Jeremy Roebuck of KVUE named this episode among the best "Simpsons" episodes with a religious theme, along with "Bart Sells His Soul", "Homer the Heretic", "Simpsons Bible Stories", and "She of Little Faith". Dawn Taylor of The DVD Journal thought Homer's line (to Bart) was the best line of the episode: "I want to share something with you, the three little sentences that will get you through life. Number one: 'Cover for me.' Number two: 'Oh, good idea, boss.' Number three, 'It was like that when I got here.'" Screen Rant called it the best episode of the second season and the seventh greatest episode of "The Simpsons" overall.