I heard a story about a Christian who was challenged to defend his faith in Christ on an anti-God podcast. The interviewer thought that he could destroy the Christian with a few accusations against God. He thought the Christian was narrow minded because he believed what the Bible said that there is only one way to heaven and that is by believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, and then trusting in Him for eternal life. The host of the radio show told the Christian that he could not quote any Bible verses during the interview. He thought he could silence the truth. Little did he know what God was going to do.
The interview began and the host rather angrily said that if what you say is true about Jesus being the only way to heaven, then your God is unreasonable and evil. Why can God not consider other viewpoints and beliefs? In fact, he said, if your God is who you say He is, then He is actually committing hate crimes by not letting good people who don’t believe Jesus is the only way into heaven which would mean that they are going to hell a place created for the devil and his angels for eternal torment. If good people end up in hell, then God is committing hate crimes, the interviewer said.
The Christian under the direction of the Holy Spirit said these wise words to the interviewer. He said, let’s say you go out and find the most expensive house in your city, and you show up at the door and say to the owners, “Hello, I’m moving in to this house today!” The owner would most likely say, “What! Oh no you’re not, just who do you think you are? Get off my property” Now why wouldn’t this person be allowed to move into this beautiful house? Well, the owner could say, “Be gone, I don’t know you. I have no relationship with you, and there is no way I’m going to let you move into my house. Just because you say you are a good person.” To common sense people that makes perfect sense, that just because someone claims to be a good person does not allow them to supersede God’s clear plan given in scripture.
You see God is our creator, yes. He created every living soul, but He is not our Father until we accept His order of things including believing in and accepting His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We must love Him and serve Him and when we do, God becomes our Father and we grow in our relationship to Him and all He has is ours!
It’s nice to be a good person, but if a person’s goodness can earn heaven then why did Jesus have to come to earth and suffer and be crucified in order for us to be forgiven. If all we have to do is be good, then Jesus’ death wasn’t necessary. The truth is that God’s law required the shedding of blood to occur in order for our sins to be forgiven. In the Old Testament days, it was the blood of lambs and bulls. In the New Testament Christ fulfilled the law by shedding His own blood once and for all so that through faith in His righteousness we can be forgiven. It’s never about how good we are, but rather do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Until next time, God bless
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Scott Cernek is the pastor of the Peace Bible Church in Browntown.
