Can anyone really know for sure of going to heaven?

Question

please give basis of your answer.

Answer 1

You ought to be able to say, "Praise God! Glory to God! I know that I'm saved!"

Yet many Christians don't know they're saved. They go around with their shoulders all bent over--drooping, wondering, and worrying. They remind me of question marks with their heads bent over, rather than exclamation points standing straight and tall and saying, "I know whom I have believed!"

Rather than being shouting Christians, they're doubting Christians. Rather than having a "know-so" salvation, they have a "hope-so" salvation.

Somebody once said, if you could have it and not know it, you could lose it and not miss it. But the truth is, if you have salvation, you know it; and if you have it and know it, you can never lose it.

I met a young man once in a hospital room. I had just led his dying mother-in-law to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I turned to him and said, "Isn't it wonderful that she has been saved?"

"Oh, no one can know that they are saved," he said.

Now this man was not an unbeliever; that is, he did not repudiate Christianity. He simply held some doctrinal stance that would not allow him to accept the assurance of salvation.

But the Apostle John wrote an entire chapter to assure God's people that they are indeed God's people. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God: that ye may know that ye have eternal life . . ." (1 John 5:13).

The word know means absolute assurance. According to verse 13, it is possible to be saved and know it. But the very fact that John wrote this verse shows that it is also possible to be saved and doubt it.

Is doubt good? No. Doubt is to your spirit what pain is to your body. Pain is a warning, a signal that something is wrong. It does not mean you are dead. It just means that something is wrong.

If you have doubts and you are truly a born again child of God, you are suffering from some spiritual sickness. All Christians doubt from time to time. A woman once told Dwight L. Moody she had been saved for 25 years and never had a doubt. He said, "I doubt you're saved."

But while we may all be bothered by an occasional doubt, it is a problem that must and can be overcome. John said he wrote chapter five to us as God's children so that we may know that we have been saved. The words know, knoweth, or known appear 38 times in this epistle on assurance.

The next logical question, then, is "How can I know?" I know, not because of any confidence that I have in myself, but by two infallible proofs.

What is it we believe? Are Christians just gullible? Do we believe in fairy tales, or is there a basis for our belief? Why do we believe what we believe?

Faith is the root of our belief. But faith is not walking on eggshells and Jello. It is evidence and substance (Hebrews 11:1). It has some spiritual steel and concrete in it. It is real, and God has given us some authentic, bona fide witnesses, a testimony that we might know we are saved and going to heaven.

John says these witnesses are the eternal work of the Savior, the internal witness of the Spirit, and the external Word of Scripture.

1 John 5:6 says, "This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood." When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, a soldier put a spear in His side, "and forthwith came there out blood and water" (John 19:34). This is the eternal work of the Savior, that we are saved by blood and sanctified by water.

The tabernacle is an Old Testament picture of Christ. When you entered, you came first to the brazen altar upon which the bloody sacrifice was made. Next was a laver, or great basin, in which the priests would wash. First the blood, then the water. The blood of Jesus Christ pays the price for our sins, and the sanctifying water keeps us clean.

I know I am saved because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died to purchase my salvation. That is a historical fact. That is the saving work of Christ.

I also know I am saved because of the internal witness of the Spirit:

It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one (1 John 5:6-8).
How do I know there was a man named Jesus Christ? How do I know He was the sinless Son of God? How do I know that God sent Him? How do I know that He actually died on that cross and took my sin?

Thank God I don't have to depend on somebody's argument. The Holy Spirit of God is here to make that real in my heart. You see, God gave us the work of Christ. But to make the work of Christ--the water and the blood--real to us, He gave us the Spirit.

"If we receive the witness of men," John says in 1 John 5:9, "the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son." The word if may also be translated since. Since we believe the witness of men. All of us believe the witness of men.

One night I was in Augusta, Georgia, preaching at a missions conference. The next morning I went to the airport and flew back to Memphis. In order to do this, I had to exercise faith in an airplane pilot I didn't know. I never saw his credentials. I never saw him fly before. But Delta Airlines put its stamp of approval on this man, so I just got on the plane and never thought too much about it. We accept the witness of men.

Before I went to the airport, I had breakfast in a restaurant. How did I know the food was not poisoned? I had faith in that lady who served it. We receive the witness of men.

When your doctor writes you a prescription, you look at it, and although you can't read it, pronounce it, or understand it, you give it to a pharmacist who puts pills in a bottle. Then, without a second thought, you take them home and swallow them. Why? We receive the witness of men.

In the same way, through faith we receive the witness of God through the Spirit that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead for our sanctification. There is, therefore, no excuse for not believing. The Bible promises that the Holy Spirit will help anyone to believe who wants to believe. First the Spirit witnesses to us; then He witnesses in us.

"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself" (1 John 5:10). Before I got saved, He witnessed to me. He told me what Christ did is true. Now He witnesses in me. I have the witness in myself.

Suppose I am enjoying myself by eating a piece of apple pie, and you come to me and say, "There is no such thing as apple pie. I don't believe in apple pie. And if there is apple pie, it is no good."

Despite your arguments, I have the witness within me. I have the witness on the inside. A Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an unbeliever with an argument, because he has the witness in himself.

Finally, the external Word of Scripture assures me that I am saved:

He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:10-13).

Answer 2

No....the population at large scoffs at people who claim to be able to "tell the future" thus should anyone know for certain whether a person will indeed go to a place called Heaven or not...they are then classed in the same category as those people who are scoffed at.

Therefore, unless the person is capable of telling the future or predicting events accurately and has proven that they possess this skill...the probability of them also knowing accurately, the reality or myth about Heaven seems a very slim to none, prospect.

No one will know for certain until they actually face it...if it exists. Unless we as a society are willing to "believe" in things like psychic phenomena, fortune telling and seeing the future...we'll never "believe" anyone who says they've seen it or been there anyway. Besides, you can't have a double standard -- believing in those things that the Bible "predicts" or attests to being true, while ridiculing people who feel they have the power to predict and know things others don't, it can't work for the Bible and not for real life...that's simply hypocritical.

Answer 3

Although many claim they are going to heaven and at funerals the priests say that the person just departed either is going to heaven or has gone there, but in reality only the ones who truly are going to heaven truly do know because , God lets them know by confirming this through his holy spirit that this is so the majority of people who say or believe they are going to heaven will not necessarily go there at all, it may just be wishfully thinking on their part!

Answer 4

No one can guarantee that they know they are going to heaven. And to anyone who says I'm going to hell for saying this: I just may go to hell, but I'll go there to warm it up and keep it warm for all you who THINK you know you're going to heaven. If you are so faithful, and believe whole-heartedly in God, then you would KNOW that only God knows if you are going to heaven or not.
I was brought up in a Christian home, and I don't really know what I believe anymore. The bible raises more questions than answers to be fully believable. I have my doubts that there is even a heaven and hell out there.

Answer 5

Of course you can. God very plainly has outlined in His word, the bible, how to gain entrance to heaven. One of the most well known verses in the bible is John 3:16, those who believe in His son shall have eternal life. There are many more. Do you know what a bible concordance is? You can look up the word salvation, and see each reference in the bible. It is said over and over again, that Jesus is the only way to heaven and to eternal salvation.

Answer 6

No. Your question begs the answer. How can it be for sure when the whole deal is you have to "trust god"? Heaven is here on earth, if you only had the tools to find it. Some people do. Most of us just piss away the life we have in quiet hope and desperation. You are alive now, you know that for sure. Work with that. It only makes sense.

Answer 7

Yes--the answers already set out that Jesus is our salvation with the quotes from the Gospel of John being the basis.

Answer 8

Not without dying first. THEN one could find out if there is a heaven. If there is, you'll either be denied or accepted. Same goes for all other faiths with some magical paradise in the afterlife.

If there isn't, we won't know because we'll be dead and our body will begin to break down.

Answer 9

The whole point of faith is to believe in something despite the lack of proof of it's existence. If anyone KNEW they were going to heaven, then they wouldn't have faith anymore, but would KNOW, and therefore they would not be allowed into heaven, because you need faith to get there.

Answer 10

The Christians will quote you a bunch of bible junk but of course they cant state for sure that the bible is the word of God only that they believe it is. I call death heaven so I can assure you there is no doubt everyone is going to heaven. xx

Answer 11

Some say yes, but then I wonder why they do everything possible to sustain their lives as long as possible, if they are so sure of a glorious paradise awaiting them. why bother with health insurance, give the money to the Lord. It's easy to be sure when everything's going good for you in this life.