Babies, young kids, and others like mentally or handicapped people will go to heaven without having one of those born again moments we think about.
Most people are going to hell. Most people won’t get the fact that Christianity requires a denial of self, a turning away from sin and a love of Jesus – accepting His sacrifice for sin. It’s a simple prescription for heaven. But Matthew 7:13 says most people will miss it:
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
We want to hope for the best, think about God and His mercy and the fact that He’s loving. The fact is, He gave us a free will. Our sin makes us His enemy. And He’s all about justice. We’ll face the punishment of eternal separation from God for a single sin.
It should sound scary. And yet, don’t most people remain apathetic about their souls and fate? They do because they live the self-deception – literally. They’re so focused on themselves that they don’t think God will send them to hell. He will. He must.
It’s late at night and the Oprah show is on. The focus is on Elizabeth Gilbert’s book called “Eat Pray Love.” It makes me shake my head. It’s all about “the light getting in” and your “spiritual path.” It sounds like the author hit rock bottom in her life and went on a spiritual quest overseas. Wonderful – if that’s what it takes to meet Jesus. But I haven’t heard her say anything about Jesus, so maybe her book is just a path on her journey to her real Savior. I guess it’s a best-seller or something. How sad. My book like hers should be secondary to God’s Word. Maybe you’re not reading the Bible and you read my book or hers. That’s OK, but give the Bible a try (get a study guide if you need to).
One audience member talked about how Gilbert’s book is her Bible. Wow…how sad. Apparently, she encountered some god during her journey. Maybe it was my God through some spiritual connection. But she clearly missed the point because only Jesus provides true, stable, lasting access to God. She refers to God as God “the perfection that absorbs.” Well, He’s perfect, but salvation isn’t about having some secret moment with God and all is well. God, she says, involves the “the divinity within you…that’s where God lives.” Yeah, whatever.
Books like hers and mine can be paths to heaven, but hell and heaven await us. Will we meet Jesus before we die or just go to hell? Will He matter given what He accomplished on the cross? He’s the source of our true peace. We get the Holy Spirit when we choose Jesus. I’m happy for her, being content, having simple pleasures. One day, I hope she meets her Savior and she uses her author status to give Him glory.