Are you going to Heaven?Someday you will stand before God and He will ask you one question: Why should I let you into my kingdom?What will you answer? |
| 1. I go to Church |
| 2. I keep the Ten Commandments |
| 3. All paths lead to Heaven |
| 4. I am a good person, at least better than most people |
| 5. I don't believe in Heaven |
| 6. Two thousand years ago Jesus died on the cross |
Home page Links and Bible Studies
Sorry, this is the wrong answer. |
| Going to church will not get you into the Kingdom of Heaven any more than going to McDonalds will make you into a hamburger. It is true, though, that if you are going to a good church, you can learn about God and they will show you how to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. |
| If you will take a few more minutes, you can learn how to get into Heaven. |
Sorry, this is the wrong answer. |
| Most
people who say they keep the Ten Commandments don't
even know what they are. But even keeping the
Ten Commandments isn't enough. You have to keep
the whole law. There are over six hundred
statutes and commandments.
According to the Bible, nobody has kept the law.
As you can see, God's standard is perfect. If you want to get into heaven by keeping the Law you must be perfect also. |
| If you will take a few more minutes, you can learn how to get into Heaven. |
Sorry, this is the wrong answer. |
Not
all paths lead to Heaven. Nor do all roads lead
to Sacramento, California.
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| Take a few more minutes and learn how to find the narrow path. |
Sorry, this is the wrong answer. |
Unfortunately
for you, God does not grade on a curve. His standard
is absolute perfection.
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| Take a few more minutes and learn the how to get into Heaven. |
There was a time when I didn't believe either. |
| Not
only didn't I believe in the Kingdom of Heaven, I
didn't believe I would be punished for my sins either.
Actually there is enough evidence for a reasonable
person to believe in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is
not a problem of reason, it is a problem of our heart.
I challenge you to read To Believe (it will take less than 10 minutes) and then come back here and take the test again. What are a few minutes compared to the eternal consequence? Willful ignorance will not hold up before God anymore than it would in a court of law.
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| Read: To Believe. |
| Then: Take a few more minutes and learn the how to get into Heaven. |
Congratulations, you got the right answer! |
| You
will be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven if you
truly believe that Jesus died for your sins.
If we truly believe this, we will love him. Jesus said: "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Any good works that we do, are not done to be saved. Our love for Him motivates us to do good and find favor in His sight. |
| If you still have doubts about getting into the Kingdom, click here. |
How to Get into Heaven.
First
let me ask you a few questions:Which of the following words would you use to describe God? |
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Well, You Picked One of His Attributes
God Is:
Loving: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." I John 4:8
Forgiving: "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Psalms 103.12
Perfect: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:48
Faithful: "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." 1st Corinthians 1:9
Holy: "And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." Luke 11:2
All Knowing: "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." 1 John 3:20
Merciful: "For the LORD thy God is a merciful God..." Deuteronomy 4:31
All Powerful: "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." Genesis 17:1
Lets continue to the second question
All the above words describe God. God is loving, forgiving, holy, and perfect.
Next:Which of the following words would you use to describe Man? |
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Actually,
According to the Bible, all and only the
answers in the Right-hand Column are Correct.
I know that some people are more honest than others, yet if they are honest it is because they were taught to be. There are a lot of dishonest people and this came naturally to them. If you are honest you know that it is far easier to be selfish than to be giving, especially to strangers when you expect nothing in return.
Man Is Not:
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Man Is:
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If you are looking up these verses to see if they are taken in context it is true that some are referring to a particular group of people, never the less the overall picture here is one of man's fallen state.
If you picked all the right-hand column, you are correct. According to the Bible, only those words describe man.
However, here we have a problem. How can a perfect, holy, righteous God spend eternity with selfish, destructive, proud and greedy man?
Think about it, if he let all mankind in, Heaven would be as corrupt as the world is right now! There would be wars, murders, pollution, and hate. "Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD." Isaiah 26:10
Why doesn't God lower his standard a little, so at least those that are trying could get into Heaven by good works?
The problem is about the same. Those that did make it into the Kingdom of Heaven would brag about all their good works. Have you ever had to live with someone who was self-righteous? People like that are not easy to live with are they? Could you imagine being stuck in a room full of self-righteous people? If Heaven were full of them - it wouldn't be Heaven. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9
The plan God had was to give us a perfect standard, then leave us alone for a little while. We could all be good. None of us had to sin. Yet left to ourselves we have fallen far short of God's standard of perfection. "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." Romans 3:10-11
The perfect solution!
God's solution was to pay the price for our sins himself. Jesus said: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." God became a man and than gave his life a ransom for many. This was attested to by the prophets.
Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before Jesus was born: "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53
If you receive Jesus' death as a payment for your sins, then you will not be self-righteous when you get to Heaven. I was no good, Jesus had to be nailed to a cross to get me in. If I believe Jesus died for me, I will love him.
Does this seem like a strange way to get into the Kingdom of Heaven?
"...that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong:" Isaiah 28:21-22
It may seem strange for God to choose the cross to get us into Heaven, but it accomplished many important things:
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There will be no self-righteous people in Heaven. Everybody will be much more humble and that will make it a lot more pleasant. |
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God did not compromise His righteous standard to let us in. |
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If we believe God does not lie, we will be thankful. We will stop living for ourselves and start living for Him. There will be no more hatred and strife in our hearts, now or in Heaven. |
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Since there is no greater love than a man giving his life for his friends, we are saved by God's ultimate love, there is no greater! |
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It makes it wrong to add works to be saved - this separates Christianity from all man made religions. If we need good works, we are saying God's greatest love was insufficient for us (quite an insult). |
Are you ready to change sides and give your life to Jesus?
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He That Believeth on Me Hath Everlasting Life.
Many Christians would lead you through a sinners prayer at this point. Yet it is not the prayer which gets us into God's kingdom. Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." John 6:47
The Apostle Paul also said: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9
If you believe this, you are in the Kingdom of God and for the rest of this document I will talk to you as my sister or brother. Better yet Jesus said: "For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."
Yet, if you are having trouble believing God raised Jesus from the dead, then how can you expect him to raise you? If you would like evidence to increase your faith, me and I will try to help you. Also you can read To Believe, it deals specifically with this subject.
Now back to the prayer. The words are not important, the state of you heart is. My first prayer was simple. I realized that I had laughed at those who professed to be Christians, and that if I was judged according to God's standards I was in trouble. So I simply prayed: "God I know I have done many things to offend you, but hearing the teachings of Jesus, I can see He knows you. Please, I want to change sides."
That was twenty five years ago, and my life has been transformed since. I could go on for hours telling you about it, but this page is not about me.
Things you should know as a new Christian.
The first and greatest commandment is:
"Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." In other words, it is impossible be too devoted to our Heavenly Father. The unbelievers will not be able to understand this.
"And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29-31 And, for the record, we are to love our enemies and do good to them that persecute us, that we may be like our Father in Heaven. In actual practice, this will take a lot of prayer to do.
Jesus promises to send us His Holy Spirit:
"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:" John 15:26
I warn you that one of the biggest sins (of some professing denominations) is laying hands on a new Christian and telling him to say stupid things (like Halleluiah backwards or 'glorygloryglory' real fast) until their speech is garbled, and then telling them they received the Holy Spirit. Stay away from such people.
The Holy Spirit is none other than God Himself making His presence in our life. Your body becomes His temple. Instead of talking to yourself, now you should talk to Him. If He gives you any of the gifts of the Spirit, they will not resemble parlor tricks. As a new Christian, this topic is important. For without the Holy Spirit we are not Christ's (Romans 8:9). Yet let me make this very simple: give your life to Jesus (not the church), then He and the Father will come and abide with you. When this happens you will know it. E-mail me and I will send you scripture verses from the Bible that you may be well founded in your understanding.
Some other teachings of Jesus:
Matthew 13:3-9 "Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Matthew 6:2-4 "Therefore when thou doest thine alms [giving], do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."
Matthew 6:5-6 "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."
Read your Bible:
1 Peter 2:2 "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"
Read the Gospels first. Compare the teachings of any pastor or teacher (mine included) to the Bible, and keep only the ones that line up with it. I have written a simple book, Is the World Flat? (Yes, I know the name sounds weird), to help you understand the Bible. It isn't to teach you what the Bible says, rather it will teach you how to understand it for yourself. Many Christians are Biblically ignorant. Jesus warned that many would teach the traditions of men for the commandments of God. Men willingly gave their lives and were even burned at the stake so you could read a Bible. To get you started, e-mail me asking for a Bible and I will send it free.
Some other Thoughts
For those who want to be religious: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27
"Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Mark 8:36 Why should we be ashamed of Jesus? He went around helping people trying to teach them to love one another. He has good reasons to be ashamed of me and all he asks is that we not be ashamed of Him? Oh, let us Praise Him before men.
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7
If you made a decision for Jesus e-mail me and I will help you find a good Bible believing church. Actually, I won't find it for you, but I will give you things to look for as you pick out one for yourself.
If you have any questions for me, I am not a web page, I am a man who enjoys sharing about Jesus. My reward is simply to watch people as God transforms their lives.
My e-mail address is or write to: Jeff Barnes, PO Box 692 Coquille, OR 97423,
It is Good to Take Your Decision Seriously.
Jesus said: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish."
Please e-mail me with any questions. If there are sins that are stopping you from making a decision me. With God's help you can overcome. I am not recruiting you to my church or trying to persuade you to join a certain denomination. I am only trying to persuade you to go into a quite place and read the Gospel of Jesus for yourself. I would warn you that Jesus also said.
"He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."
If you put off your decision until you forget you have read this, the consequences may be eternal.
If some cult member knocks on an atheist's door, usually he will get nowhere. Now that you are considering the things of God beware who you receive doctrine from, until you are well founded in the Word of God.
If I haven't wore you out yet, I would urge you to click on the Yes! link, then when you are ready to live for Him you will know what to do. Or e-mail me and ask for a free Gospel of John.
My e-mail address is
Thank You For Reading This Far.
I won't push you into making a decision, as it would not be from your own heart. Our Lord wants you only if you are truly committed. He said: "For many are called, but few are chosen." If you have questions I have not answered or objections e-mail me. Our time on earth is short. Before I started to serve Jesus my life was empty. E-mail me and I will give you my personal testimony. If you would like, I will also mail you the Gospel of John free.
I would also urge you to see what I would have said, had you clicked on the Yes! link, in case you should want into the His Kingdom sometime in the future.
My e-mail address is