For he will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Rom. 2:6–16 RSV)

This passage says different things to different people. Traditional Christian scholars do not believe it embraces people who have not known the historical Christ. They may be right, or they may not. I turn to this passage to validate an idea that came to me as an adolescent studying to join the Methodist Church.

When the minister said that only Christians go to heaven I shrank back in horror. "No," I said. "My brother was a very good person. Certainly he went to Heaven."

"No," the minister said, "Only by surrendering to Christ are you saved." Then he asked if my brother had been exposed to the Christian faith. I had to admit that he had. "There you have it," he said triumphantly. He wasn’t some aborigine stuck out on a desert isle. He rejected God. He will not go to Heaven."

Then I posed the question, "But what about the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists. They are good people and have answered the call to love God. And the Jews worship the same God. Will they go to Heaven?"

"No," the minister sputtered. I broke down in tears and left. I didn’t go back to church for twenty-eight years.

In 1983, I did go back because a merciful Christian (a Catholic Priest) said that I could believe all good people, of whatever faith, would go to heaven if I wanted and that my brother might even be there, too. No one knows for sure. I was so relieved. I didn’t care if it were true or not. This belief became the bridge I needed to return home. Later I joined a church, the Quakers, that believed this, too.

One day, while studying the Bible in a class we called The School of Prophets, we read Romans 2:10–16, and I felt I had finally found validation for my beliefs. Doesn’t this passage speak of "every one who does good," and "God knows no partiality." Doesn’t it say, "When the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts.…"? Doesn’t this mean that non-Christians can go to heaven?

Of course, the stickler here is the word "truth." Is it the "truth," as in the law of the Christian Church, known only through the Word (the manifestation of Christ) John 1:1, or is the "truth" of knowing Christ through an intuitive sense of the goodness he represented as opposed to the wickedness of Satan. Can we only learn of goodness by knowing the teacher, or is the lesson inscribed on the hearts of his students and passed down to the next generation?

If we meet a Christian and he does not reveal to us who he is, but we model his goodness from that point on, are we not saved? Don’t we find life everlasting if we never meet a Christian because we live among heathens, but somewhere deep within our soul we know there is a God and that he loves us, and we know the power of love and forgiveness, and we live a life carrying out Christ’s message without even knowing that we are doing this? Can the author of the "truth" be anonymous for some and known to others? If all the Christians died, and all the Bibles disappeared, would not the message still find its way into our hearts? Yes! That is why we have the Holy Spirit.

[F]or if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.…When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:7–9; 13–14 RSV)

Of course, hearing God’s voice, even in the form of the Holy Spirit, is blasphemy to many Christians. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a sin punishable by death. Joan of Arc discovered this the hard way. However, I don’t have a problem with hearing God’s voice. I believe that with a pure heart I can hear God’s Word through the Holy Spirit and not confuse it with the voice of Satan. "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10 RSV). Therefore, I can—and do—interpret the words "by nature," "a law unto themselves," "written on their hearts," and conscience bears witness," as meaning good people go to heaven because, as controversial as this sounds, I believe the Holy Spirit has spoken to me and told me that I can follow my heart. I do not think I am in denial. I think I have found a pearl of great price. As a result, I am happy, and I am back with Christ in his Church.

Addendum

It turned out that, unbeknown to me, my brother had confessed his faith shortly before he died. So for thirty-two years had I worried about him for nothing. Because he was both a professed Christian and a really good person, I know he will be with God after the Second Advent.

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