An Open Letter to President Trump About Heaven

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings in the Lord. Thank you for your service to our country.

As I have noted the various comments you have made about Heaven, I have felt burdened to write to you. I decided on an open letter and there are two reasons I can give for this. In the first place, you have been very open about your questions. This has been a matter of public discussion, and so I don’t feel it is out of place to address them in this way. Second, you are our president, and in this role you are in many ways our representative. I believe there are many Americans who have exactly the same questions that you do. As I write to you, I am writing also to them. And to these reasons, I might also tag on a third, which is that approaching the task this way stands a better chance of actually getting to you, which is actually the central point.

I write because I am a minister of the kingdom of Heaven, and when I hear someone talking about Heaven as you have been doing, the only thing that comes to my mind is how I might possibly set out the message of Christ to you in a way that fits. How might I faithfully address the questions that you have been raising about this issue? We should want to do more than just insert the buckle into the seat belt . . . we also need to hear the click.

So here is the situation. At one point you hoped that the work you had done for peace in Ukraine might count for something when it came to getting into Heaven. Someone apparently talked to you about that and so later on you said that you were probably “low on the totem pole” when it came to Heaven. And then just recently you expressed doubt about making it there at all.

So the first thing I would want to start with is a commendation. All of this is good. The fact that this is on your mind is a very good thing. If you look back over the last twenty years, one of the things we who are in our seventies notice is how fast that twenty years flew by. It was not that long ago. Now turn and look in the other direction. The next twenty years will be just as fast. And twenty years from now, it is very likely that the question of your eternal destiny will have been answered, definitively answered. Twenty years into the future is not that far away. It is no farther away from us now than 2005 is, back when you and I were both in our fifties.

This is an inevitable journey. We all take it, and yet many embark on that journey without any forethought or preparation at all. Time is a conveyor belt, and it cannot be stopped. You are thinking about all of this, and it is very good that you are thinking about it. Many people don’t, and it is tragic for them that they don’t. It is not too soon for you to be preparing. It is not wrong that your mind is turning to this question. It is profoundly right and proper.

You are an ambitious man, as we can all see. You decided to run for president, and you achieved that goal . . . twice you achieved that goal. You are the chief executive of the most powerful nation that has ever existed on earth to this point. And as I saw recently, you have now felt the need to set your ambitions even higher. Having become president twice, what else is left? Well, you could become a great president. You could become a consequential president, and go down in all the history books. But let us assume that such a goal is achieved. What then?

You could even become Rushmore material, but then, after all the cheering has died down, you would still be able to hear the sound of that conveyor belt, steadily moving. And this is where the words of the Lord Jesus should be allowed full entry into your consciousness. Invite this teaching of His all the way in, and meditate on His words.

If there is any man alive today who has “gained the whole world,” I think it would have to be you. And yet your comments about Heaven indicate that you instinctively feel the force of our Lord’s teaching. You have gained the world, and so why is that not enough? It is not enough because you are a mortal man, and when you die, this world—this world that you “have gained”—will no longer be there. The world passes away . . . and every desire in it.

An anecdote is told about an exchange between Alexander the Great and Diogenes the Cynic. Alexander was yet another man who spent some time sitting on the top of the world. The king came across the philosopher rummaging through a pile of human bones. He asked Diogenes what he was doing, and the reply was, “I am looking for the bones of your father [Philip II of Macedon], but I cannot distinguish them from the bones of a slave.”

A point to the same effect is made in Shelley’s great poem, Ozymandias. The poem is about Ramesses the Great, a pharaoh of renown. The poem begins with a traveler who had come across the wreck of a great memorial in the desert, one that marked the accomplishments of a mighty king indeed. But that conveyor belt was operational back in ancient Egypt, and not just today, which is why the poem ends with such a punch in the mouth.

Kipling noted the same stark truth:

Scripture teaches these truths with a plain finality. There is real glory in being a king, but like all earthly glories, it goes away. And it goes away forever.

When the day of the Lord arrives, we must all appear before Him. If we are unprepared, we must appear before Him naked. We can bring no props, we can bring no advisors, we can bring no notes. We will stand before Him, and the books will be opened. And the contents of those books will not be welcome news for us. This is what will necessarily happen to all men outside of Christ, and there will be no distinction made between historic kings, lowly serfs, consequential presidents, acclaimed novelists, sexy movie stars, or influential podcasters. All men apart from Christ are equally lost. All women apart from Christ are in the same position.

And getting to a place where you have “gained the world” is no solution. That does not grant you escape velocity. Gaining the world is all contained within the world, and it is the world that is the problem. Sitting on top of the world is no great advantage if the world is condemned. If a demolition crew were about to take down a condemned skyscraper, it is no wonderful thing to be sitting in the penthouse with a refreshing drink in your hand.

The prophet Ezekiel is shown a vision of the mighty kings and warriors, all in Sheol, the place of the departed dead, with their glory reduced to dust and broken bottles (Eze. 32). The Lord strikes through kings in the day of His wrath (Ps. 110:5). And when the sixth seal is opened in the book of Revelation, we find that the wrath of the Lamb is a great leveler. Kings and slaves are both in the same position.

All of this is simply to state the problem, and it is a problem that all the sons of Adam have. We are all of us by nature objects of wrath (Eph. 2:3 ). All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)—presidents and peasants both. In your expressions of concern about Heaven, you have put your finger on the precise problem. This is your problem because it is Everyman’s problem.

Not only is this the problem, but there is no earthly goal that you could possibly set and achieve that would do anything to solve that problem. The problem remains right where it always was, which is the stark fact that you have a limited number of birthdays in front of you.

Now I acknowledge that this is all pretty grim, at least thus far. But there is good news. This is not a letter filled with black despair. God wants all kinds of people to be saved, and that includes kings and magistrates. That includes people just like you.

The fundamental temptation for people, and especially for accomplished people like yourself, is to think that there is something they can do to earn or merit God’s forgiveness. And it is here that the uniqueness of the Christian message stands out. Salvation is nothing but sheer gift. It is grace, all grace. It is grace from top to bottom, side to side, and front to back. It is grace with no bottom, and grace with no ceiling. Nothing but gift.

Notice that salvation and damnation are in no way symmetrical. Damnation is a paycheck, accurately calculated down to the last penny. Salvation is the gift of God. Death and life are certainly not the same thing, but we also need to remember that wages and gifts are not the same thing either. Hell is earned, and Heaven is given. Hell is only earned, and Heaven is only given.

Given to whom? To all who ask for it in the name of Jesus Christ. And the way we are told to ask for it is this. The Bible describes one motion with two different words, which are repent and believe. To be converted is to turn around. Imagine yourself facing the wall of self, a wall with little shelves all over it, and on each shelf is an idol. Behind you is the wall that is Christ. To be converted is to turn away from the wall of self and to turn toward the wall of Christ. That one motion of turning can be described in two different ways. The turning away is called repentance. The turning toward is called faith. So the message is to repent of your sins and believe the gospel, and this is all one motion. You cannot turn to Christ without turning away from self, denying self, and you cannot turn away from self without seeing Christ. The Puritans used to call it “closing with Christ,”

In our salvation, in granting us access to Heaven, God is refusing to give us what we deserve. Rather He is giving us what Christ deserved.

So what does this mean, saying that Christ “deserves it?” The reason our planet is such a sorry, broken mess is that God placed the entire human race in a perfect Garden, and gave them dominion over the whole world. He placed one tree off limits as a probationary test, but everything else was theirs as a gift from God. When our father Adam disobeyed God, eating the forbidden fruit, we were all of us there, represented in and by him. The rebellion that Adam launched was imputed to all his descendants, which is why we are all contaminated by sin from the moment of our conception on. We are all of us addicted to self by nature. The plight we find ourselves in was accomplished by our father Adam, and so if there is to be a solution to this problem, it will have to be in the form of another Adam, a second Adam, a last Adam.

Jesus Christ is that Adam, the head of a new human race, the progenitor of a new way of being human.

Now just as the first Adam disobeyed at a tree, plunging us into sin and misery, the second Adam obeyed on a tree. When He obeyed His Father in this, God took the sins of all His people, and laid those sins across the Lord’s shoulders. God then struck Him in divine fury such that Jesus Christ took the blow that we so richly deserved. He will never strike anyone for those sins again. The debt is entirely paid. And in a true mystery, the Father was never more pleased with His Son than in that moment when His wrath was poured out.

The Father loved the Son, and in that love poured out His wrath for our sin, laying that sin upon Him. He did this so that He could then take the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a righteousness that delighted Him, and lay that righteousness upon us. He imputed our guilt to Christ, and imputed Christ’s righteousness to us.

This is a glorious exchange, is it not? Christ takes all your sins, and you take all His righteousness. And you can’t pay for any of it. That means, however, that when you come to the gates of Heaven you can request entry with confidence, and why? Because Christ is perfect. Because Christ deserves it. Because you have come in His name. Coming in any other name? . . . well, none of us would dare try that.

But there is a particular subtlety that can come in. Not only do you have to repent of (turn away from) the sins that you know you have committed, you also have to repent of (turn away from) your good deeds. Any and all efforts to save yourself by doing good deeds are nothing other than splendid sins. They might well be used by God in the blessing of others—as in the recent release of hostages—but trying to commend yourself to God on the basis of such things is insulting the grace of God, and entirely unnecessary.

What I am explaining to you is good news. The perennial temptation (that I think you are wrestling with) is the idea that gaining Heaven is a matter of following good advice. But there is a chasm between good news and good advice. Suppose you were a student, and the classroom lectures were filled with good advice. You need to study daily. You need to turn your worksheets in. You need to take advantage of office hours. You need to read the assigned texts. And suppose further that you don’t do any of that. As a result, you are sitting in your desk, staring at your final exam, and the only answer you know is the line where you put your name. You are staring at that blank paper, and the instructor walks by. He sees your dilemma, and he could just offer some more good advice. Should have studied. Should have prepared. Should have listened. That’s all good advice. But suppose something different happened. Suppose he said, “Scoot over. I’ll take your test for you.” That’s good news.

So just as men outside of Christ will one day stand naked before the throne of God to be judged, so also those who want to be spared from that terrible moment need to come to Christ and stand before Him naked . . . in order to be clothed. But we cannot come with any plea or argument other than the simple fact that Jesus died.

Coming to Christ is nothing less than a resurrection from the dead, and the only thing you are allowed to contribute is the corpse. When Jesus summoned Lazarus from the grave, Lazarus wasn’t helping Him. Not at all. It was not a matter of Jesus pulling and Lazarus pushing. Jesus just spoke the word, and Lazarus came alive. He did a number of things after he came alive, but he did not do anything to prove that he was worthy of resurrection. He did not contribute beforehand.

There are many more things that could be said about all of this, of course. Books have been written, and will continue to be written. Hymns have been written, and will continue to be written. It is all beyond glorious. But this is not one of those books. This is just a letter, but I pray that it helps to address a question you are plainly wrestling with.

In sum, you are wise to be addressing this question head on. You and I and everyone else reading this will be stone cold dead some day, and perhaps someday soon. Second, there is no worldly accomplishment that a man can achieve that will settle his accounts with God. You seem to me to be aware of all this; you seem to know this. And last, if there is any saving to be done, it will all have to be done by Christ and Christ alone. If you want Him to do this for you . . . just ask Him. And do this knowing that even the ability and desire to ask is a gift from Him. All of is grace, and absolutely none of it is earned.

He has this gift for you. Just extend your hand, and He will give it. And later on, you will discover that He even gave you that extended hand. Nothing but grace.

Cordially in Christ,

Douglas Wilson