I just dropped my kid off at the playground to go swinging for an hour. Alex loves to swing, possibly more than anything else in the world. As I was leaving, I noticed a car parked there with several bumper stickers. I paused to read them. One of them read: “Democrats want to raise taxes and tear down our borders. Who do they represent?” Yes, of course, I thought. Democrats hate America, blah, blah, blah. All Democrats want is to make your life miserable. Blah, blah, blah. But then I read the second bumper sticker, and it really touched me on a deep level:

“Heaven has a border, a gate, and a strict immigration policy. Hell has open borders.”

Ooof. Okay, so now this person is claiming that their political views on immigration are based on their view of the afterlife. And as such, their views on immigration are thus supported by God. Hard to argue with that, I suppose.

Except – except I think this person’s views on the afterlife are wrong. I think they’re tragically wrong. And I mourn when I realize how many people believe in this sad and small view of the afterlife, this sad and small view of God. I assume the owner of the car is Christian. I could be wrong about that, but I think they are because a “heaven” and a “hell” that look like this are something so many Christians believe in. But I don’t think they realize how pitiful and small their God would be if this were the truth.

Let me explain. First off, it’s important to know that looking for information about the afterlife in the Bible is a rather difficult endeavor. There’s really not much there, and what is there is very vague and poetic. Here are the kind of things you find:

• The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
• The roads are paved with gold.
• A perfect cube with no sun and no moon.
• You sit in the bosom of Abraham, and can see hell in the distance.
• The road is narrow.
• There are many rooms.
• There’s a river along which trees grow twelve fruits.
• There are twelve gates, which will never be shut.

All of these things are said to describe “the kingdom of heaven.” And what’s more, in many of these cases, it’s really not clear if the author is writing about the afterlife at all.  The phrase “kingdom of heaven” often refers not to the afterlife, but to God’s kingdom here on earth.

And yet, there is a commonly accepted view of the afterlife in American Christianity, a belief in what “heaven” and “hell” are that has become so mainstream we see assumptions about it throughout secular culture. Let’s call this commonly accepted view “The Great Sorting.”

The Great Sorting is the idea of the “pearly gates” with St. Peter and a clipboard.

The idea that if you’re a “good person” (defined however you want to define it), you get to go to heaven, and if you’re a “bad person” you go to hell. The human soul in this concept, of course, is immortal, and what happens when we die is that that soul is sent one of two directions, “sorted” into good and bad.

The Great Sorting turns life into nothing more than a test. A test to see if we’re good enough. And then at the end of our life, the angels will put all our good deeds on one scale and our bad deeds on another scale, and whichever one weighs more, well, there you go. I’ve heard the word Bible defined as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth,” as though the only reason God gave us the gift of scripture was as a study aid for the great test.

The Great Sorting concept relies on the idea that “the human soul is immortal,” that we are somehow impervious to true death, and it reduces God to nothing more than a bureaucrat who pulls the right lever based on how we did. God, of course, can’t truly destroy us because we’re “immortal.” (Which means we’re more powerful than God, when you think about it.) The only power God has is to decide which escalator we ride – up or down.

And honestly, what’s the point of that? What kind of God is that? What kind of life is that? Where’s the forgiveness? Where’s the grace? And what on earth was the point of Christ dying on the cross in that understanding? If it’s all just an “UP” or “DOWN” choice based on our actions, why on earth did Christ suffer?

I think if you surveyed most Americans who identify as Christian, you’d find that the majority of them believe in this heaven-and-hell reward concept. Oh sure, many people would nuance it, and say, “It’s not about whether you were good or bad, but about whether you believed in Jesus or not.” Which to me is the same thing. One way or another, the Great Sorting means that life is just a game, or a test, and at the end let’s find out if you passed.

And I find that to be such a heartbreaking and sad view of who God is, and what life is all about.

And it’s neither the God nor the life that I see revealed in scripture. The God I see revealed in scripture, the Father of Jesus of Nazareth, is so much bigger than this. So much more complicated. So much more mysterious. “Ineffably sublime,” in the words of one of my favorite hymns. The life I see revealed in scripture is far more abundant than that, far more rich and complex than that, far more filled with questions of trust and hope and sacrificial love than that. The God I see revealed in scripture loved the world so much to be born as a human, to live and die as a human, and to reconcile all things to himself through the cross. What reconciling is there in the Great Sorting? That’s nothing more than adding up the score at the end of the game. Anybody can do that.

And the afterlife, whatever it ends up being, is in God’s hands. Which suggests to me that it is also far bigger, more loving, more complicated, more mysterious, and sublime. Something that just anybody can’t do.

Now, I have no proof of this. Maybe the Great Sorting is right after all. But even if I somehow found out it was true, I’d never preach it, because I see no life there. No hope there. No resurrection. No newness. No love. And those are the things what I believe God brings to the table. Every time.

So…back to the bumper sticker. Hey, the person with that bumper sticker probably wasn’t trying to make a theological statement – they were probably saying that they believe the United States’ border should be closed. Fair enough. They’re entitled to their viewpoint on that. I find it to be a complicated question, and I’m just not sure where I stand on it.

But I know where I stand regarding God.

God is big. And God is love. And God is mysterious. And God is grace.

And so the afterlife, whatever it is, is quite probably big, and mysterious, and loving, and graceful too.

Photo by Laila Gebhard on Unsplash