Salvation Summaries

The book of Revelation mentions several lifestyles and behaviors that prevent people from going to heaven. What are they?

Before I show you the verses and list the lifestyles and behaviors that prevent people from going to heaven, let me ask you a few questions.

Do you believe that the Bible, God’s word, is true?  If you answered “yes,” let me ask you another question.  If the Bible says something that is contrary to what our culture views as acceptable, which will you believe: the Bible, or the culture? If you answered “the Bible,” then you’re ready to know who will not go to heaven according to the Bible. However, if you answered otherwise, we’ll need to talk about which worldview you believe in. I plan to address worldviews to some extent in my next post, What does the Bible say about Homosexuality, Part 2 of 2.

Verses

Revelation 21, 1 Corinthians 6, and Galatians 5 all contain a list of lifestyles and behaviors that are inconsistent with being a Christian, and will result in eternal separation from God (known as hell) for those who practice them.  Below are the relevant verses from each of these books.

• Revelation 21:6-8 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars– their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (NIV)

• 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 9 Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers– none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. (NLT)

• Galatians 5:19-21 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (NIV)

List

I looked up each of these verses using three different translations of the Bible (NAS, NIV, NLT) and combined the results into one comprehensive list below. Before you read through the items on the list though, please realize that the list is not something I created based upon my own interpretation of the Bible or my opinion. Rather, I’m simply telling you what the Bible, God’s word, says. If you disagree with any of the items shown, your disagreement is with God, not me.

• unbelievers
• cowardly (those who refuse to believe in Jesus)
• idolaters
• murderers
• thieves, swindlers
• drunkards
• slanderers
• the vile; those who commit abominable acts (homosexuality is one example)
• sexually immoral, homosexuals, male prostitutes, orgies
• adulterers
• practice magic arts; sorcerers
• hatred, discord, fits of rage
• selfish ambition
• envy, jealousy
• liars
• greedy

One Exception

Now, hopefully none of the items on the list reflect how you live, but if one or more does, or if you know of someone who exhibits one or more of the items, I have something very important to tell you. The Bible provides an exception, or a way, that you, or the person you know, can still go to heaven.  We see evidence of this in 1 Corinthians 6:11 below, but I’ve copied verses 9-10 too for context:

• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 9 Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers– none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11 There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you. (NLT)

According to verse 11, some of the people Paul spoke to had a lifestyle, or exhibited behaviors, from the list.  We don’t know which ones, but that doesn’t matter, for all are bad according to the Bible.  The point of verse 11 is that anyone who practices any of the items on the list can still become right with God, and thus go to heaven. The only way for this to happen though, is for God to get involved.  God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, and the creator of mankind, can change the way a person lives and behaves. He does this by washing away (forgiving) their sins and giving them His Holy Spirit.  In short, He does this by making them a Christian.

As you know from reading my other posts, becoming a Christian is a huge event in the life of a person. When a person becomes a Christian, spiritual changes take place within them that cause them to act and behave – to live – differently.  The Bible calls a Christian a “new creation” on account of the dramatic change that takes place.

Now, I don’t want to imply that once you become a Christian, you never do anything wrong.  I wish that were the case, but it’s not. Christians still sin. However, they are no longer controlled by their sinful nature.  Instead, they have been freed from this (the Bible refers to it as bondage), and from that point forward, they receive help from the Holy Spirit to live in a way that pleases God.

OK, some of you may be asking, “I have one or more of the behaviors on that list, and I want to go to heaven, but I don’t know how to get God to wash away my sins and give me His Holy Spirit. What do I have to do?”

The Bible is filled with verses that either partly or completely answer this question, for the question essentially is, “How is a person saved?”  For the sake of brevity, I will limit my answer to a handful of verses from Revelation and the gospel book of John:

• Revelation 21:6-8 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars– their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (NIV)

• John 4:13-14 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

• John 6:35 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

• John 7:37-38 37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

So, what is the answer? I’ve told our children that there are two sets of three words that well summarize how a person becomes saved, or a Christian. Set one is “Lose your life.” Set two is “Come to Me.”  In the above verses, we see set two.

If you are thirsty or hungry for eternal life, you must go to the only source that can provide you with this, and that is Jesus. When you do this and become saved, your life will change.  The sinful nature will no longer control you; instead, the Holy Spirit will.

The following verses from Galatians clearly illustrate the lifestyle change that takes place in a person upon becoming a Christian and receiving God’s Holy Spirit:

• Galatians 5:19-23 19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (NIV)

Conclusion

According to the book of Revelation, and a few other books in the Bible, there are certain lifestyles and behaviors that prevent a person from going to heaven.  Most people will agree with a number of these (murderers for example), but a growing number today may not agree with some (homosexuality for instance).  While the Bible is very clear about the fate of those who live in such a way, the Bible also provides a way “out” or exception that allows a person with one or more of the listed lifestyles to still go to heaven. The exception is for God to change that person’s nature, from an unbeliever to a believer, or a non-Christian to a Christian.  The only way this is done though, is through Jesus.  Although the Bible contains a number of verses that partly or fully explain how a person becomes saved, one set of three words adequately summarizes how it’s done: “Come to Me (Jesus).”  If you are thirsty or hungry for eternal life, go to Jesus.