Okay, Can People Be in Heaven Without Accepting Jesus?

I was at a family funeral this week, and heard things that made me realize how wishful thinking can influence how we think about heaven.  In several public declarations, people talked about how family members who have passed away years ago would greet the latest family member who just died.  Now, I don't know who will be in heaven and who won't, but I thought there was a lot of wishful thinking going on which was not based upon the scriptures. I grew up in a religious tradition that told me if a person dead without baptism, or confession, they would go to purgatory. Now purgatory was a place where the dead person would stay and we the living could pray them out of purgatory and into heaven.  Nice try. This is the kind of stuff that leaders in the church made up over the course of time trying to diffuse the heaven and hell issue.  Maybe only mass murders go to hell, but all others get a second chance in purgatory. 

Well, again, wishful thinking. The scripture says:

Hebrews 9:27  27And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, So we don't get a second chance once we die!  God will judge the way we lived our lives first to the Christian.  This judgment is about how we lived for Christ, and God will reward us accordingly.  For the non-Christian the judgment is about the absence of faith, and eternal punishment that awaits them you rejected Christ. However, in either case, we don't go through a reincarnation of any sort, we simply face God. Many people think their departed loves ones are in heaven, awaiting the opportunity to greet other family members when they die.  What makes us think that God is going to hand over His kingdom without any recognition of Christ, who is by the way, the ticket to get into heaven?  Many Churches have by-passed the message of Christ's participation in getting people into heaven, so no wonder people think heaven has an open door policy.  Jesus told us it is difficult for many people to accept the plan of salvation and come to Christ in faith.  (Broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life)   So, you can't get in to heaven without the proper attire and that attire is being clothed in faith.  Jesus told about it in Matthew 12:  11“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.  12And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.  13Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  14For many are called, but few are chosen.” Don't follow traditions that can't deliver what they proposed. The scriptures are the only sure bet about how we can get into heaven, and they say, YOU NEED FAITH IN CHRIST. Keeping it honest and truthful....K