So I guess it’s safe to say that plenty of religions – most Christian denominations, most Muslim denominations, and so on – believe in some version of the view that “some people will go to heaven, and some people will go to hell.”
Leaving aside questions about how and why one ends up in one place instead of the other (divine grace, good deeds, sola fide and yakitiyakitiyak), I’d like to get right down to stats: Are there denominations out there that have a clear answer to the question “how MANY of us that will end up in one place as opposed to the other?”
I’m guessing (and correct me if I’m wrong) that a majority of denominations, including all the major ones (?), would consider the very question futile and/or blasphemous (“well, that’s in God’s hands,” “that’s not for mere mortals to know,” etc.) – and if so, those denominations are exempted from the discussion.
But for those denominations that do have a clear answer… Well, what have we got?
Are there theological schools out there that insist that what we’ll see is a strict 50/50 deal right down the middle? Are there churches or mosques which preach that the exact number of Heaven-bound folk is one out of five, one out of seven, one percent or less than that? Do others claim that it’s the other way around – that only a small minority of humanity will end up in hell, maybe just ten or twelve guys in all of world history?
Jehovah’s Witnesses belive exactly 144,000 people will go to heaven, based on a reading of Revelations. Which isn’t exactly encouraging if your hoping to make the cut.
I seem to recall one of the groups of Puritins in the early Colonial period had an even more parsimonoious selection, with only something like 300 people getting in. Can’t remember where I read that though, so take it with a grain of salt.
a certain christian sect in the philippines numbers around 4.0 million and they claim they are the true church of christ. ergo, a percentage of 4.0 million.
have an estimate of all abortions and still births? they all go to limbo.
Yeah, I remember the 144.000 number, but I seem to recall it as being some kind of end-time vanguard rather than the total number of people going to heaven. An eschatological SWAT team, if you will. Or the VIP’s of the apocalypse, or something like that.
Well, plenty of denominations do not believe it’s quite as simple as “criminals go to hell, innocent folk go to heaven.” I’m sure there are some that do, though.
First off, it’s not a case of not “measuring up”. Heaven isn’t considered to be a superior reward to resurrection on Earth. It’s just different.
Secondly, it’s not just “good people who don’t measure up” who come back on Earth 2.0. Almost everybody comes back, with the exception of a handful of exceptionally evil people. >99% of everybody who has ever been born will be coming back.
Finally, the JWs believe that everybody who dies is going to hell. No exceptions. Even the people who are going to heaven are going to hell.
So from the perspective of that sect, 100% of humanity are going to hell, and <1% of 1% of 1% are going to heaven.
Is that the answer the OP wanted?
Well, because, JWs aside, no Christian denomination believes that all people who commit heinous crimes are going to hell, and none believe that only people who commit heinous crimes are going to hell.
The problem with that interpretation is is that Revelation elsewhere describes the numbers going to hell as a “vast multitude” compared to a “small crowd” going to heaven. Jesus himself said that the people going to heaven were like a small number of sheep amongst goats, or the few surviving plants from seeds sown on poor ground.
So regardless of what proportion of angels are going to hell, it seems clear that a majority of humans are doomed. Doomed I tells ya.
Please could you elaborate on this? The JWs I’ve spoken to didn’t even accept the existence of anything that could reasonably be called ‘hell’. They said that folks experience a break in conscious existence between death and eventual resurrection.
i think this calls for a deterministic analysis (using simple assumptions.) but doing so will fail the OP since he’s asking for either doctrinal bases or simply expert opinions from various religious groups.
it’s a segmentation issue, just like in marketing
the sinners (set A.) within this are those who are likely to go to hell (set B) within set B, define exclusive subsets. if they overlap, simply adjust to keep the total consistent:
criminals (set C) net of expiates and redeemables
heretics, blasphemers (set D) net of redeemables
infidels, gentiles (Set E) not likely to be converted
According to the Abrahamic faiths, that set contains all of humanity.
And what wold that tell anyone?
Again, according to the Abrahamic faiths, being an infidel is not, by itself, grounds for going to hell. Being a heretic, sure. But simply never belonging to the religion is at worst grounds for a brief stint in purgatory for some re-education according to most of them.
Even Jack Chick’s cueball headed god only sends Heretics to hell if they at least spoke to a Christian, once, in 1963, for 20 minutes.
