Our Troublesome Examination

Richard Hollerman

If you are like me, you have a number of friends scattered around the theological landscape. Depending on your location, your exposure, and your acquaintances, you may have many “friends” of different persuasions, views, and religions. How can you deal with them?

If you believe God in His Word, you know that only those who believe in Jesus Christ and live for Him will be received into God’s eternal presence. But probably most of your friends, neighbors, and relatives really don’t believe in Christ Jesus. This means that, regretfully, they do not have eternal life. In fact, they will be rejected by Christ Jesus on that Great Day. But there immediately comes to our mind a serious problem. Most of these dear people don’t believe the Bible but think that their false religion will usher them into heaven (or whatever they might call it).

We know that there are different views, scattered around the world, including the country of America. If you are living in the so-called Bible belt where people believe nearly the same thing, this may be one thing. But if you are out of the enclave of America and live in a “Third World” setting, you surely are in the minority—maybe the extreme minority. But God and His Word doesn’t change for you and we are all accountable before God. If you are living in an area where very few truly believe in Jesus and live for Him, you must still appear before God and so must everyone else (Acts 4:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

God the Lord has said, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). Is this clear enough? Eternal life is only in and through the Son of the living God. No other way will do! Yet we know of different people who think that they will breathe their last and enter eternal life—but they may be a practicing Hindu, a devoted Muslim, a committed atheist, or a faithful Catholic. Still they think that their future is secure and they need to have no worries!

No worries? What? How can it be?  How can it be that a Presbyterian, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, a Methodist, a Lutheran, and a cultist all think that they will enter heaven, whereas they all believe different things? How can it be that people have no “worries” yet they know that their perspective is far different from that of their friends, neighbors, and family? How is it that they think they are secure and settled yet their view is immensely different from that of cousin Bill, sister Myrna, or Uncle Pete? How can people with radically different beliefs be accepted as right, true, and proper?

Does it not matter that Bill believes in 300 million “gods” and Greg doesn’t believe in any God? Does it matter that Karen believes in one Personality and Sue believes in three Personalities in the one God? Does it not matter that one person thinks that he will die and come back in a different form, that another person thinks that he will die and go to heaven to be with God, and that a third person believes that she will die and have a place near Colob somewhere in the universe? And if there are a thousand different views “out there” does it make any eternal difference in our destiny?

Can we see that we are speaking about very, very, very serious issues here, ones that must not be passed off or dismissed? Was Jesus telling the truth when He affirmed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6)?  When the apostle wrote this: “There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Does this matter? Is there “one” mediator or not? Is Christ Jesus the one and only Mediator? How would you answer this?

We may not answer such questions here but they are given to make us think and to remind ourselves that there are radically different beliefs in the world. And we can’t all be right! We can’t all be in harmony with God’s truth. Where are you? What will happen when you die (and we all surely will die some day)? Are we prepared?