Why Packaging the Gospel in Cultural Trends is Usually a Bad Idea

I’ve been concerned for a while about the rising popularity of courses like 3-2-1 by Glen Scrivener. The course book seems to be everywhere and many churches are seeing it as a viable alternative to more traditional introductions to the Christian faith like Christianity Explored. There are positive reviews on Amazon and Christians are recommending this course and with it the theology that it represents.

I recently attended an evangelistic seminar on connecting with people using cultural trends. This was based on a survey of non-believers where they had been asked to identity what was missing in their lives. The top answers were not God or truth but purpose, freedom, security, love etc. The thinking is that because the Gospel does offer these things, we should major on them in an effort to attract people to Christ.

Why is this a problem, you might ask. Surely it’s a good thing that Christians are seeking to be culturally relevant as they evangelise. Isn’t it good if people are drawn to Christianity?

Yes it is but only if we are presenting the true Gospel message and therefore drawing them to Jesus and real salvation.

Here are some of the issues I have observed with these approaches:

1. It’s soft on sin

This is definitely the biggest problem with the 3-2-1 course as observed by the only critical Amazon reviewer who with a headline, “Had to look hard to find out that there is sin and that it’s the main problem” notes, “Direction of book tends to weave around, seeming to try to fight shy of explaining that man is in rebellion against God. If you look hard, you can eventually find something of a problem that man has, on page 70…this book seems to me to seek to soft-pedal the real problem and to make the message ‘soft’ and agreeable.”

 In case it seems I’m speaking in ignorance, a few years ago, I did volunteer to help lead a 3-2-1 course. After the first three weeks, I approached the elder running the course and asked if we were ever going to get to the core elements of the Gospel as in sin, judgement or repentance. He responded that he thought it was “eluded to” later in the course. To that point, the way it was presented was more that Jesus came into the world to identify with us in our weakness and help us with our mistakes. I informed him that I couldn’t be part of it and stopped attending.

Similarly, in the seminar, I asked the question about sin and was advised that we shouldn’t seek to skirt around or sugar-coat sin. However, I would go a step further and say that we should seek to convey the seriousness of sin from the outset.

It’s back to the obvious point which is constantly being made by the likes of Ray Comfort and Roger Carswell: we must start by getting people to understand that they have a problem and not just that this is a problem in the world but that they are contributors and personally responsible. People will not be ready or willing to hear a solution if they don’t believe they personally have a problem. You can read books like Hell’s Best Kept Secret or come to the FEW conference in January to learn more.

2. It confuses people

When I took part in the 3-2-1 course, I was surprised that some of the faithful Christians at the church weren’t involved so I asked them about it.  They said that the previous course had been a disaster as the participants ended up arguing about the course content as they couldn’t understand it and didn’t recognise themselves within it. They spent so long trying to unpick this that there wasn’t really a clear Gospel presentation. They had resolved not to be involved in future courses.

What a tragedy for the church involved, for the Christians that have been put off evangelism and for the participants who didn’t have their questions answered.

I was having a conversation with a couple in Bournemouth once and had been there for some time when a young man from a different group also doing evangelism joined the discussion and asked if he could say something. I gave him permission and he launched into this long winded analogy which I thought I’d heard somewhere before. He was relaying the various aspects of this tactic, obviously learned in training, with great enthusiasm as if it would answer all their questions, if they would wait until the end. Eventually, they basically said that they’d had enough, that they’d enjoyed talking to me but didn’t have a clue what the young guy was talking about and walked off. The guy looked devastated and sat down on the wall with a great sigh. I tried to reassure him that the couple would probably have walked off anyway as they had been talking for a while when he arrived. He just couldn’t understand why his analogy hadn’t worked as he had put so much confidence in it. It had just led to confusion.

Not only can some of these approaches confuse non-believers, but they can also confuse Christians. There are some interesting books on evangelism but reading some of them just makes me feel tired. Tactics by Gregory Koukl is one such example. It just felt like there was a script or method for every situation. I can imagine myself getting tongue tied or forgetting my lines if there’s too much of that in our conversations with people. Learning some answers to common objections and something about different beliefs is useful but we must be ourselves. Answering “I don’t know” can be a good thing as it makes us more relatable and stops us coming across as know-it-alls. We are trying to win the person not the debate. If we end up confusing ourselves, we will definitely confuse other people.

3. It’s complicated

This point overlaps with the previous one but is worth considering. In a world where society is growing increasingly biblically ignorant should we be making our Gospel presentations less accessible in an attempt to make them culturally relevant?

We already know that we shouldn’t use Christian jargon or that when we do we need to explain it in everyday language but surely that extends to the content itself. If a little child can understand and respond to the Gospel message, why are we making adults jump through hoops to get to the core principles?

Surely clearer and more concise is better. In the past we used things like sin-judgement-Jesus, the Romans road and A: Accept you are a sinner, B: Believe Jesus died for you, C: Commit your life to Him.

More recently, we were reminded at an Open-Air Mission training weekend in relation to talks being placed on a board that “less is more”. The Gospel message is clear, straight-forward and simple: Through the cross of Jesus Christ,

God

Offers

Sinful

People

Eternal

Life

4. It’s the wrong way round

We may agree that we should ensure the Bible dictates how we engage with culture rather than allowing culture to shape our interactions with non-believers but the enemy is always seeking to undermine this principle. The problem is when we allow culture not only to dictate how we relate to and interact with non-believers, which can be a good thing, but when culture determines what we say. We mustn’t allow the Gospel message to be changed to fit or adapt to our culture.

An example would be the various ways well-meaning Christians have attempted to fit scientific theories into the Bible; theistic evolution, the gap theory, Genesis as poetic language etc etc. Someone recently said to me, “the problem is that when you’re talking to an intelligent scientist or an atheist, you can’t just say that God created everything in 6 days because it’s not credible.” This person had therefore come up with a theory that there were two creations and after the devil interfered with the first, God froze everything (the ice age) before creating things a second time?!

The problem with all of these ideas, other than that they don’t deal faithfully with Scripture, is death before the fall. The Bible is clear that sin leads to death and it can’t be any other way without undermining the Gospel message of salvation. God operates in the supernatural. Much of what He does is miraculous and He isn’t constrained by natural laws or our perceptions of scientific advances.

We must have confidence in the reliability of God’s Word.

5. It can be deceptive

I’m thinking here of the seminar I went to where we were encouraged to show people that the Gospel meets the needs that they perceive they have in their lives. It’s worth considering whether people who said they were missing purpose, security, freedom and love were even thinking of a spiritual purpose, spiritual/eternal security, freedom from sin and God’s love. It sounds silly when stated like this because of course they weren’t.

Likewise, Jesus didn’t die to give us purpose, security, freedom or love. He died to deal with our sin to open the way for us to be forgiven and reconciled to God. The things people are seeking may be a by-product of His sacrifice but they are not the main purpose. Shouldn’t we instead focus on getting people to see that they have a sin problem so they will then be ready for the solution?

In the seminar, someone asked whether this wasn’t just another version of the prosperity gospel. I was thinking that it sounded a bit like “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” or “Easy Believism/Decisionism” where hands are raised in a meeting but not a lot is said about repentance and the need for a changed life.

I don’t think it’s quite as dangerous as the prosperity gospel with promises of health, wealth and happiness. But it can lead to the same place and it’s much more subtle. It’s similar to John Piper’s Christian hedonism, that we must seek satisfaction for ourselves and it’s okay because it’s in God. I just don’t think God wants us to be seeking satisfaction for ourselves, He wants us to serve Him, to take up our cross daily and live lives of self sacrifice to help others see their need of Him. If a by-product of this life of self sacrifice is satisfaction then that’s great but it shouldn’t be our main goal.

What happens to the person who is promised purpose but still can’t get a job, or the person promised freedom who continues to struggle with addiction, or the one who is riddled with anxiety and continues feeling insecure, or someone promised love who is rejected by their church. 

If people are drawn to Christianity for the wrong reasons they won’t stick around when the things they are promised don’t work out as they had hoped. They are then inoculated against it because they think they’ve tried it and it doesn’t work. This is a serious issue.

A preacher that I sometimes work with was having a chat with someone who wanted to join us in the open air. He asked what they thought was a person’s greatest need. She said, “peace” and then added “love”. He said, “What about forgiveness?” Our greatest need is forgiveness of sin and peace with God. We need to keep this at the heart of our evangelism.

6. It majors on things that God does not

When thinking of evangelism, I can’t think of a stranger place to begin than with the Trinity. It’s a difficult theological truth to understand and many Christians only get a real grasp of it as they are discipled and read the Bible. When speaking with a Muslim is might be helpful to try to explain, but even then it’s difficult as all of our analogies fall short.

However, the 3-2-1 course has around 60 pages on the Trinity at the start of the course book and the 3 is obviously the Trinity. The idea is that The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been showing love towards each other in the Trinity in eternity past and that God therefore had somewhere for His love to be directed. Some writers continue this by suggesting that this is necessary as otherwise God would have no experience of love and wouldn’t be able to love us. Clearly this is wrong as God is love and doesn’t need us to limit Him in this way.

Whilst the Trinity is a theological truth found throughout the Bible, the love shown within the Trinity isn’t a major theme and isn’t used by Christians in the Bible when evangelising. Probably, because it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to a non-believer.

I believe this over-emphasis on the love within the Trinity is another attempt to bring God down to our level and to appeal to non-believers with an over-emphasis on God’s love to the exclusion of His justice and holiness.

Mature Christians will often say that some aspects of the Trinity are a mystery and explain that the Trinity is one God in three Persons and leave it at that.

7. It focuses on man’s ideas

The Bible is all about God. From Creation, to the Fall of man, to God’s redemption plan through the Cross, the Resurrection and the Return of Christ. 

We have many examples in the Bible of how to evangelise in different settings. The early Christians may have used things that were around them to connect with different groups e.g. Paul using the statue to an unknown God or Jesus referring to living water with the Samaritan woman. However, the message is consistent. The core of the Gospel- salvation through faith in Jesus- remains the same across all audiences.

The reason sometimes given for seeking a new approach to connect to our culture is that people are not interested in hearing the truth anymore. Indeed, they may say “what’s true for you, isn’t true for me” and believe that truth is relative or that there is no truth.

This is a challenge and I do think we need to avoid answering questions that people aren’t asking. People aren’t as interested in evidence based apologetics; proving the resurrection, creation or the origins of the Bible.  

But, I don’t think we can avoid dealing with the fact that our Message is true, that’s why we believe it! It also stops people thinking there are many ways to God or that all religions are equally valid.

People are more invested in discovering the truth than they realise. We rely on truth being absolute in almost every area of life and it’s easy to prove that truth cannot be relative e.g. if someone believes they can fly and launches themselves off a cliff….

God will still judge people and send them to Hell whether they claim to believe in Him or not. We also know from Romans 1 that people suppress the truth and are without excuse because God has made His existence plain through Creation.

There’s an interesting passage in John 18 where Jesus is talking to Pilate. Pilate asks Him whether He is the King of the Jews and Jesus replies, “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?” Later Jesus says “…the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” The dismissive retort from Pilate, “What is truth?”

People may sneer or dismiss us as Pilate did but our Message of Truth can still convict and convert them in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t change their Message when people were dismissive of truth, they continued as they had before telling people to “repent and believe”.

8. It’s not necessary

The intentions behind all of the Christians using these cultural trends are good; they want to see people come to faith in Jesus. Sometimes, though, they seem to be forgetting that the power is in the Message and that the cross preached is "foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1 vs 18) and that God chooses to use the "foolishness of what is preached to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1 vs 21).

We can have confidence in the simple Gospel Message knowing that God’s Word doesn’t return empty and that people will be saved through hearing it. We shouldn’t be ashamed of our Message on any level or try to obscure or hide uncomfortable truths. People are different, one person might be drawn to Christ because they are attracted to the Message of forgiveness whilst others might come because they are afraid of ending up in Hell. Both are valid responses to the Gospel Message and believing the promises and warnings in God’s Word.

What should we do instead?

Behind some of these ideas is a valid concern that we aren’t connecting with people and meeting them where they are at.  We can address some of these things by:

-using modern analogies and by keeping abreast of current affairs. One Open-Air Missioner said recently that wherever he is, flicking through a magazine, overhearing a conversation, on the bus, he’s always on the look out for new material for open-air talks. 

There is a talk which simply asks the question, “Where are they now?” and has the faces of famous dead people. It’s culturally relevant and always draws a crowd but the question cuts right to the heart of the Gospel Message as the preacher can apply it directly to those who stop and ask them, “What about you, where will you be in eternity?”

-learning from each other by attending training and discussing experiences. If we get difficult questions, others may have an answer.

-using modern language and avoiding Christian jargon. We can explain words that people may not be familiar with.

-talking about the big picture to help people see that they are part of it. Rather than it being something abstract or something only relevant to “religious” people.

-asking questions to learn where people are at

-talking to people rather than at them and by making eye contact

-sharing our own story if it’s relevant but not as a replacement for the Gospel Message

-having confidence in the Gospel Message and God’s power to use it to save people

Finally, we need to pray for a love for lost people as we reach out to them knowing that we have what they need in Jesus!

 

Does God Still Speak to us in Dreams?

I was planning to write a post about free speech as our open-air keeps getting shut down in Rochdale, then I thought about the importance of relevancy in evangelism because people don’t want to hear irrelevant news. 

Somehow, these topics didn’t inspire me and then last night, I had a dream…..

 In my dream, I was standing in front of a mirror in the toilets of a hospital, presumably washing my hands. A girl appeared at the wash-basin next to me and I saw her reflection in the mirror. Her head was shaved completely and she was dragging an intravenous drip containing medications. She was wearing a dressing gown and looked very unwell.

 On seeing my face in the mirror she immediately smiled and enthusiastically said my name. I looked closer but I didn’t recognise the girl. It was difficult to put an age on her due to the absence of hair on her head. Despite my lack of acknowledgement, she began chattering about things that had happened in the past. It was obvious that she knew me and knew me well. I concluded that we must have been good friends.

The girl told me that she had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and only had two months to live. I felt terribly sad for her. She asked if I could come and visit her and proceeded to escort me to her ward.

At this point, I realised that I needed to say something rather than just allowing myself to be swept along by the girl’s excitement at recognising an old friend. I said simply, “You know that if I come and visit you, I will be speaking to you about Jesus.”

The girl hesitated and temporarily let go of my arm. Then, she nodded and quietly said, “I know I didn’t want to hear this stuff before, but now I’ve got nothing to lose.”

 Then, I woke up.

It’s fair to say that a dream like this is unsettling. Is there an old friend somewhere in the UK dying of cancer that I’m meant to share the Gospel with? Is that person actually in Southeast Asia or America or another part of the world that I’ve visited on my travels? Is it someone I knew in the UK who now lives elsewhere? 

If I start thinking like this, the possibilities are endless and could lead to panic as I try to identify them before it’s too late!
 
Perhaps, I should try to work out what my dream means by reading the Bible? After all, that’s always good advice, isn’t it? 

My Old Testament reading today states this:
 
    “When there is a prophet among you. I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.” (Numbers 12 vs 6)
 
According to this verse, the only one in my reading today that refers to dreams, if God sent my dream, I must be a prophet. Hmmm…
 
This may sound silly, but sadly this is how some Christians respond to every dream, sign or other seemingly miraculous event in their lives. They come up with their own interpretation of what God is saying and take Bible verses out of context to support their chosen path. I sometimes meet confused people who have done this and are still focusing on a dream wrongly interpreted and sometimes even confirmed by unwise church leaders.
 
If God had been wanting me to take some specific course of action in relation to an individual, the person would probably have had a face that I recognised. God doesn’t hide His will from us; He wants us to find it. The Bible passage that I read can’t be applied to this situation as, clearly, I’m not a prophet.
 
So, is my dream worthless? Did I eat too much cheese yesterday?
 
Well, God is in control and He allowed me to have this dream so it may be useful. I can take certain things from the dream, submit them to the Bible and perhaps take a less drastic course of action than frantically travelling the world to find my unidentified dying friend.
 
    -The theme of the dream is obviously the urgency of evangelism. The girl had been given two months to live which had put everything into perspective for her. The distractions of the world were no longer her focus as she faced death and eternity. Some here would object to Christians preying on the vulnerable, but the reality is that this girl needs to be offered hope for a future life in Heaven. Surely, telling a person how they might be forgiven of sin and find peace with God is the loving and kind thing to do at the end of their earthly life.
 
    -The dream could be a reminder that it’s never too late to make peace with God. In conversations on the street people often tell me that it’s too late for them which we know isn’t true because of stories like the thief on the cross who received forgiveness as he was dying. However, occasionally, someone asks a question like, “Can I do this at any time?” The answer is always, “Yes, but don’t leave it too long as we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.”
 
    -Another aspect of the dream might be that a person may be more likely to listen to someone they already have a connection with whether it’s current or from the past. My main evangelistic work is with strangers but I still have responsibility to share with people I know.    
 
   -We can also see from the dream that although someone has rejected God in the past, their circumstances might change and they may be willing to listen on a second, third or fourth attempt.  So, we should persevere and not give up even if they have previously told us they aren't interested. We must find the courage to try again.
 
     -The setting of the dream was a hospital. As a result of attending the FEW conference for evangelists a few weeks ago, I had already looked into the possibility of joining Good News for Everyone (GNFE). One of the reasons for this was to try and get Bibles into places locally, including hospitals and to have conversations with people in these settings. I had spoken to one of my church leaders, who is involved with GNFE and I’m hoping to attend a prayer meeting with local members soon. Perhaps, the dream was a reminder not to forget this ministry and to ensure I get to that meeting.
 
   -In the dream, I was also struck by how alone the girl appeared to be. Being given a terminal diagnosis with such a short time left, will make a person feel alone even if they are surrounded by friends and family, but we mustn’t assume people have a support network as there are plenty of people who don’t have anyone. We know this because of the tragic cases of people who die in their homes and lay undiscovered for weeks, months and even years because no one has missed them. You might be the only person who cares for someone.
 
   -The final lesson that can be extracted from the dream is the importance of taking every opportunity to share the Gospel. It would have been easy to enjoy reminiscing and there probably were plenty of memories that could have made the girl’s last days enjoyable enough, but her greatest need in that moment was to hear that Jesus saves and that she needs to get right with God. It was interesting that, in the dream, she responded as if she knew what was coming when she encouraged me to visit her. It wasn’t the reason she asked me, but she was open to the possibility in a way that she hadn’t been before. I only found this out when I braved the conversation.
 
Perhaps, you’re thinking that I’m over analysing my dream and that there’s no way God intended to communicate all of this to me or maybe that I come across as a bit too much of a hero. I did wonder this myself as, confronted with this situation in reality, I may not have been as bold as I was in my dream.  
 
However, all of the things that I’ve extracted can also be found in the Bible and are a good motivator for evangelism so I think they are profitable.
 
To answer my original question: Does God still speak to us in dreams? 

I don’t really know, but if He does, He will confirm anything He wants us to learn through His Word and it will always be in context.

How Safety Conscious Are You?

Western societies are becoming more and more obsessed with health and safety, and eliminating risk. I stated the obvious in a previous post that, regardless the precautions taken, sooner or later we will all die.

We see reports in the national and local news every day of people killed whilst going about their daily business. A farmer trampled by cows, a man swept out to sea by an out of control vehicle, two teenagers found six hours after their car crashed in a remote area at night, former spies poisoned in a supposedly safe part of the country, London’s murder rate over-taking New York’s. And now, of course, there's the coronavirus. I could go on, but the point is that it could happen to any of us at any time. I’m sure these people weren’t considering that they might be living the last hours of their lives before tragedy struck.

Ironically, perhaps, many people who fuss and worry about their daily safety, or the relative safety of others, make little or no preparation for the most risky venture of their lives; appearing before God on Judgement Day without a remedy for their sin. Surely, preparing for eternity in either Heaven or Hell is worth at least a few hours of immediate consideration?

When I look at the things that keep us busy in this life, I almost feel desperate, because so many of them are unimportant, meaningless and trivial. We are far too attached to earthly things. We are often too comfortable and secure, making us unwilling or unavailable when the time comes for us to consider a work that God would have us involved in.  We really need to examine how we spend our time, resources, and money, in light of eternity. 

Those who want to keep their daily focus on Jesus, where it should be, are too often told to lighten up, or to find some hobbies or other interests. They are labelled as "extreme" or "fundamentalist". They are too often dissuaded from evangelistic zeal for a plethora of seemingly valid reasons, rather than being encouraged, or even joined, in the spiritual battle for souls.

People are now so distracted by earthly things that the spiritual no longer registers on their horizon. God has somehow been relegated to the “List of non-priorities that perhaps I’ll get round to investigating when I’m on my death bed.” How can this be in a society that is so safety conscious?

Could it be that our nation’s obsession with health and safety is a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable appointment with death? An attempt to draw out the short period that we have here on Earth. If people really believed in a place called Heaven which is reportedly so much better than our current situation, then why are people so keen to stay here? Why do they want to avoid death at any cost?

Doesn’t it make more sense to suggest that most aren’t really sure what happens when they die? I know of several people who, on starting to realise that Christianity might be the truth, have been afraid or unwilling to explore further due to the implications it would have for them personally. They prefer to continue as they are and leave things on hold.

Some prefer to revert to fantastical imaginings of Heaven as a place full of their favourite eateries, or hobbies, or unlimited alcoholic drink. They make wrong assumptions about what Heaven will be like, rather than examining the reality that, according to the Bible, they won't even be going there.

Others prefer not to think about death. They completely bury their heads in the sand until their day comes, figuring that they will deal with it when it happens. 

Any, or all, of these approaches, though, seem like a pretty risky way to carry on!

There’s an advertisement that shows a bunch of people settling down on an aeroplane. The captain starts listing all the things that could go wrong with the plane because the proper checks haven’t been done. He suggests they just “wing it.” As everyone rushes to get to the exit door before the plane takes off, the point is made that you wouldn’t want to travel on a plane that wasn’t adequately prepared for the journey, so remember to check your tyres, fuel and oil on your car.

Aren’t we doing the same thing with our lives when we fail to even consider the life beyond this one? When we travel through this life without adequate preparation and expect to just “wing it” when the time comes.

What if God has already provided everything we need to make adequate preparation for eternity? What if God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and to rise again on the third day defeating death and sin once and for all? What if His sacrifice means that on that Day of Judgement we can stand boldly before God knowing that our sin is covered and we will be welcomed into Heaven?

Where Will You Spend Eternity?

The craziness of Christmas is over and we are already into a new year. Was Christmas everything you hoped it would be? Were the celebrations as exciting as you wanted? Did you enjoy the time with family and friends, and was it peaceful? How about the food, are you suffering still from the over-indulgence, or was it as good as you were expecting? Did the children’s wishes come true? What about the gifts, did you get everything you asked for? Did the presents satisfy you?

Do you feel tired as you head back to work? How will you make next Christmas better than the one before? Do you feel exhausted just thinking about it?

My Christmas was disrupted by a stark reminder of the frailty of human life; a member of my extended family was rushed to hospital where she remains in critical condition. Our plans for Christmas were swiftly changed as the lady’s direct family rushed to her bedside.

Suddenly, things were in perspective; a husband could lose his wife, a son his mother and small children their “Granny.” The material celebrations were pushed to one side as everyone rallied round. We made our way to church praying for God’s will but hoping for a miracle. Phones were constantly being checked and the bleep of a text message took on new significance.

This week, in the UK, we have seen news reports of an eighteen year old, with her whole life ahead of her, struck down and killed by the flu virus. Reports in The Daily Mail suggest that flu deaths have soared by 77% in a week.

The inquest into another eighteen year old girl’s death is also being reported. This young lady died after suffering a fatal reaction to a burger. She had known allergies and had told the waiter about them. The response from the restaurant to this investigation was interesting. When asked what ‘lessons they had learned’ and what they would be doing differently in future. They basically said that everything was already in place to prevent this type of tragedy and they didn’t plan to change anything…

I’m sure the restaurant will end up with findings against them and they likely have been negligent. However, the point to note is that regardless of the lessons learned or things that are put in place, needless and preventable deaths will continue to occur. The restaurant staff have just responded in a way that doesn’t sit comfortably with those who believe we should be able to make the UK 100% safe, by some unspecified date in the future.

Assuming that were even a vague possibility, what about the person who dies every 3 minutes from heart disease, the 5 people killed in road accidents every day, or the total of 1,500 people who die each day, in the UK alone? Can anyone legislate to prevent this or do anything else to stop it?

I’ve made the point before that it’s almost possible to overlook these morbid statistics until reality bites when someone we know is taken from us. Have you noticed how shell-shocked people seem when a violent crime or fire kills people in their village, or even their street? 

It’s the wake up call that it could happen to any one of us at any time. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Even if we take all of the precautions possible; never venture outside, never have contact with anyone else and live like a hermit. Death still comes eventually, and no one returns from the grave. The Bible tells us that: 

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement,” (Hebrews 9 vs 27.)

Why am I offering you this gloomy reminder at a time of year usually reserved for renewed hope as the resolutions are sincerely made? 

Our church leaflet for the year has a three word headline:

STOP AND THINK!

We live in a world corrupted by our sin and under God’s curse. The earth is slowly dying and we see the evidence all around us in people’s suffering. We cannot prevent every accident. We cannot predict or vaccinate people against every disease. We cannot really control anything about our lives, and our claims to be able to do so are out of touch with the reality. God maintains and controls everything and we are entirely dependent on His grace and mercy to us.

I’ve just finished a book, Heaven and Hell by Edward Donnelly. It is a terrifying reminder of the reality of hell for non-believers, but offers hope (certainty) of heaven for all who will put their trust in Jesus:

“Imprinted on human consciences is the uneasy awareness that beyond this life is a place of punishment for those who do wrong. It is so often denied not because it is unreasonable but because it is extremely unwelcome….Suppose the Bible had told us nothing about hell, not a single word about future judgement and condemnation. Would that make it a more loving book? Is concealing unpleasant reality an evidence of true caring? Not at all, just the opposite. People complain about God’s warnings when they should fall down on their knees and give thanks for them. It is in love and mercy that he warns us about hell, so that we may be delivered from it.

The most foolish aspect of all is that your everlasting damnation is unnecessary. For the Lord Jesus is pleading with you at this very moment. He is calling you to himself, commanding you to turn from the sin that brings only destruction. He is infinitely kind and gracious. If you ask him to be your saviour, he will receive and forgive you. He will wash you clean and make you safe forever, and you will be holy and happy, looking forward to an eternity of joy and glory in heaven. 

                                                                                                    ‘Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ (Hebrews 4 vs 7.)”