This week I am writing more from my heart, than as a Theological position. I actually thought about not writing at all this week, but sometimes my writing are for teaching myself too. This week my brother-in-law passed away and made me think of some tough questions that I needed to answer for myself. I already know some on the answers but I also needed some comforting and I am sure some of my readers may find comfort in this too.
First before we pass judgement, I want to warn against calling a person a Christian too quickly. When I joined the Army many years ago, I was asked what religion I was. I was not sure how to answer this seemingly simple question. My answer was “Not sure but it starts with the letter c.” That person replied back “Catholic?” No, I am not Catholic, it is another c word. He asked “Christian?” My response, “I think so, that sounds right.” So my dog tags said protestant on them.
I did not go to church except for occasionally on Christmas and Easter, and even less for Good Friday. Somehow if I had died back then I would have been called a Christian, who was serving his country. Was this “Christian” heading to heaven or somewhere else?
I was a pretty good kid growing up, not getting into any too major of trouble, except when I accidently set the garage on fire, which began to spread to the prairie that connected to the grade school we were living next too. As the emergency vehicles showed up I began to be scared to death as to what my Mom and Dad are going to possibly do to me. I wanted to run away, but I stayed home and took my punishment as I deserved. I never did that again, but I do not think this would be classified as true repentance.
There are also times when people just want avoid life, just to avoid increasing the chances of death, but when the time comes we cannot run away. This reminds me of a story.
A Baghdad merchant once asked his servant to run an errand. While at the marketplace, the servant turned the corner and saw Lady Death. She terrified him so much that he quickly returned to his master.
“I am terrified,” the servant said. “I want to take the fastest horse and ride toward Samarra.” The master granted this request.
Later that afternoon the master visited the market and he, too, met Lady Death.
“Why did you startle my servant?” he asked.
Lady Death answered, “Frankly, it was I who was startled. I couldn’t understand why your servant was in Baghdad, because I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
I tell this story and a piece of my past so that I can talk about death and what happens to someone who is not a Christian dies; especially when they are on all accounts a good person. I have heard too many to count stories of a Christian taking their last breath with a smile. Christians hold the promise of heaven after they leave here. We tend to tell their loved one “They are in a better place now,” or “They get to spend this Sunday and every Sunday with Jesus, how glorious is that!” If you feel that the person who passed away may not be a Christian, you may just respond with “I am sorry for you loss” or something else to that degree.
My brother-in-law passed away this week and his family will tell you that he was not a Christian, but a Buddhist. Parts of the family are Buddhist and others are Christians. I know if I would have died while serving in the Army I am sure, short of a death bed conversion, I was heading to the Lake of Fire, hell. I will not say that is true for my brother-in-law, but I am also not changing the fact of John 14:6 says “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Heaven is going to be filled with people we would never have thought would be there. There will be people who killed, robbed, plotted evil, coveted, cheated on a spouse, drunk in public, and many other things that some “Bible thumpers” will tell you are sending you to hell. Without repentance this is true, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, our sins are wiped clean.
When I give messages at the Phoenix Rescue Mission, I would also tell people that there are going to be a lot of “good” people in hell and I was going to be one of them. Good people who helped little old lady’s cross the street, people who are cleaning oil off of wildlife from an oil spill, people who robotically fast when the calendar hits a certain day, people who sit in a church seat ever Sunday, and many other examples can be given.
My conversion happened in an office building on raised computer flooring with no one around. I prayed a simple, less than a minute prayer to a God, I truly knew nothing about. My life was changed for that moment on, a new creation! If I would have died shortly after that, I know Jesus would have His arms wide open accepting me. No one saw me do this and people who did see me that day just carried on with their day as if nothing changed. What changed for me to pray now? I had a personal crisis that hit me that morning.
Nothing in the Bible will tell us that in order to get to heaven we need to have been a Christian for so many hours, days, weeks, months or years. Instead it does tell us that it does not matter when we become a Christian, just as long as we do. In Matthew 20:1 – 16, a landowner hired workers in the morning for work for a set pay. Later that day he hired more workers for the same pay. Even later in the day he hired even more workers for the same amount of pay. This parable ends with “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” What Jesus is telling his listeners is that everyone finishes in a dead heat, tied. It does not mean that those who started working for Christ 50 years ago gets a different pay that someone who started working 10 years ago, or if someone just showed up to work for the first day and has not yet been able to do anything.
My brother-in-law had been battling cancer and died from this. He was around Christians and it is not my place to say as to where he will be or where he will not be. Before he closed his eyes for the last time, before he took his last breath he just may have made a quick and simple prayer like I did, to a God who he does not understand. If he did that then the last will be first, and he will be there in heaven!
Be careful and remember John 14:6 when Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”
If you are reading this and you have never given your life to Jesus and you are feeling a tugging at your heart, do not let this day go past without asking for Jesus to enter your life. If you are ready please pray this prayer:
Father, it is written in Your Word that if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that You have raised Him from the dead, I shall be saved. Therefore, Father, I confess that Jesus is my Lord. I make Him Lord of my life now. I renounce my past life with Satan and close the door to any of his devices. I thank You for forgiving my of all my sins. Jesus is my Lord, and I am a new creation. The old have past away and now all things become new in the name of Jesus. Amen.