Featured Excellent new gospel tract

That's a weird tortured sentence. “You may die today” might be a better, more direct way to say it.

And why the comic book image of death? Seems to trivialize the issue.

So where does the scripture teach “getting to Heaven?”

For such a common emphasis, you would expect it to be all over the scriptures. I’m happy to be proven wrong, but I don’t think you will find that in the teaching or preaching of Jesus or the New Testament church.

The closest thing to it that I have ever found is John 14:1-6, 18-20, 28

vv.1-6
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

vv. 18-20
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

v. 28
You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.​

Heaven is presented in the scripture as the dwelling place of God. After the return of Christ, we see the resurrection of all humanity, the final judgment of the dead according to their deeds, the destruction of evil persons, death and Hades (see Revelation 20:12-15). Then in Revelation 21, we see heaven and earth reunited, where God lives among his people (Revelation 21:3).

The words of Jesus in John 14 lend themselves perfectly to the scenario outlined in Revelation, not the simple “getting to Heaven” teaching of so many sermons and tracts.

Are those who have died before the return of Jesus somehow alive and conscious in Christ?

Yes, I think we can show evidence of that, but this unbiblical terminology of “going/getting to Heaven” needs to stop because it gives the impression that the message of Jesus is primarily about one’s location after physical death. Jesus summarized His message as “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” and I think we should stick with His teaching.

This is teaching regarding a theory of atonement, predicated on the idea that “getting to Heaven” was the primary message of Jesus and the New Testament church. It wasn’t.

This is good advice, but it doesn’t explain very well how one enters into a life of faith. For instance, there is no call to repent or to die to oneself (aka "take up one's cross") and follow Jesus.

I like the idea of encouraging people to read the Bible, but they are going to be confused for a while since the main thrust of this tract cannot be found in this form in the scriptures. The “obey what you read” advice does not do justice to all of the various types of writing and the stories told in the scriptures. Not everyone written about in scripture is a good guy and that’s not always explicitly pointed out.

However, these last two sentences are the strongest part of the tract, but it seems that there should be given some space to the teachings of Jesus, beyond a simple reference to Matthew 5:28 and assertions about Him.

This is neither "excellent" nor a balanced recounting of the gospel that Jesus and the New Testament church preached.

 

So you don't want to have ideas you value critiqued so that you can be a better disciple of Jesus?

Don't you want the message you spend so much time spreading to line up with the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament church?

 

So show me a passage in the Bible that explicitly addresses "getting to Heaven."

 

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.​

There is nothing there that mentions heaven, not "getting into" it. It is a simple statement that God send the Son to provide eternal life to those who would enter into a trusting relationship with Him so that they would not perish. If that was the message of the tract, then there would be no issue. But that tract is about everyone receiving eternal life (it does not take seriously the clear teaching that there are those who perish), with some being in "Heaven" and the rest in eternal conscious torment in "Hell" (not perishing).

So I ask again, what passage in the Bible that explicitly addresses "getting to Heaven?"

 

Some thoughts on the aforementioned tract:

TRACT: At Some Point, You Will Be the NEXT PERSON on Earth to DIE.

TETH: True.

TRACT: Sobering thought, isn't it? You may not have realized it, but every second, two people die. What happens then? Is there a Heaven and Hell? Are you "good enough" to get to Heaven? Look at the Ten Commandments. Have you ever lied or stolen? (regardless of value) Ever looked with lust and therefore committed adultery in your heart? (see Matthew 5:28) You may see these as "no big deal" but God sure doesn't. He is Holy and said, "be Holy, for I am Holy."

TETH: True. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

TRACT: God sent His Son, Jesus, to live the perfect life we never could. He took God's wrath on the cross for sinners. Jesus paid the punishment for our sins against a Holy God.

TETH: That depends on what one means by "OUR sins." The bible teaches that the life of Christ is 100% effectual in accomplishing the eternal salvation of his people (Romans 8:31-39). It follows that ALL for whom Christ died will be eternally saved, because NOTHING can separate them from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (v38-39). Christ gave his life "for the sheep" (John 10:11) and some men are NOT sheep (v26). It is the fact that they are not sheep that explains why they do not believe. Stated another way, one believes because he IS a sheep, not in order to become a sheep.

TRACT: Then He rose from the dead.

TETH: True.

TRACT: Cry out to God for mercy, confessing and forsaking your sins.

TETH: Those who have the desire for God's mercy are ALREADY BORN AGAIN else they would regard such gospel proclamations as foolishness (I Corinthians 2:14). In other words, they call out to God as Abba, Father because they ARE sons, not in order to become sons (Galatians 4:6).

TRACT: Put your trust in Jesus (rather than "good works") to save you.

TETH: Man in his unregenerate state has no trust (faith) to "put." If a man has the faith to receive gospel truth he is bringing forth a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22) which is evidence that he is ALREADY born again. The faith that God gives to his people is already PUT in Christ. It is faith in the true and living God, though it may not have a clear understanding of all that God has done for them in redemption. The gospel is the good news that brings God's work in giving us life and immortality to light (II Timothy 1:10).

TRACT: Read your Bible daily and obey what you read.

TETH: That's good advice. The bible says that those who believe gospel truth should present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

 

That's a tortured sentence. I have no idea what you mean by it with all of the negatives and lack of context, so let me make clear statements:

(1) I believe eternal life is freely given to anyone who enters into a discipling relationship with Jesus.
(2) I believe that the second death/perishing/destruction awaits those who reject what they know about God.
(3) I believe that there will come a day when the heavens and earth will be fully united again and all evil persons, Hades and death will have been consumed in the lake of fire.
(4) I believe that the "getting to heaven" teaching is foreign to the message of Jesus and the early church, and it a corrupting reduction of the true gospel message of the Kingdom of God down to a message of atonement and "life insurance" in the event of death. The evidence of this is that you will not find an emphasis on "getting to heaven" in the scriptures, but instead, a strong emphasis on the Kingdom of God.

 

They can, IF they starting believing in Jesus and get saved!