A bewildered man holds a zero-price menu while Paris burns behind him—a visual collision of socialism, chaos, and the free gift of salvation.

Minneapolis “No Prices” Socialist Restaurant Closes (Shocker) & Can You Buy Your Way Into Heaven?

What happens when a Minneapolis restaurant removes every price from the menu and a millionaire tears up because he thinks his charity bought him a mansion in glory? In this episode of the Ask A Christian Podcast, Nate opens with the viral clip of evangelist Bryce Crawford confronting SteveWillDoIt about can you buy your way into heaven, then pivots straight into the collapse of Post Modern Times—the pay-what-you-can experiment that just announced it is closing for good. The through-line is uncomfortable and obvious: human depravity ruins every utopia, whether it is a socialist café or a soul trusting in its own generosity.

Can You Buy Your Way Into Heaven: The Biblical Bottom Line

Scripture is not ambiguous about the price of eternal life. Ephesians 2:8-9 declares that salvation is by grace through faith, “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” When SteveWillDoIt wept and insisted his millions in giveaways secured a “10 or 11” on his heaven scale, he was expressing the default religion of fallen humanity: I am good enough because I am generous enough. The gospel answers that delusion directly. Christ lived the sinless life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose again—and He offers that finished work as a free gift to everyone who repents and believes. No money required. No donation receipt attached. For a deeper look at the core doctrines behind this, explore our statement of faith on core biblical beliefs. The same principle dismantles every works-based system, including the one that tried to run a restaurant on human kindness.

The Café That Forgot Total Depravity (And Paid For It)

Post Modern Times lasted nearly sixteen years before owner Dylan Alverson pulled the plug, but the final experiment was the fatal one: no prices, feed anyone, trust people to pay what they could. Donations poured in for months. Then the comrades who paid ten dollars started resenting the comrades who paid one, and the ones who paid one resented the ones who paid nothing. Nate’s summary is blunt: this is not a business model problem. It is a gospel problem. People are greedy, broken, and in need of Jesus, and no menu without prices can fix that. For more on how Christians should actually think about generosity and work, see our graceful disagreement resource—because yes, you can say “socialism fails” without being a jerk about it.