The Good Place & Christianity

Michael: You know how some people pull into the breakdown lane when there’s traffic, and they think to themselves, “Ah, who cares? No one’s watching.” We were watching. Surprise! (Season 1, episode 1) Eleanor: I just want to say once more, for the record, that this whole good/bad system is bullshirt. (Season 1, episode 8) Why should there be a judgement anyway? This hasn’t really been explained in The Good Place (as of season 3), but reading between the lines, the idea may be that there is justice and fairness in the universe, and what you do on earth matters. (Though as Michael has discovered, the system has some major problems). There are two kinds of final judgement according to the Bible: one for people who have accepted God’s forgiveness, and one for people who have not. These two judgements are about very different things. For the second group, the central idea is justice; it will be clear to everyone that God’s judgement is...

Michael: Let’s hear about the tee shirts, please. Eleanor: Eeh, OK. I’ll tell you – but it doesn’t make me look great, so don’t judge me. Michael: That’s literally the purpose of this entire exercise. (Season 1, episode 8) The idea of evaluating a person’s life comes up quite a bit on The Good Place . This is an important theme in Christianity too, but in a different way: not to determine if people are worthy of heaven (which is a free gift and not earned), but as a time of getting everything out in the open. Every person will stand before Jesus individually and answer for the things they did on earth, good and bad. For those who are already forgiven, this isn’t a shameful time of having their nose rubbed in their sins – a terrible lie some people believe – but an opportunity for Jesus to reward his people for even little things they did out of love, and publicly praise them (which will be overwhelming). Those who...