Today death is on my mind. Mr. Jerry Falwell of Thomas Road Baptist Church and president of Liberty University, where I graduated, died early today.
The news media maligned this Christian for many years because of his statements on social issues. Mr. Falwell has been noted as saying AIDS is a punishment of God against homosexuals, that Sept 11 was a curse of God because of the immorality in America, among other controversial statements.
A little after September 11, 2001 I heard, some people speak of God’s punishment because of America’s liberalism. My warming to them was not to put words in god’s mouth because He is very capable of speaking for Himself. He is also very capable of using what we will call tragedy to get our attention.
I also remember being concerned about what people meant when they said “God bless America”. My concern was that maybe people wanted God to accept America with all her flaws.
The USA is not unique in its opposition to God. All nations have people who are not living according to the will of the God of Abraham. The Bible says that all nations will be made to bow down to Him.
In addition, when I hear of death I wonder what people think of it. Before I became a Christian I thought that our lives where over when we died. I also thought that God would excuse us from His system of justice if we told him we did not want to be a part of Him or the devil.
Now, I know that our souls are eternal and our actions will condemn us. Accept Jesus Christ as our lord and savior and we will spend eternity in Heaven.
This is not because I said so. I am just a human. In addition, I could not make a universe much less a special place like Heaven. Therefore, I am not trying to get you to become like me so you can donate to my church and we can all go to Memphis and see Elvis’ house.
The sad fact is that in these modern times you cannot talk to a person about Jesus Christ and have a willing audience. Somewhere down the line, we decided we know everything and we do not have to listen to anyone.
Unfortunately, for non-believers God made the universe and he gets to make the rules. No part of our resistance will change that. Therefore, in the end we will either go to Heaven or we will not.