How Good Is Good Enough?

ABC News ran a story recently titled - Faith in America - Insight on how people view their own religion, and the beliefs of others. Watch the video here --> Faith in America - 6/23/2008 They revealed some interesting stats -


Many people say the belief that, "there is only one way to Heaven" is unfair, or intolerant. Those people would probably say, "I think God isn't tuned into a particular belief system, I think He is looking for a particular kind of person". That assumption leads to the idea that, "good people go to Heaven - you just have to be nice, and do good deeds, then God will let you in". That brings up a few questions --

• How do you know if you've been good enough?
• How are we graded?
• What if you're not a good person most of your life, but then have a change of heart and want to be good and go to Heaven, but there's not enough time left to do enough good deeds to make it in?
• Where is the 'check-list of goodness' that I can use to see if I've made it? Who makes up that standard?

This logic would show that the "all roads lead to Heaven" theory isn't fair. If there really is a good God in a good Heaven, wouldn't He have come up with a fair way to qualify for Heaven? Jesus said everyone qualifies, no matter how good or bad you've been. You only need to trust in Him. Everyone is welcome, everyone gets in the same way and everyone can meet the requirements. What could be more fair?

I can't take any credit for this logical construct. I heard it from Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church one day long ago.

Randy Alcorn recently blogged about this. He is way better at this blogging stuff than I am! Read his blog here --> American Evangelicals Believe There Are Different Ways to Heaven