righteously, for all of us fall short of the perfection of God. We don’t get to heaven by placing our faith in a philosophical or religious system. Salvation happens when we are granted a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ—that is the only way.

People accuse Christians of being narrow-minded when we say this, but Jesus Himself said it first. And that’s not all He said.

People accuse Christians of being narrow-minded

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, “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. . . . Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:13–14, 21).

What is the Father’s will? Jesus told us in John 6:40: “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.”

Jesus warned His critics, “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

How could this be clearer? And yet so many people don’t want to believe what Jesus Himself had to say. John MacArthur wrote,

It is ironic that so many who are downplaying the exclusivity of Christ are doing it because they believe it is a barrier to “relevance.” Actually, Christianity is not relevant at all if it is merely one of many possible paths to God. The relevance of the gospel has always been its absolute exclusivity, summed up in the truth that Christ alone has atoned for sin and therefore Christ alone can provide reconciliation with God for those who believe only in Him.¹

We can’t talk of heaven without warning about hell. Jesus cautioned us about a place of “outer darkness” where there will be “gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). He told us, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

We can’t talk of heaven without warning about hell.

He had this to say about His return: “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41–42).

These are somber warnings we should take with utmost gravity.

D. B. Hatfield, one of the descendants of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, became aware of these truths at the age of fifteen. He described himself as a lonely adolescent living in Chattaroy, West Virginia. One Sunday night he walked into town to see what was going on, and he saw a church lit up and a lot of people gathering. He ambled in and took a seat. The singing and preaching were good, and something moved in his heart. Going home, he went straight to his room and fell asleep. During the night, he had a dream in which he saw the fiery gates of hell, and he was just outside, headed for them.

“I woke myself up with a loud, frightful scream and sat directly up in bed, and there I pondered what I had seen in my sleep. Right there I made up my mind that I didn’t want to go to hell, and from that moment I began to make amends and to rectify some things in my lifestyle. I didn’t know that if I, by faith, repented of my past youthful sins, Christ would forgive me.”

Hatfield spent months reading his Bible. One year later at a church revival meeting, he gave his life to Jesus and trusted Him for salvation.2 Hatfield went on to serve the Lord for 77 years as an evangelist, pastor, and missionary. His fear of hell was replaced by his love for heaven. We need a similar experience!

Trust Christ as your Savior today

In this article, "How Do You Get to Heaven”, Dr. Jeremiah explains the simple steps you need to take today to trust Christ and secure your reservation in heaven.

Have you made a decision to follow Christ?

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¹ John MacArthur, Why One Way? (Thomas Nelson, 2002), ix–x.

² D. B. Hatfield, Triumphant: The Gates of Hell Cannot Have Me (self-published, 2003), 157–59.