Bible Question: "Are Catholics going to heaven?"

Bible Answer: If they believe in Jesus Christ, yes. If not, no.

Making a blanket statement that all Catholics either are or aren't going to heaven would be just as false as if you said all Baptists, Prebysterians or Methodists are or aren't going there.

The Bible says nothing about denominations and nothing about the split between Catholics and Protestants that divides the faith that we call Christianity. It couldn't, because at the time the Bible was written, there were no Catholics and Protestants, nor were any of today's denominations formed.

To understand the Catholic-Protestant split, you need a brief history lesson about a German priest named Martin Luther.

Luther was Theology Professor at the Wittenberg University in Germany from 1512-17.

"This time is characterised by Luther's grappling with religious understanding. His decisive religious enlightenment is said to have come during his intensive study of the Letter to the Romans during which time he realized that people receive justice through the grace of God, not through good works: 'For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith"'" in Romans 1:17, says the Web site, www.luther.de.

I n this passage, the Apostle Paul is quoting the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk in 2:4, "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."

As the King James Version reads, "The just shall live by faith."

Those six words transformed Luther's faith, and he launched a protest movement against the Catholic church practices of selling "indulgences," basically paying a priest to pray for you or your loved ones to be saved and gain admittance into heaven.

In 1520, Luther formally split from the Catholic church, and his protest movement sparked the birth of what we now call the Protestant churches. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and other mainline denominations belong to the Protestant church.

What Luther was primarily concerned about is whether you can earn -- or pay for -- your salvation, or is it simply by grace?

Ephesians 2:8-9 answers that question. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

And salvation is a personal matter of faith, Romans 10:9 says.

"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

If you do that, it won't matter whether you're Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim or anything else. When you exercise faith in the Lord Jesus, you become a Christian and you will go to heaven.

And I feel quite confident in saying there will be no signs at heaven's gates saying "Baptists Only Allowed in Here."

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)