Richard Hollerman

We continue to wonder about the people around us and even the people in the world. Nearby, there are hundreds—perhaps—but in the world there are nearly nine billion people. I am tempted to say “lost souls” (even though this may be the name of a singing group). But lost they are and most simply don’t know this.

What I mean is this. We constantly hear reports or read reports of people around us who simply don’t understand. They may be nearby or they may be 1,000 miles away. But they seem to not understand that people around them are lost. I must say this again: They are lost. Do we know what this means?

It seems that people are so tied up with the present that they just never think about their friends, their neighbors. They go their own way, their own “merry” way, and seem to not know about the eternal destiny ot their friends. They may acknowledge that they are mortal and will one day die, but that is as far as it goes.

At my age, I have known of numerous friends who have died and are not gone. They will never be revived. They will never live again. They are gone and will remain gone and they are now dead. I don’t like this word, but it is true: They are dead! These people I knew from the past are now gone and will always be gone and they are now dead. They are past hope. They cannot live again (apart from God’s intervention). Yes, at the moment of death, they will enter hades, the part of departed spirits, and then at the judgment, they will enter hell or Gehenna. We find this utterly sad.

I have been doing much reading, and these people about which we read  may have lived 200 or 500 or 1500 years ago. Or maybe it goes much further back than this. They may have lived 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. We never hear of them again—for they are long gone. But if “John Doe” lived in 800 years AD or 1,300 years BC, they were real and we know that they once lived. But they are all gone.

These were real, living, human beings—friends, family, and people who once lived and are now gone! Let us do something about them now and repent ourselves and get right with God. Now is the time. So whether your father live 20 years ago, or your grandfather lived some 100 years ago, or your ancestors lived 400 or 800 or 2,000 years ago, they are now gone. You need to get right with God yourself! Now is the time!