{"id":1064,"date":"2009-06-28T12:45:08","date_gmt":"2009-06-28T16:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2022-10-24T19:49:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T23:49:13","slug":"what-is-salvation-without-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/what-is-salvation-without-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"What is salvation without heaven?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.istockphoto.com\/file_thumbview_approve\/4946800\/2\/istockphoto_4946800-gates-of-heaven.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><p>I\u2019ve been quiet here for the last week for two main reasons. First, I finished the books that I needed to review and posted those <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/category\/book-reviews\/\">reviews<\/a> the previous week. Secondly, I was focused on spending time together with the family and finishing my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/vacation-2009-day-4\/\">first work project<\/a>.<\/p><p>But there was a lot of news made this past week in the deaths of four well-known celebrities \u2013 Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,529328,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Billy Mays<\/a>. Also last week, I re-tweeted a question by a pastor that I follow. <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/fuelshane\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@fuelshane<\/a> asked,<\/p><p><strong>If heaven wasn\u2019t part of the plan, and you were saved for God\u2019s glory alone \u2013 would you still want salvation?<\/strong><\/p><p>My re-tweet posted to my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dgoepfrich\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook status<\/a>, and a few people made some great comments about God\u2019s love and glory.<\/p><p>But I want to go a little further.<\/p><p>Too often what we call \u201cevangelism\u201d is focused more on Heaven than anything else. Think about it:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201cIf you died right now, do you know for sure that you would <strong>go to Heaven<\/strong>?\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cWhen you stand at the Pearly Gates, and God asks, \u2018Why should I <strong>let you in<\/strong>?\u2019, what would you say?\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cIf you ask Jesus into your heart, you will <strong>go to Heaven<\/strong> when you die.\u201d<\/li><\/ul><p>My question is: <strong><em>since when is salvation all about Heaven?<\/em><\/strong><\/p><p>Frankly, the three people mentioned above pretty much had Heaven on earth. Other than the sicknesses that killed them (and debt caused by some of their foolish decisions), McMahon, Fawcett, and Jackson lived above the rest of us for the majority of their lives. They had money, friends, and fame. Michael Jackson was even called \u201cthe King of Pop\u201d and lived like royalty.<\/p><p>If someone had tried to \u201cwitness\u201d to them using the Heaven approach, would it have accomplished anything? I sincerely doubt it. <strong>They had heaven. They needed salvation.<\/strong><\/p><p>I\u2019ll finish this in another post, but for now, let\u2019s talk about this.<\/p><p>Heaven is good incentive, but it\u2019s not salvation. <strong><em>Without using Heaven as a hook, if I were not a believer, how would you approach me with your faith?<\/em><\/strong><\/p><p>Don\u2019t promise me something in the future. Give me something now. What does your faith have to offer me?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been quiet here for the last week for two main reasons. First, I finished the books that I needed to review and posted those reviews the previous week. Secondly, I was focused on spending time together with the family and finishing my first work project. But there was a lot of news made this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-salvation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":7,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":7,"uagb_excerpt":"I\u2019ve been quiet here for the last week for two main reasons. First, I finished the books that I needed to review and posted those reviews the previous week. Secondly, I was focused on spending time together with the family and finishing my first work project. But there was a lot of news made this&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}