Does Everyone Go to Heaven?



On a recent trip to Singapore Pope Francis spoke to an interdenominational group of young people. According to news reports, he suggested that “[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all…. There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].”

There was a time when Roman Catholics believed that only baptized members of their church would go to heaven. Not even other Christians. Now the Pope is saying everybody does.

Believing/conservative Roman Catholics have been in a dither over the Pope’s remarks. A practicing Catholic, Peter Franklin, writing in Unherd said, “The Pope is not a heretic but he is incompetent.” That’s not exactly a stirring defense. Franklin goes on to say, It’s obvious that Francis can’t have literally meant what he so carelessly said.  So Franklin’s defense is the Pope may have said it but he didn’t mean it. Which raises the question, how often does this happen? How often does the Pope say things he doesn’t really mean?

Gavin Ashenden, a conservative Catholic in the UK, recycles the old Catholic joke, “Is the Pope Catholic?” but he answers it, “No, he’s a Buddhist.” 

A number of years ago my students at Colorado Christian University came to me with the teachings of a well-known Evangelical pastor named Rob Bell. Bell had become a universalist; that is, he believed all people would eventually get to heaven. And I shared with my students the problems with Bell’s views.

First, there’s the problem with this thing known as the Word of God, the Bible. Jesus Himself said in John 14:6, “I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.” Or 1 John 5:11,12: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” And there are many more verses that teach exactly the same thing.

Second, in my classes we had been studying the modern missionary movement. As I told the students, when missionaries over the past two hundred years traveled all over the world preaching the gospel they suffered terribly. If universalism is true they were fools. If everyone is saved anyway why make heroic sacrifices to preach the Gospel?

Let me add two more comments. The Pope is contradicting clear Catholic teaching. I have linked below the official Catholic position but let me summarize: Outside the Catholic church there is no salvation. Now they nuance this a bit to include non-Catholic Christians but that’s the basic Catholic view. Not only do all paths fail to reach God, you have to have the right Christian connections to get to heaven.

The basic Catholic problem is their reverence for the papacy. It is somehow invested with unique supernatural capacity. From my point of view the Pope is merely a flawed human being who believes some things that are unchristian and illogical. This does not disqualify the entire Catholic church or every Catholic or even the whole of Francis’ ministry. The Catholics believe he is the Vicar of Christ on earth. He’s not. He’s a mere man who can make mistakes. This one was big.

Let’s rejoice today that he who has the Son has life whatever his denominational label. And let’s spread the Gospel so a lot more people can have the Son and have life.

More: My Mixed Feelings About the Catholic Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QHx4zr9io

Transcript: https://www.the401stprophet.com/my-mixed-feelings-about-the-catholic-church

A conservative Catholic view from First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/09/the-pope-and-other-religions

A more critical view from a Catholic writer in a secular publication; “The Pope is not a heretic but he is incompetent”; https://unherd.com/newsroom/the-pope-is-not-a-heretic-but-he-is-incompetent/

The Babylon Bee imagines the Pope debating Jesus Christ on how people get into heaven: https://babylonbee.com/news/pope-challenges-jesus-to-debate-on-how-to-get-to-heaven

A very critical Catholic view; the Pope is not a Catholic; he’s a Buddhist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPU2PeFIXs4

The official Catholic position on salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=1467