Question 7: If someone is an infidel, or a Jew, or a Samaritan, and performs many good works, does that person enter into the kingdom of heaven?
Answer: As the Lord said
to Nicodemus, Truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
spirit, a person will not enter into the kingdom of heaven (Jn 3: 5), it is
clear that such a one will not enter the kingdom. However that person does not
lose his or her reward, but either receives it here [in this life], with easy
living and riches and comfort and all the other deceits of this life (after the
fashion of the one who heard, Remember that you in your life-time received
your good things [Lk 16: 25]), or on the other hand in the future life has
a big difference over someone who did no good works. For just as in the case of
the just there are many mansions (Jn 14: 2) close to God, so in the case
of sinners there are many different forms of punishment.
- St. Anastasios of Sinai (+ c.700 A.D.)
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