Every so often, people ask me spiritual questions. One that comes up again and again is, “Who do you think is going to heaven, and who is going to hell?”

My short answer is, “I’m an agnostic.”

I know that “agnostic” is usually a word used to describe whether or not people believe in God. I firmly believe that God exists, and, even more, that God exists as a Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But I don’t know, and I’m glad I don’t know, the answer to the question, “Who is going to heaven, and who is going to hell?”

I think it is possible to know (in the sense of having firm faith) that an individual is going to heaven. I believe that eternal life with God can start now through faith in the saving work of Jesus. But I do not think it is possible to know whether someone is going to hell.

God is the judge, and I am not.

What is more, God is a gracious judge, “slow to anger and abounding in love” (a phrase repeated throughout Scripture, see Exodus 34:6, Psalm 103:8), a judge who came “not to condemn the world but to save the world” (John 3:17), a judge who “is not slow in keeping his promise…but patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9).

So although it is tempting to try to categorize the world into saved and not saved, good and bad, right and wrong, I want to leave the judgment to God. And trust that whatever happens in the end will be consistent with God’s justice, and with God’s mercy and unfailing love.