What gets you into heaven? Believing in Jesus? That's what most of us
were taught. I was thinking about this today, it kind of bugged me
lately. How sure are we that we will go to heaven or be taken up in
the rapture when Jesus comes? Some people say that the Left Behind
series is inaccurate and unBiblical because scripture does not say
that believers will be "left behind", but if you think about it, it
makes perfect sense.
Simply believing is not enough, I think we should
stop using that phrase "believing in Jesus", instead we should say
what it really means, FOLLOWING Jesus. That gives it a deeper meaning.
I "believe" in my friend Jody (one of my good friends), I "believe"
that she was born on June 3rd 1974 and lives today. Do I like or agree
with everything she says and does? Do I want to be just like her? Do I
TRY to be just like her? No. Just "believing" in her doesn't mean
much. But, if I "followed" her it would mean that I wanted to be like
her, learn what she did, and do it, listen to everything she said,
ect. I would want to give up my comforts and follow her around.
Faith without works is dead, we can believe all we want, but if we are
followers, we will naturally want to do those things we are commanded
to do. I have no idea what a true follower should look like, we are
all imperfect and selfish, but we need to stop teaching our kids that
"if you believe in Jesus you will go to heaven", yes the Bible says
that (John 3:16), but...what does it REALLY mean to believe? Remember,
Satan is a "believer", too and we all know we won't see him in heaven.
1 comment:
Hi Fr. John. Great blog post. I'm not connected to your college at all (I live in the UK!) Would you suggest that the influence of the phrase that "If you believe in Jesus you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven" has possibly lost meaning in translation from the original Greek text? Or do you think it's more to do with the exploitation of Biblical passages without context?
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