Rethink That One, Chuck

To borrow a Southern colloquialism, "the other day" (which could mean anytime within the past month, to all you Yankees)... I was driving down 411 and saw a church sign that read "Your ticket into Heaven - John 3:16". I must say, I recoiled in my seat. Signs such as these embarrass me as a Christian. Unfortunately, this type of theology is rampant in the Bible Belt.

Let us pick apart what the sign is saying.

First, the verse listed on the sign: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." No contest with this. You can't call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ and not hold to this as Truth.

But, rewind to the statement before the scripture listing: "Your ticket into Heaven". Tickets are not an end, but they are means to an end. We take our tickets to a venue to gain admittance into a concert, for instance. Are the tickets needed after we find our respective seats? Not really. They are tossed into the trash (and worse, onto the floor, if you're not thinking about the personnel who clean after everyone leaves). No one thinks about the ticket anymore.

Can we really reduce God's Word, which is tantamount to Jesus himself, to a mere ticket to get into Heaven? If one is believing in Jesus primarily to gain Heaven (and more likely, to avoid Hell), he is committing the ol' fashioned infraction of idolatry. God and His Word cannot be cheapened to the extent that they are mere tools. We are people, created. He is Creator of us, Earth, the universe, cats, the beach, lactic acid, volcanoes, stars, gravity, hormones, tigers, waterfalls, vocal chords, eardrums, Heaven, and Hell. Should not the Creator be more important, desirable, and glorious than his creation? Creation displays attributes of its maker. However, it can never be equivalent to its maker.

Therefore, we are to long for Christ: the God behind the gifts we receive.

The point of Scripture is not to point us to Heaven, but to point us towards God. The Lord is to be desired above all else. In fact, the only reason Heaven is desirable is because he is there. Believers want to be with him to make much of him for the rest of eternity.... not be able to have eternal birthday parties with endless ice cream and roller skating. After all, how can such activities measure up to seeing God face to face?