Today while we were eating lunch, my six-year-old son asked, “Dad, will Mennonites go to heaven?”

My older son answered quickly, “Why sure! Even some of our Muslim friends will be there. Heaven is open to those who look for God with all their hearts.”

Allow me to ponder here a bit about my children’s conversation.

After Jesus comes in brilliance and we have all been swept off our feet by angels and toured through the Milky Way, we will stand on a great sea of glass. Out among the starry regions where the Hubble telescope only wishes it could peer, we will arrive at the holy destination saints have been anticipating for millennia. It will be an amazing moment when we literally arrive at this literal place so long and so tantalizingly imagined. Our temporary lodging is the same heaven where earth’s creation was conceived, the heaven from which Satan was cast out, and heaven to which holy angels would retreat after contending for the souls of men. Yes, this heaven will be, for a season, our most treasured home.

There on that sea of glass will be a unique gathering of people from every language and nation. It will be a moment when all the righteous Sabbath keepers and all the righteous Sunday keepers are gathered together before God’s throne. (I mention righteous because surely there are unrighteous keepers in both camps, and those are the keepers Jesus doesn’t keep.) It will be a glorious time when we will first mingle together as one eternal family. All partitioning, dividing, labeling and denominationalizing are over. All debates about each other’s theology are moot. Grace will delight in swallowing up argument and providing a banquet for the contenders instead. Gone will be that quiet voice inside us that speculates on the inaccuracy of another’s “truth.” I imagine sitting beneath a huge, sprawling oak tree with a group of redeemed Presbyterians and not even being tempted to say smugly to one of those Sunday brothers, “Isn’t it wonderful that we gather every Sabbath at God’s throne?” Yes, that will be proof of a new nature in me.

Can you see yourself there? You will show love and laugh with premillenialists and will not say, “And you thought Jesus was going to reign on earth for 1,000 years!”

A noble future indeed. However, here on earth now, I must admit there is something in me that hopes for a future galactic moment when the representatives of diverse Christianity gather for a great doctrinal game show. What a moment it would be when God would stand and announce, “Well done. I am glad you have persevered. And now we have some special prizes for those who have studied well and listened to my Spirit.”

Forgive me. I know it is farfetched. But, as a former colporteur who has had thousands of doors shut in my face by the spectrum of Christians, the thought of having a doctrinal showdown is very gratifying. I imagine the crowd excitedly awaiting God’s first question. The conclusion of this short exercise will forever bring to a close the argument about whose doctrinal positions were correct and whose were flawed.

God begins, “Are there any futurists here?” Millions of hands shoot up. God acknowledges them politely and then says, “Thank you, but I am sorry, you were mistaken. You may sit down.” Question two: “Did anyone here believe in an eternally burning hell?” The Baptist contingent sighs when God smiles at them and says, “You may also take your seats.” The next question brings a chuckle from the crowd, “Did anybody come here today thinking their first stop was going to be purgatory? Please see me afterward. You may kindly take your seats.”

Millions are still standing, and the upright Adventists are feeling smugly hopeful. But God, always full of surprises, points directly at Jesus and says something unexpected. “Those of you who know His name, please sit down.” Everyone looks at Jesus. Millions sit down, baffled. In puzzlement and wonder, everyone else stares at the great multitude still standing.

There is sober silence. Those sitting are thinking deeply about what they are witnessing. A soft murmur ripples over the seated crowd as they whisper with their seated neighbors about those who are still standing.

“These are people who do not know who Jesus is!” God nods at each standing person and smiles warmly. “Welcome. Welcome,” He repeats over and over. These are they who walked with the Spirit through their sojourn on earth and never held a Bible. Those saved by the blood of Jesus who never knew the wellspring of their sanctified consciences. The seated Christian community begins to weep as they realize what a unique group stands before them. 

A long, long silence passes, and then, somewhere among that seated crowd, a man begins to applaud (probably a Pentecostal). Everyone else sitting begins to rejoice, and some shout, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Then the men and women who are still standing begin to weep.

God calms the emotional crowd and says, “Today, we honor you who are standing, because you honored your Creator, though you did not know His name. Well done, my good and faithful servants. Today, I introduce you to Him, the One who sits on My throne on My right. His name is . . .” He pauses, waiting.

“. . . Jesus,” all the seated whisper in unison in a thousand languages. “He is Jesus the Christ.”

Then God continues in a soft voice, “Those of you who are seated, please gather in groups of seven around those who are standing and teach them who Jesus is and why His hands and feet look the way they do. I understand this may take a while. Take all the time you need. Angels will be bringing around picnic baskets to each group. And if any of you have particular questions about the nature of Christ, you’re welcome to raise your hand, and Jesus will be around shortly to assist you.”

With exhilaration, everyone stands and hugs the honored ones. Then personality and spiritual gifting take over, and instruction begins. The futurists and historicists and the Sabbath keepers and Sunday keeper sit in groups and pull together in tandem without quibbling or working any angles. Theology is consummated in love, and the subjects of libraries, dissertations, seminars and church schisms are never brought up again. The Gospel, on the other hand, is exuberantly told and echoed a billion times over.

We fed Mennonite missionaries at our house last night. Fine people with upright children. I think I would enjoy participating in a barn raising with them in the New Earth—on a work day, of course.

The attributes Jesus prizes most highly are unselfish love and purity. “Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” (1 John 4:7). “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). “The entire law is fulfilled in him who loves God supremely and his neighbor as himself. This is the revelation of God through Jesus Christ to the world. It is Christianity—glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men” (E.G. White, RH, 1891).

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