Episode 74: Heaven is Too Far Away
Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.
Amity: Donald Trump has recently expressed his interest in going to heaven. This was motivation for trying to negotiate a peace resolution to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
“I want to end it. I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”
Trump, struggling with illness and diminishing popularity, is thinking about his eternal destination. Being that he surrounds himself with people claiming Christianity, they seem to have influenced him to think about being judged after his death. Unsurprisingly, he is concerned with his destination rather than his presidential legacy and the many people hurt along the way.
Going a step further, he has exploited his remaining followers by using his fear of death to start a fund raising campaign. It requires minor donations of $15.00. How this is going to lift him into heaven is not clear.
Lemuel: Trump’s spiritual advisors are “Christian Nationalists.” Their faith is superficial and based on public declarations of devotion, but their outward lives show no sign of God’s presence. Jesus described such people this way:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Luke 19;9-13
The Christian way for reaching heaven has been codified into the, ‘Plan of Salvation,’ : Contrition. repentance, making amends. To achieve this kind of salvation trump would have to:
Admit that he is wrong and feel genuine regret.
Repent and accept God’s forgiveness.
Make amends and change his course of actions and thinking.
These actions are hard to do on your own. Jesus taught that his strength will be granted to a genuine penitent. God will help, and the community of the Church, working together will help. Jesus didn’t teach of heaven as a place to work toward, but a place to rest when our days are done.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
John 14; 1-3