One answer to “Can Protestants get to Heaven?” almost has to be “Yes, if they don’t know, or think, much about Scripture.”
We come to that safe conclusion by starting from the back of The Book. That’s where we find The Bible’s list of those who cannot get into Heaven. Revelation 22:15 is clear: “These others must stay outside: dogs, fortune-tellers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolators, and everyone of false speech and false life.”
We must not travel in packs, like dogs, following political correctness rather than God. We are safe from Fortune-tellers if we avoid those who’ve invented their own routes to earthly prosperity here, and Heaven, beyond. Fornicators aren’t going to make it. We may safely assume that those who are Pro-Choice when it comes to murdering the most helpless and innocent of our neighbors are banned. Those who idolize anything but God are barred.
Many of our simpler Protestant neighbors go on and on about “being born again”, endlessly, breathlessly asking, “Have you been born again? Have you?” at every possible opportunity. If that is truly all they know, and if they are not intentionally avoiding deeper water, those who splash in such shallows may gain admittance.
It is very risky for the smarter and more knowledgeable to begin with a truth they quickly contradict. “I believe that Jesus, Who fulfilled all the prophecies, is God. And, I know that He said to the first Pope, ‘Thou art Peter, and on this rock, I build My Church.’ Still, prefer to be in one of the 34,000 identifiable Protestant groups that the God I say I worship did not found and which disagrees in many, many ways with The One Church He did begin.”
How can that not be “false speech”? How can such a person not be among those said to be barred from Heaven by Revelation 22:15? How can belief without obedience result in salvation? How forgiving will He Who said, “You are my friends if you obey My Commands.” be to those who willfully ignore, often for half a century or more, His clear instructions to worthily receive Catholic Communion, the only way to obey “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood, you do not have life in you.”
One answer to “Can Protestants get to Heaven?” almost has to be “Yes, if they don’t know, or think, much about Scripture.”
Those who seek fuller understanding are led to The Church. Every soul meets barriers to entry. Friends, status, and family must often be left behind. That’s the way it is. Many are called. Few are chosen.
Hope we make it.
