How exactly does a person get to heaven when they die?

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mjb472012

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Jesus said that “whoever does the will of my Father” will go to heaven, right?
What is the Father’s will?
I’m always concerned where I’ll go after I die, and I want to spend eternity with God.
How does a person become a “profitable servant” who “bears much fruit”?
I was raised Baptist, so I was always taught all the sinners prayer stuff and OSAS doctrine. I’ve learned that those teachings were false, but now I’m confused. What does Christ and His Church teach about getting to heaven?
 
The easiest thing to say is to just keep following the teachings of the Church, which are the teachings of Christ given to the apostles and handed down to us.

We may not be able to be assured of Heaven as many of our Evangelical Protestant brothers would think, but we certainly can have confidence that by following the teachings of the Church and confessing and repenting of our sins, that we can make it to Heaven.
 
I am afraid of escalators; can you point me to the lift please?

🙂
 
mjb472012 said:
Jesus said that “whoever does the will of my Father” will go to heaven, right?
What is the Father’s will?
I’m always concerned where I’ll go after I die, and I want to spend eternity with God.
How does a person become a “profitable servant” who “bears much fruit”?
I was raised Baptist, so I was always taught all the sinners prayer stuff and OSAS doctrine. I’ve learned that those teachings were false, but now I’m confused. What does Christ and His Church teach about getting to heaven?
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🍿
 
The simplest way I can put it is like this. To get in the state of grace one needs to repent, have faith, and get Baptized. Once we have done that, in order to deal with the sins we commit after Baptism, then we live a life of repentance, faith, and confession. The Sacraments of the Church gives us a foretaste of Heaven, its God’s way of allowing us to experience a part of Heaven before we cross over to the otherside of the grave. Mass is a wonderful way to participate in Heavenly worship while on earth. The Church on earth is our introduction into Heaven, the Catholic Church is the establishment by Christ Himself to guide us into Heaven, that’s why She exists!
 
By the way I want to add something. I was a Baptist too before I converted to the Catholic Church. I used to believe in once in grace always in grace, but obviously not now. One might assume that I would be more unsure about getting to Heaven as a Catholicf. But I am not. And the reason is is because as Baptist I eventually understood that my denomination was one of many thousands out there. And that awareness made me realize that my interpretation of Scripture was not grounded in any authority outside of some hand picked verses in the Bible. But now that I have found the truth of the Church that Christ established, I am beyond comforted that what I believe is authentic and true, and the Church has layed out the Catholicf Faith in a way that defines every single part of our faith without any guess work required! The only worry I have is my own lack of faith and commitment.
 
mjb472012 said:
Jesus said that “whoever does the will of my Father” will go to heaven, right?
What is the Father’s will?
I’m always concerned where I’ll go after I die, and I want to spend eternity with God.
How does a person become a “profitable servant” who “bears much fruit”?
I was raised Baptist, so I was always taught all the sinners prayer stuff and OSAS doctrine. I’ve learned that those teachings were false, but now I’m confused. What does Christ and His Church teach about getting to heaven?
Click to expand...
You have to die in a state of grace.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
By the way I want to add something. I was a Baptist too before I converted to the Catholic Church. I used to believe in once in grace always in grace, but obviously not now. One might assume that I would be more unsure about getting to Heaven as a Catholic. But I am not. And the reason is is because as Baptist I eventually understood that my denomination was one of many thousands out there. And that awareness made me realize that my interpretation of Scripture was not grounded in any authority outside of some hand picked verses in the Bible. But now that I have found the truth of the Church that Christ established, I am beyond comforted that what I believe is authentic and true, and the Church has layed out the Catholic Faith in a way that defines every single part of our faith without any guess work required! The only worry I have is my own lack of faith and commitment.
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A very good testimony, thank you for adding that!

And welcome home! 👍
 
The previous responses were excellent, but I am not sure they answered the question.

Do you mean, get to heaven in a rocket ship or something? The expression of the question leaves it open to a wide interpretation.

When one has the Bible, the Church, the Catechism, Joseph Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI and Scott Hahn to guide us, what more could you possibly want to know in an “exact” way?

At several levels of the question, other than what has been said, we simply don’t know what the realm of pure spirits is like.

On a more scriptural level, we might be perplexed with the apostles who asked rhetorically, “who then can be saved?”

What does it actually mean, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength? The answer to this question IS the answer to the OP.

That frustrates me because only the Holy Spirit is described as being pure Love. We can even come close to that?

We’re supposed to take up our cross every day and follow Jesus. But, I don’t see any practical advice coming from the Church as to how to accomplish this, to overcome adultery, fornication, sins of envy, pride, and lust, homosexuality, etc.

How can we mortify the desires of the flesh? How can I mortify my desire for air, water, food, etc." It seems we really and literally have to mortify ourselves.

When I read and contemplate these gospel imperatives, I am very frustrated – not that I don’t want the ultimate reward of the covenant relationship with God, but by the seemingly impossibility of doing these things.
 
mjb472012 said:
Jesus said that “whoever does the will of my Father” will go to heaven, right?
What is the Father’s will?
I’m always concerned where I’ll go after I die, and I want to spend eternity with God.
How does a person become a “profitable servant” who “bears much fruit”?
I was raised Baptist, so I was always taught all the sinners prayer stuff and OSAS doctrine. I’ve learned that those teachings were false, but now I’m confused. What does Christ and His Church teach about getting to heaven?
Click to expand...
Jesus tells us what the Father’s will is.

"For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” ( John 6:40)

A person bears fruit by remaining in Christ, connected to the vine, who is Christ. A branch can not bear fruit on its own. It only bears fruit if it is connected to the vine where it can receive the nourishment that it needs. When we are connected to Christ we can receive the grace we need to bear fruit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, self control, etc.

The sacraments help connect us to Christ. Jesus said in John 6 the one who eats his body and drinks his blood abides in him. He also said the one who obeys his commandments abides in him. What are his commandments? To love God with all your heart and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The Church teaches that if you die in a state of grace you will go to heaven. You may have to stop at Purgatory for a clean up but it is only a temporary pit stop. Purgatory is not about salvation. Everyone in purgatory is already going to heaven. It is about sanctification so that we can be cleansed of al impure tendencies in order to enter heaven where no sinner or unclean person can enter (Rev 21:27).

OSAS teaches that once you accept Jesus you are guaranteed to be going to heaven. This implies that one can not fall away through serious sin or apostacy. If a Christian does fall away they say that the person was never truly saved. If that is true then their reassurance is false because how do they know they are truly saved since they do not know the future to say if they themselves will fall away and be deemed as one of the ones who were never saved. OSAS implies that we have no free will because after we are saved God is either forcing us to choose him so that we can not choose to fall away or He no longer cares if we sin or not. Some may even think I could go rob a bank or kill my neigbor. It doesnt matter because it is covered by the blood. It may hurt my relationship but I would still go to heaven. Both of these are false.

We still have free will after we are saved. Thus it is possible to sin gravely and not repent. It is possible to leave Christ through our own free will. God won’t force us into heaven.

We can’t earn being in a state of justification. But we can lose it through our own free will. Justification is a gift at baptism and through faith. Mk 16:16 says he who believes and is baptized will be saved. If we are in this state of grace and die we go to heaven. So we can have a moral assurance that God will take us to heaven when we are in grace because God is faithful to his promises. If we commit mortal sin we can not earn back our justification either. It is a gift through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

We don’t have absolute assurance we will never fall away because that depends on our free will, but we can at St. Paul says have confidence that the one who started a good work in us will complete it before the day of the Lord Jesus. We also can not accurately judge ourselves or anyone else because we are not God, but if we are not aware of anything on our conscience God honors that. God doesn’t expect the impossible from us.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
The simplest way I can put it is like this. To get in the state of grace one needs to repent, have faith, and get Baptized. Once we have done that, in order to deal with the sins we commit after Baptism, then we live a life of repentance, faith, and confession. The Sacraments of the Church gives us a foretaste of Heaven, its God’s way of allowing us to experience a part of Heaven before we cross over to the otherside of the grave. Mass is a wonderful way to participate in Heavenly worship while on earth. The Church on earth is our introduction into Heaven, the Catholic Church is the establishment by Christ Himself to guide us into Heaven, that’s why She exists!
Click to expand...
that is a great answer.
 
mjb472012 said:
Jesus said that “whoever does the will of my Father” will go to heaven, right?
What is the Father’s will?
I’m always concerned where I’ll go after I die, and I want to spend eternity with God.
How does a person become a “profitable servant” who “bears much fruit”?
I was raised Baptist, so I was always taught all the sinners prayer stuff and OSAS doctrine. I’ve learned that those teachings were false, but now I’m confused. What does Christ and His Church teach about getting to heaven?
Click to expand...
If you love Him, He’ll bring you home.

The best way to know is to ask Him. Try to spend some time every day before the Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and talk to Him about your concerns. He will answer them!
 
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