Recently I was counseling a young man who came from a good family who seemed to have everything going for him, but in spite of that good upbringing he sank like the Titanic into drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and eventually incarceration for a little while.
In spite of his bitterness and hardened outlook on life somehow he agreed to meet with me. Why I don’t know, curiosity maybe; or perhaps because he wanted to accommodate his only friend who stuck by his side before, during, and after his fall and was the one who’d urged him to do so. (This guy loves the Lord and is a friend of mine too.)
What I soon discovered was that he had no real belief system. He said he wasn’t an atheist per se, but didn’t believe in Christianity’s claim that the only way to heaven is through Christ. He wondered about a loving God sending all those Buddhists and Hindus to hell. Basically he was an agnostic and had no specific belief system other than God probably existed.
I used to have those same beliefs so it wasn’t difficult to talk him through it. I asked him what he thought would happen to him if he were to die today. He didn’t have an answer aside from the notion that he did believe that there is an afterlife. I asked if he believed in heaven or hell in the afterlife, and he didn’t have a clear answer, aside from God was good and he didn’t think He would send people to hell.
I said, “So I guess you believe Hitler will go to heaven?
He smiled and said, “No, he will probably be punished – maybe there is a hell”.
“Okay, so is there anyone else gonna be ‘punished’? How about you? You took drugs, and did all sorts of bad things; will you be joining Hitler in hell?”
He stared at me.
I asked him what he based his belief system on, and he had a difficult time answering. While his family is decent and well respected, from what he told me, they were not very spiritual and only took a cursory interest in going to church on occasion.
Okay – He didn’t get his belief system from them.
We determined that his belief system was derived from his personal intellect and logical assumptions. He told me that he meditated and rationalized and came to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was “a way”, but not necessarily “the way”.
His statement reminded me of Ken Mansfield, the former United States manager for the Beatles’ Apple record company. He was best friends with the Beatles (and Ringo Starr in particular) when they went through their meditational experience, Ken told me that he got caught up in it right along with them and ended up going to India. For years he had his own personal guru to advise him.
Later after he crashed and burned and lost everything he owned and his job, he met a girl who led him to the true understanding that Christ is “THE WAY” and not merely “a way” to finding peace, joy, and love. He followed that advice, dumped his guru, married the gal, and now is living that life and has even turned to fulltime evangelism. (He will be at Honey Lake Church on Jan. 12. He is a terrific speaker and has fascinating video footage of the Beatles era and you won’t want to miss this service – make note of the date.)
I spent about an hour telling my new friend about the Bible and how it could be trusted as the living, inerrant, holy word of God. I addressed his how-could-a-loving-God-be-capable-of-judgment concerns, and explained the salvation plan to him. When he became convinced that the Bible was God’s word and that Jesus died for his sins, he asked me if his going forward and being “saved and confirmed” as a child “counted”.
Huh?
I told him, “Dang son you just told me when you came in here that you didn’t believe that you needed the blood of Christ to cover your sins and that you weren’t sure that He’s even the Son of God, and that He died on a cross, and was resurrected three days later. How in the world could you think you’re saved because of something you did as a child that you didn’t understand or really believe? Of course you’re not saved! And no, it doesn’t count!”
He knew what I was telling him was true. I then told him that he could easily be truly saved today though, and asked if he wanted me to lead him in the sinner’s prayer. He did, and he wonderfully accepted Christ as his Savior and even wrote down his spiritual birthday for future reference.
I wonder how many folks in the world think that just because they went forward in church or made some other commitment of being baptized, confirmed, or whatever as a small child gives them a free ticket into heaven. The Bible states that many will be turned away.
Consider Luke 13:27 “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ No man shall see the Lord unless he receives holiness and sanctification derived only from Jesus Christ.
If you are truly saved, your life will be a testimony of it. It isn’t some one time deal; it’s a lifelong commitment. Yes you will on occasion make mistakes, (Lord knows I make a ton of them), but you will regret them, confess them, and ask forgiveness, and try never again to replicate them. You will love God with all of your heart and will feel real concern for lost people and work hard to find ways to lead them to the Lord.
Today is a good day to ask yourself if you are where you need to be in your spiritual walk. Don’t be caught off guard when you face Christ at the judgment, because He is going to review your heart and deeds, and some event that happened when you were a nine year old child or baby won’t be His deciding factor in fact baby commitments won’t mean squat! You don’t want to hear: “Away from me!” Rather, “Come on in suppers on the table and I’m hungry. Let’s eat!”
2 Tim. 2:19
But God’s truth stands firm like a foundation stone with this inscription: “The LORD knows those who are his,” and “All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil.”
November 21, 2013 – Click here to listen