According to the 2020 American Worldview Inventory from Arizona Christian University, half of Americans believe that “if a person is generally good, or does enough good things during their life, they will “earn” a place in Heaven.

Earlier this week, while explaining his efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, President Trump said:

I want to try to get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing that I’m not doing well. I really hit the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.

Though many were quick to jump on the President for his bad theology, his view is very common, even among many Christians. According to the 2020 American Worldview Inventory from Arizona Christian University, half of Americans believe that “if a person is generally good, or does enough good things during their life, they will ‘earn’ a place in Heaven.” Even worse, nearly as many evangelicals believe this, as do mainline Protestants. According to another 2021 study from Pew Research, nearly 40% of Americans say that believing in God is not necessary to get to heaven, and a majority of American Christians say that many religions lead to heaven, including “non-Christian” religions.

These findings are fully consistent with other beliefs that many American Christians hold about humanity and sin. According to the annual “State of Theology” survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research, 65% of evangelicals agreed that everyone is “born innocent in the eyes of God,” a position that denies the doctrine of original sin and the reason people need salvation in the first place. 56% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam,” a position that denies Jesus’ own claim to be the exclusive savior of the world. 43% of evangelicals agreed that “Jesus was a great teacher … but not God,” a number up 13% from two years ago, and a position that undermines His ability to be the Savior that we need. 66% of evangelicals agreed that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature,” while 69% disagreed, contrary to the book of Romans, that “even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation.”

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