My grandmother passed away this Sunday at age 89. A couple years ago, she was 59. Just a few weeks before that she was in her 20’s. And a couple days before that she was in her terrible two’s.
She is now in eternity. As one evangelist said, Forever and well or Forever in Hell. I don’t want to sugar coat things. I pray and hope she was saved. She was unresponsive for 11 days in a morphine induced coma in the nursing home. I prayed for her, gave her the gospel, gave her verses, and more and there is a glimmer of hope God still was dealing with her in that time. She has been to church services and has heard the gospel.
The challenge is she is Greek Orthodox. They use the King James Bible. They read scriptures and believe in Jesus. However the distance between head knowledge and heart knowledge is only 18 inches but the difference between heaven and hell. She didn’t fight me over the years of praying with her, but I don’t have assurance either way. First, make sure whoever you are reading this — make sure 1) you are saved. If you are not, get in touch with us here or visit oldtimebaptist.com and talk to someone about your soul. 2) and if you are saved, live a life that doesn’t leave us hanging. It is not fun spending the rest of your life wondering if a particular loved one is going to go to heaven.
One big issue I have with the formal religious circles, even the ones that have a lot of truth in them is this. Many have it set up so it gives the impression that only those in authority and those who stand behind a pulpit really know God. Often, salvation is made to appear unattainable and basically you are at the leader’s mercy to offer you the way of escape. Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. It is the common man Jesus gave the common simple gospel to. Religion can often dangle knowing God personally like a horse following a carrot. And the reason is to make them have the power to control your life. Jesus said if ye continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed, then you shall know the truth and the TRUTH shall MAKE YOU FREE! If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed! I now GET to go to church, it’s not I “got” to go. I want to go to church, but the veil is lifted and the only thing between me and God is ME. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. “You are as spiritual as you want to be,” says Pastor Don Green.
The bible says what is our life but a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. Our lives fly by. There is nothing on this earth worth going to hell for or anybody for that matter. Be sure you are saved because the Bible says, Be sure your sin will find you out. Everything, good bad and ugly will be revealed on Judgment Day!
My little 5 year old asked why we die when I was explaining that Granny died.
I thought about it and gave 2 answers. The first is the bible explanation and the second is a bible principal. The bible says the soul that sinneth, it shall die. God told Adam that if he ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, he would die. The proof we are sinners is our death.
God gave 1 commandment because if He hand’t man would be a robot and not have free will. Man messed up and we still would do the same thing. Give 2 kids a room of toys and say the Tonka truck is off limits and they will fight over the Tonka truck. We have Adam’s nature, and we simply inherit the sinful nature. If we don’t do anything about it, we die with that nature and die lost and cannot enter heaven.
We die because we are sinners. We inherit that nature and that is our lot in life. Conduct may bear that out, but even good religious moral people such as Mother Theresa are still guilty before God. They needed to be saved too. Jesus came to call sinners to repentance and did not come to call the righteous. Religious folks have a hard time seeing their need because they compare themselves to other fallen men and think God must be impressed. I explain it like this. Imagine you are the owner of a hockey team. Let’s say you play the Devil’s and the All Star on the Devil’s scores 5 goals. Those goals count against your team and are not going to please you or your coach. If that All Star gets traded to your team, that is another story. Suddenly he becomes your best friend. That is like salvation. We are born on the devil’s team. We need to get traded to God’s team. That is why Jesus said YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN.
Those who die saved, get a new body that never sinned. That body can live foreever. However when Adam and Eve sinned, God kicked them out of the garden. Was He being mean? No. God said that if he didn’t, Adam could have eaten the tree of life and his decaying cursed body would live forever.
In 1992 there was a movie called “Death Becomes Her.” I haven’t seen it in years but I remember the basic premise. A man invents a potion that makes someone live forever, but the ladies that drink it have physical bodies that continue to deteriorate once they get damaged. Their blessing quickly turns into a curse and the movie ends I believe with one of them falling onto pavement and disintegrating into dust.
If we merely lived forever in our present state, that would be our end. However, death is simply what leads us home and those that trust Jesus get glorified bodies that never rot, or decay. That was how God intended it.
And the bad terrifying news is those that are lost have souls that never perish either. They on forever in hell.
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? The bible asks.
The obvious answer is you can’t.