Going to heaven is about believing

Dear Chaplain: If you have to know the Bible to go to heaven, what about people who don’t have Bibles or can’t read, they don’t go to heaven?

— Signed, Wondering How Dear Wondering How: This is a great question. There are millions of people today, especially in Third-World countries, who don’t have access to books let alone Bibles. And there are many people who can’t read or see. Then, there were masses of people who existed before there were Bibles. So would all of these people be excluded from heaven? I say, absolutely not!

Adam and Eve didn’t have a Bible, yet they knew God’s rules and what to do to stay in the Garden because he communicated it to them personally. And when they broke his unwritten rules they were punished, just like we do to our children because the rules were understood. Although Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, they still knew God’s rules and taught them to their children. The Lord continued to communicate with mankind through Adam and Eve’s descendants, such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they all knew, understood, and followed God’s rules.

When Moses came along, God gave him the first written Word, the Ten Commandments. After Moses, God used prophets to carry his messages to the people and they wrote them down, with strict instructions from God not to change a word. Still, there wasn’t an official book compiled for people to read. Obtaining faith and knowledge about God and heaven was mostly through the verbal teaching and preaching of his Word. It wasn’t until years after the death of Christ that the full Word of God for mankind was complete. All of the people, from Adam to Christ, were not excluded from heaven because they didn’t have the Bible, but rather because they didn’t believe. Going to heaven is not about knowing what is written, but believing what you’ve heard and know to be true about God in your heart. (“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Rom. 10:14) For Christians, our great commission is to go to the nations teaching and preaching the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is spreading his Word verbally. As long as people can hear and/or understand, as well as believe Christ is the son of God who died on the cross for their sins, they can go to heaven. Our testimony is the verbal witness, the Bible is the written witness about God’s rules and promises, which includes going to heaven. Ask the Chaplain is written by Rev. Dayna Spence, an ordained minister, licensed evangelist, and chaplain who’s served as a hospital and hospice chaplain and is currently a chaplain in the Chester County area. Please email or write “Ask the Chaplain” at 4thechaplain@gmail.com or 1109 Saunders Ln, West Chester, PA 19382.