HEAVEN

Who Goes to Heaven?
 
“You know the way to where I am going.” “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:4-7(NLT)
 
Do you know who goes to heaven and who doesn’t? First of all I’m not sure that’s a question we’re supposed to know the answer to. Second it’s a very difficult question to try to answer. Personally I think there will be a lot of surprises when we see who’s there and who isn’t! Think of the story of the prodigal son. The ungrateful brat gets in and the faithful, church going, did-everything-right older brother is on the outside (hell) looking in.
 
John 14:6 is an answer to Thomas’ question, not a propositional, doctrinal statement..
 
My point is that I see too many people using John 14:6 almost as a weapon to tell people who’s in and out or to scare people into accepting Jesus. But the context doesn’t suggest this use of the passage. It’s a conversation between Jesus and his disciples that only John remembered and Jesus is offering reassurance to legalistically trained, works oriented, Jewish followers.
 
Yet, of course, what Jesus says is true. Therefore it is true that all who enter “heaven” get there only through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This also makes a lot of sense. John 3:16 and 17 tell us that Jesus came to save everyone, not just those who have heard of him. The Gospels are pretty clear that you and I were saved from our sins 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross. I may have come to believe this recently, but my belief didn’t save me, Jesus did.
 
Romans 1:19 and 20 tell us that God reveals Himself to every person who ever lived either through conscience or nature, which means each person has a chance to submit to God or reject God. Those who submit to whatever of Himself God has revealed to them, even those who have never heard of Jesus, will discover in “heaven” that their salvation was won for them by Jesus on the cross even though they never knew about it.
 
There’s an analogy I thought of that works for me. I can simultaneously pick up my cell phone, call California, talk to my aunt, and have no clue that electromagnetic waves are what connected me. I may even disbelieve that there is such a thing as electromagnetism. Yet I am talking to my Aunt!!!! I could even say, “No voice gets to California by cell except through electromagnetism” Electromagnetic waves are what transports my voice to my aunt, whether I believe it or not. 

In the same way, if I connect to God, it is through the fact of Jesus’ intervention on my behalf. There isn’t any other provision (which removes the sin barrier between God and me)
 
This is to say, because of Romans 1:19, 20 and John 3:16, 17, I find it difficult to believe that anyone will be in hell just because they never heard of Jesus.
 
What this does then, is put all people in the same boat. Romans 1 goes on to say that every single human being on earth is a rebel and is in trouble. Every one of us needs the fact of the cross. Every one of us needs to humble ourselves before God and ask him to do for us what we cannot do. God is consummately fair. He leaves no one without a chance to repent and come to him.