The title of this article is a tragedy of all tragedies─because it is true. Apostate ministers, ignorance of God’s Word and a warm, fuzzy, make me “feel good” society, is providing information that is completely antithetical to the Truth.

I cannot begin to count the times that I have heard someone make a statement that basically states that their deceased loved one was with God because…. (You fill in the blank.) I would keep waiting for: “Because they believed in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and asked Him to be saved.” But that isn’t what is said. Sad, Sad, Sad!

The Bible says:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

These are only two verses among many more that make it very clear about what we all must do to be saved. It isn’t rocket science! A child can understand this! Jesus wrote it this simply, so we could all understand!

Then why do they say?

They were so good. They gave so much. She raised us well. He worked hard to support us. He was a good husband. She was a great wife. They loved everybody. They were so well liked. They always paid their bills. They belonged to the church. They were baptized. They walked the aisle. They headed up all these organizations. They donated to various organizations.

This list could go on and on and on infinitum, but only one thing is important at this point. Did they put their trust in Jesus Christ to save them? That’s it!

It amazes me that people will rest the eternal destiny of their soul upon what everybody says, except the One who gives them the correct information. That correct information is called the Truth.

The Bible says:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

There you have it! Jesus will tell you the Truth. He even goes on to say that if you want to go to Heaven after you die, He is the only way to get there. We must go through Him by faith or we don’t go at all.

It certainly isn’t up to me, or you, to even attempt to determine if so-and-so is saved when we notice their actions. Christians can be “naughty” too, and the heavenly Father does discipline His children─unlike most earthly parents of today. Nevertheless, I have seen folks live for the devil and think that they’re okay. They think can live for the devil down here, and live for Jesus in heaven, I guess. Where did that idea come from? I don’t know where it came from, but it is widely practiced.

Okay, so I do know where it comes from. Notice this passage:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Satan, the devil, is a roaring lion, and I can assure you he isn’t going hungry. Every day people are dying, good people, and going to hell, because they are being swept up in his lies. Satan says, “Live any way you want, there is no hell, your good deeds will out-weigh your bad deeds, there are many ways to God.” Blah, blah, blah… It is all a lie. Only Jesus will tell you the Truth. Listen to Him.

Jesus isn’t out to devour us. Satan is. Jesus is out to save as many as will come to Him. Satan is out to prevent it. One final thought: Are any of usreally good? Notice what God has to say about that:

“As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12).

“And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18).

We may think our loved one is now in heaven with God because they were “good” but that isn’t what God says. If they are now in heaven with God, it is because they believed in His Son Jesus and Jesus saved their soul.

What about Mark 10:18 above? I suppose someone is thinking, “Jesus wasn’t good either. He said so.”

That is not what Jesus said. He said:

“Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God.”

Is He not God? Notice what He says in the book of John.

“My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one” (John 10:29-30, emphasis mine).

In Mark 10:18, Jesus was trying to get the young man to recognize who was standing right in front of him. He was telling him, “I am God; you must come to the Father through Me.”

If you will read the entire passage of Mark 10:18-22, you will find that this young man was a “good person.” That wasn’t enough, though. It didn’t count. Why did Jesus tell him to sell all he had and give to the poor?

Would that save him? No.

So why did Jesus tell him this? He told him this to change his heart. The young man was all caught up in his good works and possessions. He loved them more than anything else, and wasn’t ready to give Jesus first place in his life. A “good” person walked away from Jesus that day. I imagine that as Jesus watched him walk away, the young man got smaller and smaller as the distance between them became greater and greater, until he was out of sight.

A “good” person walked out into eternity lost.

Nice people go to hell, but they don’t have too.

 

Grant Phillips

One might say that “reality” is “that which actually is.” In other words, it is “truth.” We, as a society, are not living in reality. Most people glide through life ignoring truth, and especially TheTruth that comes from Almighty God. Like the ostrich, we hide our heads in the sand, thinking we can avoid what God says is true.

I have come to the conclusion that we as a society are indulging in one big gigantic party, which reminds me of these verses from the Scriptures.

“1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.

2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.

3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.

4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.

6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.

13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah?

 

17 Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means.

18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.

22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.

23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.

24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.

25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin

26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.

27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

28 Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,

31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.”

These verses are taken from the book of Daniel, chapter five. If I didn’t know better, I would think they were written yesterday by just changing a few names.

The leaders of this once great nation are in party mode and leading us to destruction. Generally speaking, our forefathers feared God and we have been greatly blessed. However our present day leaders have ignored the God of our forefathers and have gone after other gods. The golf courses, beaches, night clubs, and secret hotel rooms are filled with Godless politicians, while we the people are being sucked down the drain of hopelessness for our country’s survival.

Even we lowly citizens, as a whole, who have put these rapscallions in office, are in party mode, going through life like there will never be an accountability.

I don’t know how God will ultimately judge us, but I do know we are long over-due.

From the back alleys to the White House, sin has saturated our nation. Even our churches, in general, are dens of thieves and houses of harlots before the God they “say” they worship. We have taken those things that belong to God, and desecrated them with our frivolousness.

The people we call our heroes are usually, not always, degenerate in their thinking and filled with hatred toward God, their Creator. The holy name of God is mocked, while the “stars” of society are worshipped. Our consciences have been seared with the hot iron of sin and we have made Satan our king.

It is my opinion that God has been warning us even prior to September 11, 2001, but we would rather party. We were brought to our knees on September 11, 2001 and rushed to the churches, but guess what? Nothing happened. Oh really? We have had disaster after disaster; hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, drought, economic woes, loss of life, blizzards, and it goes on and on.

We didn’t stay long at the churches after September 11, 2001, except for those who stayed because they like being told what fine people they are while they indulge in their sins.

Reality still has not set in for us as a nation. We still want to party, but sooner or later the party will end and we will be left with nothing but one huge hangover.

The reality for us as a nation is judgment. It is coming. The reality for us individually is judgment if we don’t sober up and get our lives right before Almighty God.

Soon, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return for His Church. He will remove His Church, the Bride, from this planet and take her to His Father’s house in Heaven while He carries out judgment upon this fallen world. It will be a time of absolute hell on earth.

You can laugh. You can mock. You can put your party hat back on and pour yourself another cup of rebellion, but if you do not repent before Jesus Christ, you will face reality.

The reality for those who are the Bride of Christ is salvation by God’s grace and fellowship with Him forever in Heaven.

The reality for those who reject Him is judgment.

 

Grant Phillips