How would you respond to the question “On what basis would God accept you into heaven?”
In a 2019 Barna Group study of U.S. Christians, 21% of Christians somewhat agreed and 23% strongly agreed with the statement: “If a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven.”
That’s right. Around 44% of the self-professed Christians surveyed believe that they must earn their way to heaven through their own merits. In fact, many believe Jesus was simply a moral role model we are to follow. These were just a couple of the curious discoveries Tyler Ellis expounds upon in the Tedx Talk above, which has garnered over 5,500 views since it was posted in late November of last year.
B. Tyler Ellis is a sketch artist, author of Question Everything, and associate director of FriendSpeak, a ministry of a nonprofit called Let’s Start Talking. Inspired by a conversation he had with a fellow groomsman at a wedding, he set out to interview and sketch 50 people from different religious backgrounds over two years to get their thoughts on the Christian faith. What he discovered was enlightening and has broad implications for the way we understand our faith and the way we share it with others.
You can discover more about Tyler Ellis and his ministry to people of different faiths at @BTylerEllis and BTylerEllis.com.