When speaking of who will be allowed into Heaven, St. John sums up the entirety of all the Scripture that precedes this final line:
“These others must stay outside (of Heaven): dogs, fortune tellers and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone of false speech and false life.”
This passage tells us that there are seven kinds of people, or people who behave in one or more of seven sinful ways, who will not be allowed into Heaven. It is, as the last line of The Bible, one of the most instructive.
“Dogs” probably refers to those who eagerly follow whatever master gives them scraps of programmed entities. “Fortune tellers” are those who claim to know what God is going to do. They overwhelm their chances of salvation with their own vanity.
“Fornicators” are those who have, or obsess about, sex outside of marriage. This appears to include both homosexuals and heterosexuals. “Murderers”, it is reasonable to conjecture, include all those who support or participate in any death inflicted on anyone, all the way from abortificant birth control to the abortion of slightly older children to the old or sick killed by supporters of euthanasia.
“Idolaters” include those fixated on the things of Creation rather than upon He Who created, or programmed, all Creation.
“. . . everyone of false speech and false life.” will also be excluded. This would have to include those people who embrace the mindless fads by which the power-crazed are able to control their neighbors, reducing them to death and slavery.
The sanest thing any of us can do is to avoid being classified among the dogs, fortune tellers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters, and those of false speech and false life.
