Things That Won't Get You To Heaven

The longer I minister in the kingdom the more I come across false ideas of what it takes to get  a reconciled relationship with God that will lead to a home in heaven. Here are some that we need to back away from. They aren't even a little bit "true". They are lies and we must reject them. Here's the list of ways some Christians seek to use to get saved and go to heaven.

1. Going to church - This is the "religious" way. It goes like this, "if I do lots of religious stuff (Christian of course), especially going to church, that will give me enough points to go to heaven". People who subscribe to this will never miss a church service but will often gossip, lie, cheat on their taxes and frequent porn sites. The way to heaven, for them, is one compartment of their lives and as long as they get that compartment right then nothing else matters. Once you learn the modern proverb of the chicken you will no longer hold onto this charming little idea. What proverb? I'm glad you asked. I'm sure this comes out of some rural preacher's manual. "Being at church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in a chicken coop makes you a chicken". Rather agricultural but you can't fault the logic. 
2. Being Nice - It's the "be a good boy and God will be forgive you" path. It is usually linked with the "passing grade" approach to salvation. Most of us realise we just don't seem to be good all the time and so we have invented the idea that God "grades on the curve". Falsely it asserts that as long as you have more good in you than bad then you pass the grade and get the big tick from God. Only problem with this idea is that God never said it. 
3. Baptism - Don't get me wrong. Baptism is a vital part of our acceptance of God's gift of forgiveness. However I'm talking about the idea that many have that as long as I was baptised with the right words said over me, then that is really the only determining factor in whether I'm saved or not. Baptism is not the key to heaven. God is very clear what is the key. More on that if my next blog.
4. Being Right - It's the old "right doctrine" makes my church the true church and gets me to heaven. This one sounds "kinda right" but it isn't. While we should always strive to learn the truth on every matter from scripture there is no scripture that says I have to get 100% mark on a Theology 101 test to be a true Christian. I used to subscribe to this false notion. But when I started to think about it I realised how false it was. Why? Two things. Firstly, God never said it. Secondly, there has never been even one Christian who had perfect doctrine. Even with the Holy Spirit and the Bible we are not the smartest tools in the shed. There weren't any in the first century church. Every letter in the New Testament is written to get people to correct their teaching (as well as other things). I have never found one Christian who will attest to me that they have gotten all the teachings of God correct all the time. 
5. Being Right on a Special List of Teachings - This is a sub-category of the previous one. For some churches it is getting the teaching on the Sabbath correct. For others it is the pattern of public worship. For others it is baptism. For others it is 5 points of Calvinism. Nowhere did Jesus or His apostles ever teach that believing all the right things on a subset of beliefs makes you or your church the chosen ones. 

Lists get a little bit boring after a while don't they? But you get my point. These things are all good things but none of them get you to heaven. Well, what does? I think you know but I'll be blogging about that soon anyway. See you then.