The Good Place & Christianity

Michael: While time on Earth moves in a straight line — one thing happens, then the next, then the next — time in the afterlife moves in a Jeremy Bearimy. Eleanor: What? Michael: In the afterlife, time doubles back and loops around and ends up looking something like Jeremy Bearimy. This is the timeline in the afterlife. Happens to kind of look like the name Jeremy Bearimy in cursive English, so that’s what we call it. Eleanor: Sorry. My brain is melting. How can events happen before the ones that happened before? Michael: It’s just the way it works. It’s Jeremy Bearimy. I don’t know what to tell you. That’s the easiest way to describe it. Chidi: OK, but what the hell is this? The dot over the i — what the hell is that? Michael: OK, um, how do I explain this concisely? This is Tuesdays. And also July. Janet: And sometimes it’s never. Michael: That’s true. Occasionally that moment on the Bearimy timeline is the...

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...