IS EVERYBODY SAVED?
So many articles
on religion promote the unusual, the bizarre, and the non- (not to mention
anti-) Christian that it was refreshing to read something with a measure of
sanity in it in the Orlando Sentinel
on March 10th. David Brooks,
of The New York Times, wrote an
interesting column about people’s conceptions of Heaven. He begins by saying, in response to the furor
(which has now largely subsided) over Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ that the public might be more alarmed by
Mitch (Tuesdays With
Morrie) Albom’s new
book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
(all references are from page A15).
As any tour around the TV dial will
make abundantly clear, we do not live in Mel Gibson’s fire-and-brimstone
universe. Instead, we live in a psychobabble nation. We’ve got more to fear
from the easygoing narcissism that is so much a part of the atmosphere nobody
even thinks to protest or get angry about it.
For those not
familiar with the term narcissism, it
simply refers to the preoccupation people have with themselves (more than God
or others). We see it expressed religiously
as “church” services are designed to appeal to the worshippers (entertaining
them) instead of to glorify God.
Albom’s current bestseller is “about an 83-year-old man who
feels lonely, adrift and unimportant, and who dies while trying to save a
little girl from a broken carnival ride.”
Naturally, he goes to Heaven (doesn’t everyone?). Modern man cannot fathom that God would
condemn any one of us to Hell. After
all, we are all such great folks. Oh,
sometimes we are a little “mischievous,” but that’s just part of being human,
right? Certainly, God will forgive us
all (we think). In Heaven the man meets
five people who “adopt” him.
They reconcile him with his father,
who had been cruel to him. They remind him of what a good person he was. He
gets to spend time with his wife, whom he’d neglected and who died young. He is
forgiven for the hurts he accidentally committed while alive.
Obviously, the
message is that all human beings are imperfect, but we all go to Heaven
anyway. Why is his father there since he
had been so cruel to him? Are we are
allowed to be cruel to whomever we wish without any retribution? Hitler was cruel to the Jews; does he get
into heaven because he loved his mother and was kind to the dog? God commands us to love one another. Being deliberately cruel to someone simply
does not qualify. The 83-year-old man had
neglected his wife and “accidentally” committed hurts. He must have been somewhat narcissistic
himself not to see the pain inflicted on others. And is there not a command for husbands to
love their wives, as Christ loved the church (Eph.
Brooks comments on the kind of Heaven portrayed in Albom’s book—one that “is nothing more than an excellent
therapy session:
…God, to the extent that he exists
there, is sort of a genial Dr. Phil. When you go to his heaven, friends and
helpers come and tell you how innately wonderful you are. They help you reach
closure.
In this heaven God and his glory are
not the center of attention. It’s all about you.
Here, sins are not washed away.
Instead, hurt is washed away. The language of good and evil is replaced by the
language of trauma and recovery. There is no vice and virtue, no moral
framework to locate the individual within the cosmic infinity of the universe.
Instead they are just the right emotions—Do you feel good about yourself?—buttressed
by an endless string of vague bromides about how special each person is, and
how much we are all mystically connected in the flowing river of life.
Of course, in the
book of Revelation, we see a vastly different picture of Heaven. God is the one who is glorified—not angels
nor human beings. Actually, hurt is
removed in heaven; “God shall wipe away all tears” (Rev. 21:4), and sins are
not washed away there—they are washed away now when people obey the Gospel. It is the blood of Christ, which cleanses us now
that makes us justified and qualified to be in Heaven later. If we think we get to dwell in Heaven based
on our own goodness, no wonder there is such praise of Self
instead of Him who made it possible.
It is scarcely
surprising that there is no mention of virtue and vice. Nobody desires to talk about sin any more;
sin is never the deliberate violation of the will of God; it is always a
weakness or a sickness. It may be the
result of a person’s genes or perhaps the environment, but certainly we cannot
hold anyone responsible for their “sins”; in the twenty-first century we are
more enlightened than that.
People never
decide to do evil things; they are just victims of society. Parents begin making excuses for little
Johnny when he begins school. “Our son
is not mean; if he pushed down and kicked another student, it was undoubtedly
the other child’s fault; he wouldn’t do anything unprovoked.” Ten years later they are telling the judge,
“Our son was not involved in the robbery; he was in the getaway car because he
thought he was just going for a ride with his friends.” And now, when Johnny dies (say, at the age of
83), he is immediately pardoned for ”the hurts he
accidentally committed.” This is
salvation without repentance. Salvation,
a la Albom, does not occur because someone has seen
the evil effects of his sins and realized he is in need of a Savior; it is
based on the fact that he is a special person.
Well, Cain, Pharaoh, Jezebel, and all who were destroyed in the Flood
were also unique.
The title of the Brooks’ article is: “Hooked on Heaven Lite: Religion All About
You.” Certainly, this headline
accurately describes today’s thinking.
Various church groups will do almost anything to attract worshippers
these days. People are not interested in
learning or upholding the sacred teachings found in the Holy Bible. They have to think in school and probably on
the job; when it comes to religion they prefer not to have to think. “We just want to have a good time.” How unlike people today are from the Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily to see whether
or not the things they were being taught were so (Acts
Christianity has developed into a
non-thinking activty. Whatever
worshippers want, they get. The reader
may be shocked by the extent of the compromise, but the following item was read
on Paul Harvey’s news broadcast of March 13th:
Incidentally, where church attendance
is in decline, I notice some churches are inviting worshippers to bring along
their pet dogs and cats. One church in
This practice is
as absurd as it is profane. We not only
have every person in the world in Heaven, now we must have it populated with
animals, also. Animals do not sin, and
Christ did not atone for their sins. To
offer the Lord’s Supper to animals is to minimize the sacrifice Jesus made for
human beings.
The reality of
the matter was stated by Jesus when He said that there are few who seek (and
find) the narrow gate but many who find the broad gate, which
leads to destruction (Matt.
One does not
accidentally get ushered into Heaven when this life is over; God expects people
to seek Him. He is not located in
self-help books or amongst the popular cultural figures of today who present
God as they would like Him to be. He has
revealed Himself in the Scriptures; therefore, we seek Him where He is to be
found. There we read about His nature and
attributes; His dealings with mankind, what pleases Him and what angers Him;
there we read of His plan for saving us from our sins.
He is willing to
redeem us from our sins—if we will repent.
We cannot expect to carry a love of sin with us into Heaven. We must renounce sin and change the way we
think, speak, and act, painful though it may be. We must also be baptized for the forgiveness
of our sins (Acts
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