Whatever Takes Us Away

What is required of us to enter heaven?

This is a tough question, and one that raises many more. The answers, you may find, are varied from denomination, but don’t most Christians come to believe the same thing based on the same book, the Bible? Yes and no.

In the Cincinnati Enquirer online, Sunday, February 15, 2009 was an article about the Catholic church reviving an old practice, one I have read about and heard about, but did not believe was still viable today. Plenary Indulgence anyone? Here's the article http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090215/NEWS01/902150...

Not familiar with this term? Fear not, oh sluggish Protestant. Most Catholics seem to not even understand this practice. Here is where the great schism has had a lasting effect on a knowledge based faith, and where sense and sensibility have been broken. For the Protestant, getting into heaven is a matter based solely on faith. Protestants are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. For the Catholic there are a myriad of other requirements that must take place prior to a soul entering into heaven. There is purgatory that must be gone through. If you confess your sins the eternal punishment for those sins is removed, but the temporal punishment (the physical, time centered punishment that is paid for in purgatory) remains. The indulgence removes either in whole, or in part, that temporal punishment.

I’m not trying to offend either side in this, but I believe most of you are good thinking people that can read through and between the lines here. Open your Bibles once in a while and find out if these things are true. Don’t read anything into the text, but rather, seek the historical background of a book or chapter, find a commentary to help expand your knowledge of a particular book of the Bible. Some doctrines seem way off base and not even closely related to the Christian faith – if it seems odd, find out where it comes from and research it. Many heretics were cast out of the faith centuries before we came about, but here we are nearly 2,000 years after Jesus and some of those heresies still linger on.

We are justified by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves. Read through Ephesians 2 sometime to see what role we play in our salvation. We bring nothing more than our sins that need to be forgiven and an empty hand of faith. I feel for you if you feel that you need to DO something in order to receive the gift of God in salvation. Do you honestly think you would have anything of value for Him to begin with? In my estimation He needs nothing from you or I and is more than powerful enough to accomplish above and beyond what I could ever conceive, this includes my salvation. No amount of works or deeds will ever pull me into a right relationship with my Creator.

What is required to enter heaven? Faith in Jesus Christ. This, I submit to you is what is necessary.