If you're familiar with this blog, and the ministry I work with you know that I'm not stranger to the topic of Hell. You'll probably believe that I have taken that topic very seriously. It's a topic that drives me to preach only the absolute true Gospel of Jesus Christ with as much fidelity as I can. You'll know that I have leveraged the reality of Hell in conversations with people who do violence to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and yet claim to do evangelism.
Well yesterday the search for one of my most loved friends was called off as the Sun was setting. He had crashed in a brand new helicopter off the coast of Newfound Land, doing a job I he had told me he wanted to do as far back as 1998. I love this man. I have very few people who have been and always will be my friend in this life. I won't give details of who he is because of the pain of the people he loved.
This man is someone who knew I loved him. And as much as I had told him I was a Christian... and talked about that to some extent I never once preached the Gospel to him.
Yesterday I had to face the reality that my beloved friend, gentle, caring, smart, effective, and loyal is almost surely in Hell. I prayed that God would meet him in the water and warm him to keep him alive. I prayed that God would Himself witness to him right then. And I truly believe God can stop time in a moment and give someone that chance. But the reality is, this man I loved was never a believer in all the time that I've known him and I didn't preach the Gospel to him.
Hell has never been so real to me. I have never felt pain like this. I hope you will consider yourself in my position the next time you think you don't want to "rock the boat" or "offend" someone you love. Consider what it would be like to know they are in the fires of Hell, and you didn't do the one thing God told you to do to help them. If that doesn't make you want to vomit I question if there is love in you at all.
8 comments:
I know how you feel brother. Hell is real. There is a day I will never forget during operation Desert Sheild/Storm. A day I can never get out of my mind. I spent and still spend a great deal of my time thinking of these things because of it.
Id does spur me to witness more and a great deal.
Grace upon grace,
Brian
Kev-
I am sorry for the loss of your friend.
Thank you for the warning and the courage to be transparent with us.
I hope this doesn't come across wrong as I believe I understand what you are saying. I am not trying to minimize your concern, nor am I counseling hardening of the heart or conscience. But don't give the accuser ground over this.
JanH
Kev:
I trust you'll find encouragement in this hymn: I Shall Be Whiter Than Snow
Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul;
Break down every idol, cast out every foe—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Refrain:
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow,
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Lord Jesus, let nothing unholy remain,
Apply Thine own blood and extract every stain;
To get this blest cleansing, I all things forego—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Lord Jesus, look down from Thy throne in the skies,
And help me to make a complete sacrifice;
I give up myself, and whatever I know—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat,
I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet,
By faith for my cleansing, I see thy blood flow—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Lord Jesus, Thou seest I patiently wait;
Come now and within me a new heart create;
To those who have sought Thee Thou never said’st “No”—
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
The blessing by faith, I receive from above;
Oh, glory! my soul is made perfect in love;
My prayer has prevailed, and this moment I know, The blood is applied, I am whiter than snow.
Thank you Brethren.
BTW, I've left the jumbled up words in the text so that it stays the way I wrote it. Panicked.
People need to consider this before it happens.
Kev
Do you really believe that God will overlook all the wonderful, I might even say, Christ-like, qualities you saw in your friend? Not everyone finds in Matthew 25:31 -- to the end of the chapter what I have always found there, but I expect that your friend has fed, clothed, visited, rescued, "the least of these my brethren" many times, and therefore he "did it unto Me." I would give infinite odds that he is among the sheep on the right, for that reason alone. It may not be Lutheran or Calvinist dogma, but if Jesus said it, what dogma can be more true than that?
I think the deciding factor is have you been born again, not what you've done.
I don't have full knowledge of the man's life.. maybe at some point he asked God to reveal Himself, and He did.. maybe he put his faith in Him then.. I don't know, I never heard him speak of it.
I wish it would be so.
Kev,
I don't know what else to say right now except I also pray he turned to Christ at the last moment. I have been where you are. I pray we won't be anymore. I am praying for you dear brother. And his family.
Do we really know what it means to be born again? Jesus didn't say. The Roman, Greek Orthodox, and Coptic churches didn't understand the term as it has emerged in Protestant revivals post John Wesley and the Great Awakening. Neither did any number of Christians denounced as heresies. What you describe is a good way to be saved, but 'have you been born again' does not reduce itself to, have you recited these words, observe this ritual, or even thought these thoughts. Salvation is by grace, not by our own merit.
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