Who goes to Heaven, and who goes to Hell?

I love Dallas pastor Tony Evans.  One of his professors at Dallas Theological Seminary was the late Zane C. Hodges. I've devoured all of his work. With that, in my opinion Zane was amazing at explaining and defending Assurance of Salvation. See We Believe in Assurance of Salvation; Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society.

In his First Epistle, the Apostle John states, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…(1 John 5:13a; italics added).”

If you stop swearing, drinking, smoking, and sleeping around, go to church every Sunday, and feed the homeless, can you earn your way into heaven? What if you drain your bank accounts to help the poor? What if you do all of that, but you make a mistake or get involved in premarital sex, start getting drunk again, injecting heroin or smoking crack, or just start living an immoral lifestyle and stop going to church? Do you lose your entrance to heaven?

Most oversimplifications are fallacies. But when it comes to assurance of salvation, people are making it more difficult than it really is. It is simple and straightforward: if you believe in Christ for eternal life, you have assurance of salvation. You cannot lose your entrance into heaven.

I don't care what you do or how bad your behavior is—you can't lose it. It's a done deal.

Conversely, if you devote your life to helping the poor and needy and live a life of moral excellence, but you reject that Christ gives eternal life and instead are a godless man or woman, or you adopt some kind of religion centered on some fictitious god or a warped religion that teaches that everyone has their truth and whatever they feel and believe is real, then you will not enter heaven. There's only one way to eternal life: Jesus Christ.

In short, your good works cannot save you, and your bad works cannot cause you to lose your salvation.

This is the absolute truth. There is undoubtedly a politically correct position that says that everyone has their own truth, but truth is not relative—it's absolute. You don't have to believe in the law of gravity, but if you jump off a tall building, the law of gravity will prevail despite your feelings or beliefs. Truth is truth.

Of course, nobody is saying that flouting God's Word and His standard of living is okay because you're going to heaven regardless, so we might as well fulfill our basest desires and go wild, living self-centered lives focused on pleasures. That's not what I'm saying.

But if you think that the world is not full of carnal Christians who live their lives indistinguishable from nonbelievers, you're living life under an illusion.

Such people will certainly not experience God's full power in your life here on Earth, nor will they earn rewards in heaven, but instead will lose eternal rewards. They will suffer significant loss and experience profound regret for a wasted life. But they will enter heaven. (There are more nuanced discussions about the distinction between inheriting the Kingdom of God and entering it, which are outside the scope of this article.) But this article is solely focused on the assurance of salvation.

With that, the bible is full of treasures, keys to life. It's also alive, so it can transform peoples' hearts and minds in the best way possible, enriching their lives even in the worst of times even freeing them from depression, sickness, addictions, unresolved anger, bitterness, fear, discouragment, unforgiveness, and myriad other strongholds. People go through bad relationships and break-ups and difficult marriages and divorce and problems with their kids and health and their aging parents and death and all the inevitable ups and downs that come with the natural ebb and flow of life. It could be a serious issue like a devasting financial loss, health issue, or something smaller such as an unkind word or problematic co-worker or boss.

The living Word will fill you with knowledge so you can apply It to every area of your life; that is, applying God's perspective to your decision-making is great wisdom directly from the creator of the universe.

So, although you cannot lose your salvation through a life that neglects God's Word, you can certainly lose the indescribable joy and blessings today and your future eternal rewards, which is no small thing.