(Scripture references from the New Living Testament translation unless noted differently)
I want to say upfront that this was a difficult article for me to write; and, it may be difficult for you to read. The four stories that I share can be the kind that we would rather not hear about, but God put all of this on my heart and just would not let me go. Honestly, the subject is just too important to avoid. I do hope you will stay with it until the end, because there is an important and upbeat ending. So first let us get to the stories I want to share with you.
Story #1 – Approximately 52 years ago our young family lived in Amarillo, TX where we attended church regularly. There was a couple in our Sunday school class that was just a bit older than us – they were in their early 30’s. The man – I will call him Joe for the sake of this story – was a very active guy and the picture of health. One particular year he decided to go back to Pennsylvania where he was from to take his elderly father deer hunting. His Dad, whom I believe was in his 80’s, loved hunting and Joe feared he might not have many more opportunities to enjoy such an outing. They snagged a deer and as Joe was dragging it to their truck he fell over and died on the spot – right in front of his elderly father.
Story #2 – About 17 years ago the son of a friend of mine was out for a motorcycle ride with some friends. He had a rather unexplained accident and was killed. He was in his late 20’s or early 30’s.
Story #3 – About 12 years ago another friend lost her 30-something year old son to his own self-destructive addictions.
Story #4 – On September 26, 2019, my daughter called me crying hysterically with “horrible news”. A young man of 43 had been arrested for murdering his 43 year old girlfriend/partner in Denver, CO. They were both attractive, personable, highly successful young professionals with everything to live for. They were very good friends with my daughter and son-in-law – even going on a short vacation together just two weeks prior. Now she was dead and he was sitting in jail charged with first degree murder.
What do these four stories have in common? Well, obviously all of the people were relatively young. But more importantly they all died very unexpectedly. “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a)
Every single day people are born and people die. I have no doubt that every person reading this has been touched by deaths of people they loved. It is a fact that none of us are going to live forever on this earth. Some die very quickly after birth and some die at a ripe old age. Some die suddenly of natural causes or unexpected accidents while others linger. Some die at the hands of someone else and some because of their own self-destructive behavior. We need to face the reality that there are no guarantees when it comes to our time here on earth.
When I hear stories like those above, I cannot help but wonder if the person that is no longer here on earth knew Christ – were they saved so that they will enjoy a beautiful eternity? I always feel sad to even think that they may have died only to live a life of torture in hell for eternity.
I realize that belief in Christianity can be a hard thing to grasp for some people. As I have told in a past article, I seemed to have had a natural pull toward God as early as 7 years old. I basically nurtured that by going to Sunday school and church alone as a child and teenager. (My parents at that time were not church goers.) I was probably about 10 years old when I accepted Jesus as my Savior at church camp and was first baptized when I was 13. I have certainly had ups and downs in my spiritual walk all these years. I have gone from being very dedicated in my Christian walk to drastically falling away from God; but, I was always confident of my salvation. But for others they do not have that kind of pull and are not introduced to God or church early in life – some not even later in life.
Sometimes when people are introduced to God, there are many reasons why they will object and resist becoming a Christian. I read an article by Don Stewart titled “What Objections Do People Have about Becoming a Christian” and I want to list here the objections he discussed:
- “I Don’t Need It – Christianity Is Just A Crutch”
- “There are Too Many Hypocrites”
- “I’m Already Good Enough”
- “I’m Not Good Enough Yet”
- “I’ll Never Be Good Enough”
- “Maybe Someday I’ll Believe, But Not Now”
- “I Don’t Want My Life To Change”
- “I Don’t Want To Believe”
- “I Don’t Want To Be Religious”
- “What Would My Friends Think?”
- “I Don’t Understand The Issue”
- “It’s Not Relevant”
I am not going to attempt giving my personal opinion on each of the objections above, but I do want to zero in on a few of them:
#2 The excuse about hypocrites is one of the biggest cop-outs there is, in my opinion. I have had family members, personal friends, co-workers and business associates that were hypocritical. We see hypocrites every day when we turn on the news and watch reporters twist stories. We see hypocrites in the political spectrum and in the business world. Actually, I myself have been hypocritical; and, I would venture to say that you too have been a hypocrite. Why would we expect ordinary people that just happen to be attending a church to be any different than everyone else? The church is a microcosm of society. Attending church does not make you a perfect person. However, what other people think, do and say should have no bearing on you. Their relationship with God and all their life decisions are theirs to make. You should only be concerned about yourself – what you think, do and say and your relationship with God. I may very well be wrong, but I believe that considering others as hypocritical pretty much makes you a hypocrite. “’Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.’” (Luke 6:37) ’And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.’” (Luke 6:41-42)
#3 Already good enough? Seriously? I have heard people talk about how they do not need to get saved, be religious or attend church to make it to heaven because they believe that they are a “good person”. They live a “good life” and do not do bad things to other people They make donations to worthy causes and do charitable work, etc. Just suffice it to say, in reality, none of us are “good enough”. No matter how hard we try to be good we will fail when we try to do it on our own. Being and doing good isn’t what will help get you to heaven. “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) “Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
4 & #5 Not good enough yet or never will be? Those statements are assuredly true. Left to our own devices, none of us will ever be good enough and never will be. That makes it all the more obvious why we need God – as our Savior and our guide through life. Do not compare yourself to others that you consider to be good enough. “Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant!” (2 Corinthians 10:12) “As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is good—no one in all the world is innocent.’” (Romans 3:10 TLB) “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23)
#6 Maybe someday…..Okay think about those four stories I told. Those people never had the chance for a “someday.” None of them got up one day thinking it would be their last day on this earth. Death unexpectedly claimed them all – ready or not. Why would anyone want to take the chance that their “someday” will only arrive when they have planned on it? Do not procrastinate thinking everything will work out fine in the timing you have planned. “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6) “’You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.’” (Luke 12:40) “Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.” (Proverbs 27:1)
#10 Worried about what people will think of you if you decide to attempt living a Christian life? Really? Do you really want to put your eternal destiny on hold because of what other people might think? When you live your life worrying about what other people think of you, you rob yourself of peace. It does not allow you to truly just relax and be yourself. Learn to love yourself – just as you are – then let others love the real you. “The fear of human opinion disables: trusting in God protects you from that.” (Proverbs 29:25 MSG) “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.” (Psalm 118:8) “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” (Galatians 1:10) (By the way, the young man in the #4 story above went to trial and ended up being found innocent – but a promising young lady was still deceased.)
So where are you in your spiritual walk? What do you believe in? This is an over-simplification of belief levels because there are others, but first you have those people out there that are atheists – they do not believe in the existence of God. According to the Bible, unless they change their ideas about that, their destiny is hell – no ifs, ands or buts – “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6) I hope none of you fall into that category. Next you have the agnostics – these people are neutral, lukewarm, fence sitters. They do not believe it can be proven either way – that God does or does not exist. The fact is, they need to get off the fence and make a decision one way or the other. There is a definite danger to being lukewarm – “But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:16) The simple choice is to end up in heaven or to end up in hell. Hopefully, none of you are in that group either. Next there are Christians – these imperfect people that believe the Bible is true; that God created the universe; that Jesus came to this earth to live, teach and then die for their sins. They believe there is life after death with a glorious eternity in heaven with God – saved from a torturous eternity in hell. Yes, Christianity and salvation can be difficult to grasp; but, so beneficial to study it, think about it, learn the lessons and live it.
Knowing that I am a Christian gives me peace. Knowing for a fact that my Dad was saved and I am certain my Mom was as well, it gives me the assurance that when my time comes to leave this earth, I will go to heaven and be reunited with them and hopefully many more of my family members that have gone on before me. But right now, every single day, as I pray for each and every one of my family members by name, my prayer is that they too will know God and receive His salvation so that I can look forward to spending eternity with them. I shudder to think that any of them would perish and spend eternity in hell.
I have quoted this saying before because I really do love it and I find it fitting to put here: “I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and to die to find out there is.” (This saying is a variation of a comment made by French philosopher Blaise Pascal.)
As I finish up this article, my prayer is that each of you reading it will know God as your Savior and that you will reach out to all of your family and friends drawing them too into the loving arms of Christ. “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10)
So I must ask this – could today be your “someday”? Are you ready? Where will your afterlife be spent? If you know for a fact that you are not a Christian, or have any doubts at all, it is easy to resolve. There are no guarantees for any of us about how long our time on earth will be, but there is definitely an absolute guarantee about where we will spend our eternal life and the choice of where that will be is ours and ours alone. I am going to share a prayer with you here that you can pray for yourself to guide you to salvation:
“The Sinners Prayer (by John Barnett)
The following prayer expresses the desire to transfer trust to Christ alone for eternal salvation. If its words speak of your own heart’s desire, praying them can be the link that will connect you to God.
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and there is nothing that I can do to save myself. I confess my complete helplessness to forgive my own sin or to work my way to heaven. At this moment I trust Christ alone as the One who bore my sin when He died on the cross. I believe that He did all that will ever be necessary for me to stand in your holy presence. I thank you that Christ was raised from the dead as a guarantee of my own resurrection. As best as I can, I now transfer my trust to Him. I am grateful that He has promised to receive me despite my many sins and failures. Father, I take you at your word. I thank you that I can face death now that you are my Savior. Thank you for the assurance that you will walk with me through the deep valley. Thank you for hearing this prayer. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
Please do not procrastinate about this decision. Your “someday” to leave this earth could arrive at any time and you should be prepared. Being a Christian is a fun and fulfilling life. It does not have to be boring and overly restrictive as some people think. As your walk strengthens you’ll find you want to leave certain things behind that you thought you wanted or needed in your life. As you give your life over to God, He will be there with open arms every step of the way to help and guide you.
Originally Written by Karran Martin – October 2, 2019/Revised September 24, 2026
[All bold emphasis is mine]
** If you are interested in reading the full article by Don Stewart about people’s objections to becoming a Christian, (and I would encourage you to do so) here is the link that will take you there: https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1361.cfm
