Many like to ask the question, “Are members of the church of Christ the only ones going to heaven?” However, this is not a very good question. The better question to ask is, “Am I among the number of those who are going to heaven?” Jesus said in Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” In Acts 2, when Peter preached the first gospel sermon and 3,000 obeyed (Acts 2:41), were they members of a denomination? No, they were members of the Lord’s church (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:28).
So how does one know they are going to heaven? The Bible says that the steps to salvation include faith (John 1:12; Mark 16:16; Hebrews 11:6), repentance (Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30), confession of Jesus (Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:10), and baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21). After someone has become a steward of the grace of God (1 Peter 4:10), they must be faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2; Revelation 2:10). If they fall back into sin and do not repent, they are lost (2 Peter 2:20-22).
One must always remember that a kingdom is reproduced by its seed. Genesis 1:12 says, “And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” In Luke 8:11, we are told that the “seed is the word of God.” Therefore, just as a physical seed produces only the plants which it is supposed to, so the word of God produces only the kind of Christians God desires. When one “obeys from the heart that form of doctrine” (Romans 6:17), and are faithful, they will go to heaven.
Kyle Campbell
