Conversation with two Teenagers

Late one evening, two teen-aged girls (who shall remain nameless herein) were heard to discuss this topic: Did Gandhi go to heaven? Here are some remarks, reported without attribution (it's more fun that way):

I think Lewis would say he did. (In The Last Battle, Aslan, the Christ figure, says that His will, even when done in another's name, is taken as worship of Him.)

Does "children of God" mean you go to heaven? Because Gandhi was certainly a peacemaker (Matthew 5.3-10)

But the Bible also says that the work of God is this: to believe in the one he sent.

"He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not go into judgment."

But in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25), the question is only what you did for the poor, the sick, the naked - not what you believed.

You need some theology to decide how to classify these writings.

Can you change your mind after you die?

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, there is supposedly a great gulf between heaven and hell, and you can't cross it.

But in that parable, there's nothing about faith - only whether you were rich or poor, and whether you helped the needy.

It's a parable, intended to make one point -- you can't take everything from it. Even allegories have their limits.

In Lewis's The Great Divorce, he says he thinks people have a chance, but that they mostly don't want to leave Hell.