Transcript of the initial presentation of our video, “Un-Protestant Biblical Proof: No Obedience, No Heaven! [Matthew 25]” (11-23-25).
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Matthew 25:32-36, 40, 46 (RSV) Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, [33] and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. [34] Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; [35] for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, [36] I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ . . . [40] . . . `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ . . . [46] And they will go away . . . into eternal life.
Back in May 2003, Matt Slick, a Presbyterian who still runs the Protestant and anti-Catholic forum, CARM (C, A, R, M) actually put up a thread called “To Armstrong” and asked in it: “If you were to die tonight and face judgment and God were to ask you why He should let you into heaven, what would you tell Him? Just curious.” Evangelical Protestants often ask this question. It’s almost like talking points.
But the odd and ironic thing is that I can’t find anywhere in the Bible where God ever speaks like this. Later in the thread, Matt wrote about me, “I do not know if he is a Christian or not and if he told me he had to do good works in order to be justified before God, I’d say he was NOT a Christian.”
But all Jesus does in Matthew 25, which is about judgment day and going to heaven or hell, is talk about works. Doesn’t He know that works have no connection to salvation whatsoever, as Protestants like Slick constantly tell us? What in the world do all these “works” have to do with salvation? Why doesn’t Jesus talk about faith alone and why does He never even mention faith at all?!
As a result of this encounter, I started to look up passages in Scripture having to do with judgment day. I found fifty. Of these, not a single one stated that faith alone was the sole reason we were saved. None even mentioned faith, excepting one: Revelation 21:8. It included faith (but not faith alone) along with works.
In the Bible – according to the above passage and these other 49 — the exact opposite of what Protestants and Matt Slick assert is true: if God actually asked me the canned “Protestant” question, and I replied by recounting repeated acts of charity and mercy and various other “good deeds” that I had done, then I would be imitating what Jesus Himself did when He described how a person can enter heaven, yet strangely enough, I would be rebuked by Protestants for doing so.
The biblical answer to his question, as I discovered, could include any one or all of the following 50 responses: direct quotes or very close paraphrases from the Bible (the verse numbers are in the corresponding article below):
God should let me into heaven because I am characterized by righteousness, integrity, uprightness of heart, good conduct, good ways and good fruits, good deeds, having done the will of God, endured to the end, hearing Jesus’ words and doing them, feeding the hungry, providing drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, visiting the sick and prisoners, inviting the poor and maimed and lame and blind to my feast, good works, obeying the truth, being a good laborer and fellow worker with God, unblamable holiness, being wholly sanctified, a sound and blameless spirit and soul and body, being without spot or blemish, knowing God, obeying the gospel, sharing Christ’s sufferings, and repentance.
Conversely, I’m not:
wicked, committing abominations, angry with or insulting my brother, calling someone a fool, weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the cares of this life, ungodly, suppressing the truth, doing evil, a coward, faithless, polluted, a murderer, fornicator, sorcerer, idolater, or a liar.
This is how God and Bible-writers say we get to heaven. I like to actually cite the Bible on the exact topic at hand when I claim to be representing what it teaches. I’m weird that way.
Related Book
The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants (Aug. 2004, 235 pages; ch. 6)
Related Articles
“If You Died Tonight”: Debate w Matt Slick of CARM [5-22-03]
Final Judgment & Works (Not Faith): 50 Passages [2-10-08]
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