The other day former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg told the The New York Times in an interview, “I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to Heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in…I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” 

I wish the mayor were not quite so confident.

To be fair, the interviewer, Jeremy Peters, reported that Bloomberg said this with a grin.  He might have been joking.  I will give him the benefit of a doubt and assume the mayor was making light.  Most of us joke a bit from time to time when we’re talking about what comes after death.

This interview was held just a few days before the mayor, now 72, was going to his fiftieth college reunion.  The mayor was evidently thinking about this for he solemnly observed that many of his classmates have already passed on.  You start wondering about heaven when your endgame is in sight.

It’s not a bad thing to consider.  At any time.

But, jest or not, I am interested in why the mayor is so confident that he will be able to pass unimpeded through the normal immigration checkpoints at the gates of heaven.  He says it’s because of his good deeds. 

The article was focused on Bloomberg’s passion for gun control and his desire to “outmuscle” the NRA.   But that’s not all.  He points to his work on gun safety, obesity, and getting people to stop smoking.

A lot of people think those are good things.  I don’t know that God has said he especially endorses those causes.  People assume that because they believe something to be good, God must certainly think so too.  It doesn’t work that way, however.  Because God is God, he’s the one who declares what is good.  Or bad.  And we must adjust our values to his.

To make an extreme example, suicide bombers believe terrorism and killing innocent people is good.   I’m pretty sure God doesn’t.

But with all consideration to Mayor Bloomberg, one who was a good sight more righteous than he is finally figured it out.   He was a fellow Jew.   His name was Saul of Tarsus.  He wrote, “I was progressing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.” (Galatians 1:14)

Later, however, he said of himself, “I am the chief of sinners.”  And he wasn’t kidding.  The realization of his moral corruption arrived when he came face to face with the Holy God himself.  Frankly, not one of us comes out very well in that comparison.

So he said, “Whatever things I counted as gain I view as loss, for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)

What he was getting at is that the only way to get into heaven is through the mercy of God.  None of us deserves to go there.  It’s not a game of outbalancing the evil in our lives by the good.  Look into your own soul and you know it.  Our consciences make us wince at times.  Jesus Christ died to pay for the sins of sinners like you and me.   Only by trusting him, not by misplaced confidence in one’s good deeds, can a person be forgiven and pass through the immigration check points and be admitted to heaven.

Mr. Mayor, I hope you were joking.  But I fear down deep inside, you may not be.  And I truly hope you will realize what Jesus said.   “I am the door…I am the way and the truth and the life.  No man comes to the father but by me.” (John 14:6) 

Dr. Rick Perrin is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and Chairman of the Board of World Reformed Fellowship..  He writes a weekly blog called ReTHINK which may be accessed at www.rethinkingnews.wordpress.com. He may be contacted directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..