Will it be busy in heaven?
There is a passage in the Bible that I have honestly never heard in a church. Somehow we avoid it, it seems? Let’s start with that bit:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
And when I first read that, I didn’t really understand it. I was in an environment full of people who identified themselves as Christians, so what did I do with that verse? I didn’t see how that verse could ever work because the people around me were all going to heaven too, right?
As a child, I had a picture in my head of heaven as a place that would be very busy. Full of people having fun. And to find someone you knew there, that was quite impossible, since there would be so many people there…
But now that I’m getting older and learning more and more about who God is…
Now…I’m starting to worry that it won’t be that busy after all. Certainly, buildings full of people who say that they (as it is so beautifully stated in Matthew 7) “prophesy in His name, and cast out demons in His name, and do many mighty works in His name”, buildings, conferences full of them!
But which god are they actually talking about? A few times a day, I ask people: “who is God for you in times like this”? And I really get the vaguest answers. Also in buildings that call themselves churches. And that scares me.
- The power that makes me.
- My saviour!
- The creator! (and then it stops)
- My power.
- He does everything for me!
And then I ask the same question, but a bit differently: “who is Jesus for you at this time”? And then I also get the vaguest answers. Also in buildings that call themselves churches.
- The son of Mary
- Jesus is God (and then it ends)
- My power (and then it stops)
- That’s the same question, isn’t it?
- Jesus always helps me! (and then it stops)
And all those answers seem right… until I dig a little further. Yes, Jesus is God, but there is quite a difference between the two. (we won’t even start talking about the Holy Spirit) And if you think that God is there for you (and not the other way around), a kind of magical power that serves you, Jesus is nothing other than a kind of god, then you can use those ideas to prophesy in a room, use His name in songs and beautiful sentences, even imagine doing miracles in His name. But which God are we talking about?
The same goes for the answers to the question: “why do you want to be baptized?” I sometimes heard the vaguest answers. The same goes for the answers I did hear for the Holy Communion. And instead of asking, “What do you mean by that?”, they seemed fine with that sweet answer and simply proceeded with baptism or “welcome to our church”? Those people really thought they were “in,” but are they really? Or did we “sell” / “buy” a false “certainty”? Did we value “numbers” more than anything else? Come on!
I worked for years in conference centers as a “sound man”. Did see thousands and thousands of church services. A few years ago I told someone I had worked there, and his response was, “Oh, you must have seen many miracles!”
And then I became silent… the question was not: “What did you learn from God during that time” (or somewhere along those lines), but it was the “miracles that mattered”..?
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
And the person who asked me: “Oh, then you must have seen a lot of miracles!”… well… It wasn’t about God. No, it was about the miracles he did love to see… oops…
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:28-29
Did all those people really who went to all these services have any idea who God is? Really and truly? How Holy, Holy, Holy and righteous God is? Because if you start talking about judgment, then they’ll run! No, we don’t want to talk about that because God is love. Sermons full of love were delivered every week. But a sermon about God’s holy judgment? Rare to never… And if you use a verse from the Bible that is a judgment, you immediately get the message: you are not allowed to judge, it says in the Bible, and we are all sinners. While it is not I who pronounce that judgment, but that judgment is literally a Bible text I quoted. But no… we don’t want to talk about that…. We just want to prophesy, see and do miracles, use God’s name in songs that take the entire Bible out of context… And that makes me very, very afraid. Buildings full of people, but how many of those people are told this later:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
That fills me with great fear. God is a just God, who allows no sin in His heaven. A God who admits no one who believed in a false god… No one. Only through His grace and our faith in the one true Jesus Christ can we enter. For only then are our sins forgiven, and through Christ’s sacrifice, we enter heaven without sin.
But thank God, He is The God who is merciful and still gives us the time to teach people who He is. There is still so much to do, because when I look around me… buildings full of people who really have no idea who He is. But believe that they do know. And that will not be a pleasant conversation with Him later….
Why don’t we hear that part from Matthew 7:21-23 in the churches anymore? Do we really think that everyone who is there, sings songs, “prophesies”, performs “miracles” will enter heaven? I used to think so, but based on the above, I don’t believe it anymore. God clearly warns in His word with that part from Matthew 7:21-23 that there is a huge problem. Come on, don’t ignore it. It is vital. Eternally.
Come on, join us because otherwise it could be much less busy in heaven than we had thought or hoped…
