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- The Reliability of the New Testament
The New Testament consists of twenty‐seven books and epistles which were written almost two thousand years ago and by up to ten authors. [The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are
thought to have been written by the apostles bearing those names. The apostle Luke also wrote the book of Acts while Paul, the apostle selected by Jesus “out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:8), wrote the epistles
of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The apostle Peter wrote 1 and 2 Peter while the apostle John wrote 1, 2 and 3 John and Revelation as revealed to him by Jesus Christ through an Angel while on the Island of Patmos. It is believed that James wrote the book of James and Jude was written by Jude, the half‐ brother of Jesus. We do not know who wrote Hebrews but there is strong evidence that it was written by Paul.]
The New Testament scriptures tell us about the first coming of Jesus Christ who claimed to be the Son Of God, performing miracles and preaching of salvation through faith in Him and His promise of
eternal life to those that follow Him. He proves his identity through His sinless life, His miracles, and His resurrection from the dead.
It is our commission by Christ to preach the Word and share the Good News (Mark 16:15). It is not our responsibility to convince people of the truth but share the Word of God in a loving and humble
way that they would accept. Many who hear what the New Testament Scriptures say for the very first time would either harden their hearts against God’s very plan of salvation while others’ hearts would
soften and want to know more.
It is our responsibility to have an answer for the hope that is within us (1Peter 3:15). Their very first question may be on the reliability of the information which was written so long ago, and how much if any can be trusted. We need to provide them a clear framework by which
they can trust the reliability of the New Testament Scriptures for them to be able to absorb and trust Christ the Gospel Message it presents.
By providing them a solid foundation by which they can trust the
reliability of the New Testament, they will then be able to trust the spiritual message it provides. (John 3:12).
We must provide the skeptic a framework to accept the reliability of the Scriptures by addressing a multi‐layered approach providing them evidence from the authenticity of the manuscripts
themselves, as well as archaeological and scientific evidence and how well the information contained within the manuscripts matches with what we know to be true historically.
Manuscript evidence:
Let’s take a look at the manuscripts themselves to determine if they can be relied upon as valid copies of documents. We will employ three bibliographical tests of the manuscripts, looking at how
many manuscripts currently exist which comprise the scriptures (quantity); the accuracy of the transcriptions over time (quality); and how much time passed between the events that were
documented and the time they were written down (dating).
The more manuscripts available provide the scholars the ability to more accurately reconstruct the original text. The New Testament has the most manuscript quantitative support of any text prior to
300 A.D. There exist over 5,600 Greek manuscripts that support the New Testament, over 2,300 manuscripts from the earliest centuries of the Christian church, over 10,000 Latin Vulgate and 9,400 other early versions of manuscripts bringing a total of over 19,000 non‐Greek manuscripts which make up over 25,000 manuscripts available to reconstruct the New Testament scriptures.
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Based on the vast quantity of manuscripts available there is little doubt that we have in fact a complete copy of the New Testament scriptures but what is the transcription accuracy rate, or
manuscript quality, of the hundreds of times the documents were copied over the centuries? Because of their age and the number of times it was copied you might expect a great number of transcription
errors, but we find that this is not the case either. Due to archaeological discoveries which have provided us with extremely old copies and fragments of documents we are able to determine that the
transcription of the most ancient documents was so meticulous that only the most minor of errors had crept into the copies over the centuries.
Professor Bruce Metzger, an authority on biblical manuscripts, estimated that the New Testament was copied with a 99.5% accuracy rate. Westcott and Hort estimate the NT text is 98% accurate to the original. Sir Fedrick Kenyon, another manuscript authority, said “The number of manuscripts of the NT, of early translations from it, and of quotations from it in the oldest writers of the Church, is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world.”
Professor Bruce Metzger wrote “Perhaps we can appreciate how wealthy the New Testament is in manuscript attestation if we compare the textual material for other ancient historical works”. When comparing the New Testament writings to the next most copied ancient work, “The Iliad”, (written by Homer) we see that it had been reconstructed with only 643 copies compared to over 25,000 for the NT scriptures and it is estimated to have had only a 95% accuracy rate in copying.
Since it can be shown that the New Testament documents have the greatest quantity and quality of all ancient texts to show that they were accurately copied and are indeed complete, it is then
important to show that their contents do not represent ‘myth’. For example, each of the four gospels describes the same events from different perspectives and yet they are in complete agreement with
each other as each recorded their witness accounts of what they experienced.
If the writings of the New Testament show an early dating, meaning that the time span between the time of the events described
and the time in which they were written, then there would have been no time for the mythological embellishment of the records and therefore they must be accepted as historical.
It is widely accepted by critical and conservative scholars that 1 Corinthians was written from 55‐56 AD. There is a growing acceptance of earlier New Testament dates, even among some liberal
scholars such as William F. Albright and radical critic John A.T. Robinson.
William F. Albright wrote, “We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any basis for dating any book of the New Testament
after about 80 AD”. John A.T. Robinson places most New Testament earlier than the most conservative scholars had previously. Robinson places Matthew at 40‐60 AD, Mark at about 45‐60 AD, Luke at before
57 AD to after 60 AD, and John at from 40‐65 AD. This would mean that possibly two of the Gospels could have been written as early as seven years after the crucifixion. At the latest, they were all
composed within the lifetimes of the eyewitnesses of the events. This would place the reliability of the New Testaments beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nine fragments found with the Dead Sea Scrolls which could be part of six New Testament books were discovered. One such fragment was dated 30‐68 AD (mark 6:52‐54) immediately after Christ and before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
The earliest undisputed manuscript of a New Testament book is the John Rylands papyri (p52), dated from 117‐138 AD. This fragment of John’s gospel survives from within a generation of when it was
first written. Since the book was composed in Asia Minor and this fragment was found in Egypt, some
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circulation time is required, placing the original composition of John within the first century. Whole New Testament bound books (Bodmer Papyri) are available from 200 AD. Most of the NT, including all the
gospels, is available in the Chester Beatty Papyri manuscript from 150 years after the NT was finished (250 AD).
Constantine Tischendorf discovered the Codex Sinaiticus (“Codex” means bound or had a spine; and “Sinaiticus” means it was discovered at Mt. Sinai. It was written around 350 AD) in the 19th
century at St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai which contains the entire NT in Greek uncials and half of the OT. The majority of the New Testament is contained in the Codex Vaticanus. It is kept at the
Vatican Library since the 15th century which dates to 325 AD. The Codex Alexandrinus (A) contains the entire OT and most of the NT in Greek and was written in the 5th Century AD.
No other book from the ancient world has as small a time gap between composition and earliest manuscript copies as the New Testament. Scholars tell us that it takes a few generations before
“Myth” can creep into a historical document and hence because of the extremely short dating, it would not be possible for these documents to be anything other than what they state themselves to be; ie, a
record of the life of Jesus, his teachings, and the writings of the apostles as eyewitnesses and they’re spreading the gospel.
The early dating of the texts is also clearly evident from the thousands of scriptural quotations from the early Church Fathers which themselves were documented. It is estimated that there are over
36,200+ quotes of the New Testament by these early Church Fathers and that there is enough quoted to nearly reconstruct the entire New Testament from their quotes alone (with the exception of about 11
verses).
Bruce Metzger stated, “Indeed, so extensive are these citations [ie, of the church fathers] that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be
sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament.”
Now that we’ve reviewed how these documents have the greatest quantity of manuscripts of any book in the ancient world with more than enough to accurately reconstruct it; and that the quality
of the manuscripts are exceptional so that extremely few transcription errors occurred in copying; and because of the very early dating (or time between the events and their writing) has occurred so that
myth could not have crept into the writings; let’s see what the writings say about themselves.
The manuscripts contain unflattering statements (counterproductive features) about the followers of Christ which appear to be at odds with the general purpose of the book. The fact that they include these statements is an indication that they were trying to accurately document the events including the bad with the good and were not trying to deceive anyone in their writings.
A few of these
counterproductive features include: (1) The testimony of woman (woman back then had no credibility; and yet, Christ first showed himself to women after his resurrection and their report back to the
apostles wouldn’t be typically believed); (2) The apparent triumph of the enemies of Christ, crucifying Him; (3) Helpless/Weak appearance of the Messiah at His death; (4) Disciples were fearful of their
enemies as they were huddling in a room for fear of the Jews after Christ died; (5) Showing the failure and denials of the disciples Judas and Peter; (6) Showing the slow understanding of those that were
closest to Jesus.
The documents also include statements that prove their own authenticity (positive evidence). A few of these statements include: (1) There are eyewitnesses to the Bible (John 19:35). (2) The Bible also lacks the mythological tone usually associated with other Mesopotamian or gnostic literature (2 Pet 1:16). It reads as if it’s a genuine account of history. (3) Jesus performed miracles to
prove His claims (Heb 2:3‐4); (4) Over 10 times was Jesus worshiped as the Son of God; (5) Jesus fulfilled
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over 300 Prophecies (Juke 24:27,44); (6) Jesus said the Bible is reliable (Mt 26:54), historical (Mt 12:40, John 3:12), inerrant (John 17:17), and scientifically accurate (Mt 19:2‐5).
Archaeological evidence:
We have shown that the manuscripts which comprise the New Testament are reliable replications of the original text as written nearly 2,000 years ago and also that they were penned within
the same generation of when the events occurred. The New Testament scriptures tell us about a vast number of places by name and geographic locations where various miracles and teachings occurred.
They also provided us great details of the structure of the cities and the culture of the day. If the writings were true then there would be archaeological evidence that we would be able to uncover which will
prove the accuracy of what the scriptures document.
The archaeological evidence itself cannot prove that the scriptures are correct; however, if it is discovered that the scriptures state something that archaeology is able to prove did not happen then it
is possible to disprove the scriptures with archaeology. The whole of the land of Israel and the middle east is so filled with artifacts of past civilizations you can scarcely dig down anywhere without
discovering something.
A brief list of some archaeological discoveries include:
In the Gospel of John alone, there are over 60 confirmed historical details that have been discovered. (the type of pots at wedding feasts, the pool of Bethesda, the pool of Shalom, etc.)
Collin Hemmer lists over 80 confirmed historical details in the book of Acts.
The Place of Trumpeting Stone was thrown down the temple mount in 70AD and discovered in 1969 by Benjamin Mazar. It refers to the area where the trumpets would be sounding to signal the beginning and end of the Sabbath (Josephus, 2 Chron 5; 13; 15; 20; 23; 29; Ps
81:3; Joel 2:15). It was at the top of the corner of the temple and had writing on it in Hebrew saying “to the place of trumpeting”.
The destruction of the temple (Matt 24:1‐2) was excavated to the 1st century road showing the stones that were cast down from the temple mount.
The Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in 70AD (Matt 24:1‐2; Mark 13:2). The Arch of Titus (the Roman general who destroyed Jerusalem) had the carving of the menorah being carried back by the Romans to Rome.
Pontius Pilate Inscription stone found in Northern Judea on the coast which said “Tiberium, Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judaea”. (Matt 27:2; Luke 3:1)
The Herod Inscription (found on the bottom of Herod’s wine jug) and said “Herod, King of Judea”. During renewed excavations in 1996 at Herod’s hilltop palace, Masada, Israel, archaeologists, Ehud Netzer, discovered a three‐line Latin inscription on a piece of pottery
(19 BC) giving the full name, title, and place of the rule of Herod the Great (resigned 37‐4BC) (Mt 2:1‐18). He bought his wine in Italy and hence the inscription was in Latin.
The city of Herodium was uncovered where the city Herod was built as he also uncovered Herod’s Tomb. This is a man‐made “volcano looking” like city. This is the place where he died and was buried.
The James Ossuary (a bone box 18” by 12” used by Jews to transfer their bones after the body had decayed). This box said on it “James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus”. There is doubt about the second half of the inscription that might have been added
later. If it is genuine then there would be ‘patina’ that would be on the entire inscription
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but the box was washed and scrubbed before the tests were made by the Israeli Dept. of Antiquities and of course, affected the results.
The Meggido Church (dated to the 3rd century) was discovered in 2005 at the Meggido Prison by inmate Ramil Razilo. A mosaic in the church read “The God‐Loving Akeptous (female name) has offered this table to the God Jesus Christ as a Memorial.” It was part of a
church attached to a Roman garrison.
Caiasphas Ossuary was discovered in 1990 south of Jerusalem and dated to the 1st century. It contained the bones of a 60 yr old man. The inscription written on the box was “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” (Mt 26:57; John 18:13).
Jacob’s well in John 4 (Christ met the Samaritan woman at the well) was discovered, is located in ancient Samaria and over 200 feet deep (in the 7th century; today 125 feet deep – John 4:11). It still produces fresh cool water (living water) from an underground spring.
Pool of Bethesda was discovered in 1888 in Jerusalem where the lame man was healed by Jesus. They have exposed the five porches as John 5:3‐4 tells us.
Pool of Siloam (John 9:7) was discovered in the 1st century where Jesus sent the blind man to wash his eyes.
The location of the Areopagus (Acts 17:16‐34) was discovered. This is where they had their supreme court decisions made and where Paul gave his sermon on Mars Hill. It’s just below the acropolis in Athens, Greece.
Sergius Paulus Inscription was discovered near Paphos, Cyprus. It contains the title and name of Sergius Paulus, one of Paul’s first converts to Christianity during his first missionary journey (Acts 13:6‐12). A second inscription was found in Rome where Paulus returned after his term as proconsul expired.
Erastus Inscription was uncovered at Corinth, Greece in 1919. He was Paul’s traveling companion and this stone was part of a sidewalk that he laid himself and at his own expense. (Acts 19:22; Rom 16:23; 2 Tim 4:2)
Gallio Inscription was a 1st century inscription discovered by Claudis in Delphi, Greece in 1908 describes the biblical figure “Gallio” (Acts 18:12‐17) as the “proconsul of Achaia” in office from 51‐53AD. This is the proconsul that tried to try Paul in Corinth.
The Politarch Inscriptions (Acts 17:6 – Politarch means “ruler”) were found. 19 of the 32 came from Thessalonica with 3 of them dating to the 1st century. This shows that the rulers
of Thessalonica were Politarchs! (Critics said that Luke was mistaken when he said that Thessalonica was ruled by Politarchs but Luke has now been proven correct).
ThroughoutActs, Luke correctly uses the precise vocabulary and names and titles of each position, person, and authority and archaeology is proving that he has been precisely correct in his
designations.
Luke as a historian: According to Sir William Ramsay, Luke records without error: 32 countries; 54 cities; 9 islands; 12 confirmed ruling figures.
All the coins listed in the New Testament were also confirmed by Archaeology
Despite the thousands of archaeological expeditions throughout the middle east, there has never once been something uncovered which contradicts anything in either the Old or New Testament
scriptures. In fact, everything discovered just adds more credibility to the scriptures. There are currently over 25,000 archaeological discoveries that either implicitly or explicitly confirm the historical scripture of the New Testament!
Nelson Glueck (“Rivers in the Desert: A History of the Neger”) said “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in a clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible.” It is therefore virtually impossible for any rational person to look at the facts
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that there are that many archaeological discoveries that all confirm the validity of the New Testament scriptures without one contradiction and yet still have doubt as to their complete accuracy.
Historical evidence:
Archaeological discoveries are additionally tied to confirm the secular history as confirmed in the scriptures. The writings of the New Testament describe not only physical geography, cities, artifacts
(such as a “deep” well at a certain location), and objects that were there at the time but they also tell of the specific individuals that existed at the time when they were important to the revealing of the gospel message as well as historical events that took place.
We should be able to look back and verify that history unfolded as documented in the New Testament writings and be able to identify historically many of the individuals named. This has been
accomplished through archeology as well as reviewing the non‐biblical history as documented by ancient historians which all confirm the accounts of Jesus and the events of the New Testament. Over 30 people in the New Testament have been confirmed and over 60 people in the Old Testament through archaeology. Most are minor characters in scripture so that if the minor people check out (and they do) then we should have more confidence in the historical accuracy of the major figures in the scriptures.
Some of the names confirmed through Archaeology include:
Agrippa I Herod Archelaus
Agrippa II Herod the Great
Ananias Herod Philip I
Annas Herod Philip II
King Aretas IV Herodias
Bernice Salome
Ceasar Agustus James and Jesus
Caiaphas John the Baptist
Claudius Judas (Galilean)
Drusilla Lysanias
Erastus Pontius Pilate
Felix Quirinius
Gallio Porcius Festus
Gamaliel Segius Paulus
Herod Antipas Tiberius Caesar
In addition to archaeology confirming the historical accounting of the NT and the individuals mentioned, non‐Christian historians also documented secular history which matched what the NT
scriptures say. These historians and sources include Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, The Talmud, Pliny the Younger, Thatlus, Lucian, Phlegon, and Mara Bar‐Serapion. There is such overwhelming non‐Christian historical confirmation of the events documented in the New Testament scriptures that there is no doubt that all the events described happened.
We also know that the authors of the NT scriptures themselves absolutely believed what they wrote as they recorded the words of Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection as they spread the gospel
throughout the world. They believed so much in all they saw and wrote that they all gave their lives for their beliefs and all died as martyrs. This is very well documented by the secular historian Josephus and by John Fox (“Fox’s Book of Martyrs”).
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Secular historians have documented the following aspects of Jesus’ life which also match the scriptures:
Jesus lived during Tiberius Caesar
He lived a virtuous life
He was a wonder worker (performed miracles)
He had a brother named James
He was acclaimed to be the Messiah
He was crucified under Pontius Pilate
He was crucified on the eve of the Passover
Darkness and an Earthquake occurred when He died
His disciples believed He rose from the dead
His disciples were willing to die for their belief
Christianity spread rapidly as far as Rome
His disciple denied the Romans gods, and worshiped Jesus as God
William Albright, an American archaeologist (“The archaeology of Palestine”) wrote, “Archaeological discoveries of the past generation in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine have gone far to establish the uniqueness of early Christianity as a historical phenomenon.”
Edwin Yamauchi (“The Stones and the Scriptures”) wrote, “Until the breakthrough of archaeological discoveries, the stories about the biblical patriarchs‐Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob‐ were subject to considerable skepticism … In the last thirty years, however, a steadily increasing flow of materials from Mesopotamia and Syria‐Palestine‐from Mari, from Nuzi, from Alalakh‐has convinced all
except a few holdovers, of the authenticity of the patriarchal narratives.”
Prophetic/Scientific evidence:
Perhaps the most compelling evidence available proving the reliability of the New Testament scriptures is the secular and non‐secular historical documentation has confirmed the events that were
previously prophesied to occur regarding Jesus. It is one thing for history to unfold naturally and for historians to document what has happened, but it is absolutely impossible for history to be written in
advance of its occurrence. This is exactly what the scriptures constantly document. They document history before it happens and with such detail and quantity, it can leave no doubt about the origin of the scriptures.
The Scriptures are complete with prophecies throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Lord tells us the End from the Beginning (Isaiah 46:10) so that we know He is God and His Scriptures are True. There are approx. 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and another 578 in the New Testament. In fact, prophecy is so interwoven with Scripture that 27% of all verses in the Bible are prophetic in nature; that’s over one in every four verses. God has interwoven prophecy into all aspects
of history and is constantly telling us in detail the end from the beginning and gave us over 300 prophecies about Christ’s first coming that Jesus fulfilled perfectly. A few of these prophecies that Christ
fulfilled are:
Event Prophecy
Prophecy Source Fulfilled by Jesus
1. Born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2 Matt 2:1
2. Preceded by messenger Isaiah 40:3 Matt 3:1‐3
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3. Entered Jerusalem on a donkey Zech 9:9 Luke 19:35
4. Betrayed by a friend Psalms 41:9 Matt 10:4
5. Hand and feet pierced Psalms 22:16 Luke 23:33
6. Sold for 30 pieces of sliver Zech 11:12 Matt 26:15
7. Money thrown in God’s house Zech 11:13b Matt 27:5a
8. Price given for the potter’s field Zech 11:13b Matt 27:7
9. Dumb before accusers Isaiah 53:7 Matt 17:12
10. Crucified with thieves Isaiah 53:12 Matt 27:38
11. Raised from the dead Psalms 16:10 John 20
Peter Stoner was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College; Chairman of the science division, Westmont College; Professor Emeritus of Science,
Westmont College; and Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Astronomy, Pasadena City College. In his widely accepted book “Science Speaks, Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible”, Professor Stoner created probability estimates about the odds of biblical prophecies being fulfilled in such detail without error and specifically the prophecies that Jesus Christ fulfilled that pertained to him.
Professor Stoner started by taking only eight prophecies fulfilled by Christ (those which he would have no control over such as the place of his birth) and determined the combined statistical odds
of these all occurring in a single person. The odds of just of these eight prophecies occurring are 1 in 1017. An example of what this would be equivalent to follows:
“Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing
these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.” As you can see, this proves beyond all possible doubt that the fulfillment of even these 8 prophecies that God inspired the writings of the prophecies. But if that isn’t enough, add another 8
prophecies on top of the first eight bringing the total to 16. That would make the odds of them all being fulfilled in one man only one in 1045.
An example of how these odds might be visualized follows:
“Take this number of silver dollars. If you make these into a solid ball, you will have a great sphere with a center at the earth, and extending in all directions more than 30 times as far asfrom the earth to the sun. [the sphere made of silver dollars would have a radius of 27.6 billion
miles which would completely fill the entire solar system extending past Pluto.] If you can imagine the marking of one silver dollar, and then thoroughly stirring it into this great ball, and blindfolding a man and telling him to pick out one dollar, and expect it to be the marked one, you have somewhat of a picture of how absolutely the fulfillment of sixteen prophecies referring to Jesus Christ proves both that He is the Son of God and that our Bible is inspired. Certainly, God
directed the writing of His Word.”
For those die‐hard skeptics, we’ll add a few more prophecies that were all fulfilled in a single person (Jesus Christ) and compute the odds of only 48 of the 300 prophecies. The odds of this occurring
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in one man would be 1 in 10157 . This number is so large our human minds can’t even conceive how small of a chance that is.
If for example, (paraphrasing Professor Stoner) you used electrons instead of silver dollars and create a solid spherical “ball” with these electrons and started by making the ball the size of the entire universe (engulfing all the galaxies and vast distances between them) you would have to make the ‘ball’ of electrons over 4,000 times larger than the entire universe to total to 1 in 10157 electrons. Now, one of these electrons was marked and thoroughly stirred into the whole mass; blindfold your man and ask him to select a single electron and have it be the one marked electron. (odds are 1 in 10157). Due to the extreme possibility (and having been fulfilled), we know that the Bible is inspired by an intelligence outside of time with the perfect ability to see everything in the future, including to the end of time.
This is not merely evidence. It is proof of the Bible’s inspiration by God himself. This demands that we listen to everything it says.
The scriptures don’t just contain 48 prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus but contain more than three hundred prophecies dealing with Christ’s first advent. Based on the fulfillment of this vast number of prophecies, the prior probability estimate (based only on 48 prophecies) is extremely low.
In fact, “Any man who rejects Christ as the Son of God is rejecting a fact proved perhaps more absolutely than any other fact in the world. In addition, the Old and New Testament scriptures have
therefore been mathematically proven as originating from God Himself who has also provided His plan of salvation to us which we can individually choose to accept or reject.” God will never force anyone to go to heaven and it is our choice whether we do or not based on whether we accept and follow Him or not.
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