How to Go to Heaven

CatholicAnswers ^ | May 12, 2015 | Jimmy Akin

[Salvation]

How to Go to Heaven

Jimmy Akin

May 12, 2015 |

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Sometimes people make it sound like the Catholic understanding of how to get to heaven is really complex.

It’s not.

While you can go into any of Christ’s teachings in a lot of very rich detail, he made sure that this one can be understood even by a child.

I can summarize it in two sentences.

The two sentences are these: To come to God and be saved, you need to repent, have faith, and be baptized. If you commit mortal sin, you need to repent, have faith, and go to confession.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. And we can show each of these things from the Bible.

The need to repent is shown by the fact that, right at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus began preaching the gospel, saying “repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).

The need for faith is shown when the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes that “Without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

And the need for baptism is shown when St. Peter flatly tells us: “Baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21).

So that’s what you need to do if you want to come to God and be saved: Repent, have faith, and be baptized.

If you do these things, you’ll be in a state of grace, and as long as you remain in a state of grace, you’ll go to heaven.

But we still have free will, and we can still turn our backs on God and fall from grace, to use St. Paul’s phrase (Galatians 5:4).

St. Paul is very clear about the possibility of us committing mortal sin. He tells us: “Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

To turn away from God and commit mortal sin is the opposite of repenting. So when we fall into mortal sin, we need to turn back to God—to repent again.

We also need to have faith.

And then we need to go to confession. This is something Jesus indicated just after he rose from the dead. He came to his disciples, breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23)

So Jesus empowered his ministers to forgive or retain sins. In order for a priest to know whether he is to forgive or retain a sin, he needs to know about the sin and whether we have repented of it. That means we need to go and tell him these things, and so we have the sacrament of confession.

So that’s what you need to do. To come to God and be saved, you need to repent, have faith, and be baptized. If you commit mortal sin, you need to repent, have faith, and go to confession.

It’s all thoroughly biblical.

[Crim]

“Both natures cohabit our body while we are alive and when the body dies, the old nature goes with it. That means that when this body of flesh dies, all that’s left is the new righteous nature. There is no sin in that nature.”

So hypothetically speaking your body could commit murder...and since it’s not going to heaven with your soul....your new righteous nature will be sin free when you die? ...there is no judgement of your Bodies actions past the word go?

[Prince of Space]

By whom and when? So immediately after telling a white lie to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, you throw yourself into God’s arms and beg for his forgiveness...and presto, you’re going to Heaven again? It’s that simple? But what if you sin like that multiple times a day, as most people do, even if the sins are minor (a concept I know you don’t believe in, but humor me). You just rinse and repeat like that all day every day? If so, it sounds exhausting, for both you and God, lol.

[Rashputin]

And it's Protestants who obey the anti-Christ, anti-Christian, Pharisee Rabbis when they throw out a major portion of the Old Testament then pretend the anti-Christ, Pharisee Rabbi Approved Luther Subset of Scripture is the entire Bible in order to avoid clear contradictions of two of Luther's favorite lies.

So much for the Pharisee trash, take that Pharisee beam out of the Protestant eye socket before playing that game.

[Biggirl]

You need to both believe and repent.

[Rashputin]

I had the same experience with a few people just three years ago when I became Catholic. One of the people who told me I'd go to Hell was a Methodist assistant pastor who lived with his queer boyfriend.

My wife's cousin said the same guy also once preached a sermon on how merciful abortion was in some cases. Her relatives have the guts to stay in the Methodist Church and fight but it's a losing battle overall. They managed to have that guy moved out, but the next guy wasn't much better, just not queer himself.

[Elsie]

If you commit mortal sin...

UN-mortal ones get a free pass?

[verga]

She went on YOUR thread and was polite, you (All) invaded here were SNARKY, big difference. She acted in a Christian manner that most of the prot posse is incapable of. Of course given that most of you are not Christian I should not be surprised.

[Elsie]

“God has the ability to do anything He wishes”

ROME has the ability to do anything it wishes, by simply invoking the statement above.

[Elsie]

Even MARY!

[Elsie]

Do you have any “common sense” or do you just attempt to provoke others?

[Elsie]

The gospels and Acts say that Jesus appointed apostles and founded a Church.

And left pretty clear instructions; too!

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Acts 15

The Council at Jerusalem

 ¹ Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. ³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

 ⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

 ⁶ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. ⁷ After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸ God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹ He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? ¹¹ No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

 ¹² The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³ When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. ¹⁴ Simon^[a] has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. ¹⁵ The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:

 ¹⁶ “‘After this I will return
   and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
   and I will restore it,
¹⁷ that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
   even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’^[b]—
 ¹⁸ things known from long ago.^[c]

 ¹⁹ “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰ Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. ²¹ For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

 ²² Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. ²³ With them they sent the following letter:

   The apostles and elders, your brothers,

   To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

   Greetings.

 ²⁴ We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. ²⁵ So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— ²⁶ men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷ Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. ²⁸ It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: ²⁹ You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

   Farewell.

 ³⁰ So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. ³¹ The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. ³² Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. ³³ After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. ^{[34] [d] 35} But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas

 ³⁶ Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” ³⁷ Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, ³⁸ but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. ³⁹ They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

[Elsie]

The Council at Jerusalem

HMMMmmm...

I wonder just WHO this was made up of; Protestants?

[Elsie]

Jesus never ONCE instructs his apostles or anyone else to write anything.

Or pray to His mom!

[Elsie]

Why would anyone correct behaviour they already find to be perfectly acceptible in the first place?

Auto-correct messed up CHANGE for you.

One 'changes' behavior because someone ELSE has the POWER to smack you down for it!

REPENT! Heretic!!!

[Elsie]

Stop being so touchy....these threads are fun and interesting...controversy is the very heart of conversation....how very boring would it be to post a fact and have 500 people say ...yup, I agree.

Indeed!

Why would ANYONE leave the SAFETY of a caucus thread to come out and play where they are challenged to CONTEND for the faith, once given to the saints?

[Elsie]

Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above.

Rome teaches:

You can't get Jesus to pay attention to your prayers unless you go thru His mother.

[Elsie]

Some things that you don’t grasp now will become clear to you in Purgatory.

How long will THAT take?

[Elsie]

The usual suspects have self identified as not Christian, the best thing is to simply ignore any of their snarky comments.

CAn I have the list?

It would save me a LOT of time!

[Elsie]

Problem is we are winning.

Todays lesson is brought to you by the letter "E"

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A. If you say something along the lines of “the moderators might ban me for saying this, but…” then you lost.

B. Anyone who says “well, ban me if you want to, but…” is actually saying; “in the name of a loving God, please ban me because I am losing this argument so badly that my only hope of escaping it with a shred of dignity is if I can make myself out to be some sort of martyr to free speech.”

C. If you claim to have supporting evidence available online, but instead of linking to it you say “Look it up yourself,” you lose. Similarly to the banning thing, “look it up yourself” clearly means “please please please don’t look it up yourself.” It’s an admission of failure.

D. If you invoke the name of a logical fallacy without explaining its relevance, you lose. Logical fallacies are not Harry Potter spells. You don’t just get to shout them out and wiggle your wand to make magic happen. Plus, there’s a logical meta-fallacy: Just because someone’s making an error in reasoning doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

E. If you claim to be winning, you lose. This should be self-evident: If you’re so desperate that you have to tell someone you’re winning, you’re obviously not. http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/12/alt-text-internet-arguments