2016 has been full of the deaths of famous individuals.
What tears at me most are Christians who come out of the gate with their declarations of who it is enjoying the pleasures of glory and who is burning in a devil’s hell.
I find nowhere in scripture that it is mine to decide the salvation of another’s soul. And for the record, “By their works ye shall know them” is in reference to false teachers, not lost and saved individuals.
It is clear in the book of James, that the only indicators we have are the works of man. So what works am I to view? Is it church attendance, Jesus bumper stickers and “God is Wiser” t-shirts? Maybe I should consider what Jesus said. We could tell a disciple by his or her love for others.
He also said that many who call Him, Lord, would be rejected in that day. So, there’s that.
Then there are those who sit in jail cells for wicked sins and crimes who for decades purported themselves to be a Christian. Even self declaring to be a great one. What about them?
Guess it’s harder to tell than we thought.
Guess we should stop guessing.
I do know this, that God knows more about a person than I know. For He sees not as I see. While I am busy looking at the outward man, He is interested in the heart.
The Bible is clear that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So, Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler and Charles Manson were all created by a God who loves them and died for them. He desperately desired that they would know Jesus and be saved.
He so desires men and women to be saved that He completed all of the work for salvation. Jesus came, lived, preached, died and rose again. He said, “It is finished.” The only thing up to us is to believe.
The Ethiopian eunuch asked if he could be baptized by Philip. Philip said if he believed he could. The eunuch’s response? “I believe.” That’s it.
The thief on the cross asked Jesus to remember him. Jesus said, “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” I wonder how many people said the thief went to hell as they pulled his body down. After all, his life didn’t show his faith.
Jesus used the example of Moses in the wilderness. The people were ill and in need of healing. Moses lifted up a brass serpent on a staff. All the people had to do was look at the serpent, just look, and they would be healed. Jesus said, that He as the Son of Man would be lifted up and would draw men to Him.
God wants man to be saved and made it easy for man to do so. Believe.
I heard a man tell a story about his graduation from Bible college. He was in line waiting to receive his diploma when two men near him began to discuss a plane crash that occurred that very day. Some executives from Playboy Enterprises died in the crash. These men were smiling as they surmised that these men had died and gone to hell. The man telling the story said that he began to weep. He could not believe that these men who had just spent years training to love and serve people with the gospel were glorying in someone dying and going to hell.
I bet it’s hard to win people to Christ when they find out you are happy that their family, friends and people they admire are burning in hell.
Is it any wonder that Jesus so harshly rebuked the religious people of His day?
Seems many Christians today still fail to understand just what their leader was trying to teach them.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 