My Mom is dying

[JahHazem]

Hey there,

My Mother is dying on cancer. I think she have Days or Weeks to live. I'm in fear because she's not sure about if she enter into heaven. I, know she's born again. All my childhood she tells me to trust in Jesus. She loved Jesus. But then comes a time of great suffering in our Family, spezially for her and the things of the World become more important for her. until not so long ago she had a love affair with a unbeliever, for example. My parents are divorced. Now, shes dying. I try to speak with her about this issue and i feel shes in fear. She dont wanna talk about hell. I dont know what to do. If she is realy born again, but living in sin, does she got to Hell or is she saved? I dont know, please help, iam in big fear. She still belives in Jesus as her saviour. sry for my bad English, iam from Germany

Please help me, i dont know what to do

Daniel

 

[Look Up]

Hi Daniel. May the Lord comfort and encourage your spirit and give words in your mouth for your mother. It is via the gospel of Christ Jesus that we are saved (e.g., Rom. 1:16) and so I recommend sharing the gospel with her (or rehearsing it with her even if she knows it), or encourage her to read the Scriptures now for herself if she is of a mind to hear such exhortation and has the strength while not wanting to speak with you about it. There is reason in Scripture to fear God, but also to be encouraged by His mercy in Jesus to all who believe. I might suggest the Gospel of John and Paul's epistle to the Romans, but pray also the Lord would give you wisdom in word and deed. If your mother is unable to read or focus much (for medical and physical reasons or otherwise), you may want to select verses for her or brief passages, such as John 3 or Rom. 3 or more briefly Rom. 5:8 and 10:9 or Eph. 2:8-10 or Titus 3:5 or 1 Peter 1:13b and 2:24 and so on according to your choice(s). Perhaps at some point you could give your mother some brief promise in the gospel which she may be able by the Lord's grace to hang onto such as a personalized and reworded version of 1 Peter 1:13b, e.g., "I set my hope fully on the grace to be given me at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me" after blind Bartimaeus's plea) as you and she think appropriate. Also see again 1 John yourself. And pray for her repentance as needed.

 

[rnmomof7]

"Look up " is right... take time to talk to her about the gospel... rehearse it with her and the promises it holds..

We all need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily ..reminding ourselves that we are sinners, saved only by Christ's faith

Especially at the time of our death we need to meditate on that...help your mom do that..

I would ask her if she had sin she needed to repent of ... It is the grace of God that brings us to repentance..

Is there special Christian songs she held to? Perhaps play them for her..

Daniel remember to hold your faith near during this time.. and trust that Our God does right

 

[Psalm3704]

Hey there,

My Mother is dying on cancer. I think she have Days or Weeks to live. I'm in fear because she's not sure about if she enter into heaven. I, know she's born again. All my childhood she tells me to trust in Jesus. She loved Jesus. But then comes a time of great suffering in our Family, spezially for her and the things of the World become more important for her. until not so long ago she had a love affair with a unbeliever, for example. My parents are divorced. Now, shes dying. I try to speak with her about this issue and i feel shes in fear. She dont wanna talk about hell. I dont know what to do. If she is realy born again, but living in sin, does she got to Hell or is she saved? I dont know, please help, iam in big fear. She still belives in Jesus as her saviour. sry for my bad English, iam from Germany

Please help me, i dont know what to do

Daniel

Daniel,

I have good news and bad news for you. There's more good new than bad. If you want to hear them, let me know which you want to hear first.

 

[Jesus First]

Hey there,

My Mother is dying on cancer. I think she have Days or Weeks to live. I'm in fear because she's not sure about if she enter into heaven. I, know she's born again. All my childhood she tells me to trust in Jesus. She loved Jesus. But then comes a time of great suffering in our Family, spezially for her and the things of the World become more important for her. until not so long ago she had a love affair with a unbeliever, for example. My parents are divorced. Now, shes dying. I try to speak with her about this issue and i feel shes in fear. She dont wanna talk about hell. I dont know what to do. If she is realy born again, but living in sin, does she got to Hell or is she saved? I dont know, please help, iam in big fear. She still belives in Jesus as her saviour. sry for my bad English, iam from Germany

Please help me, i dont know what to do

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for sharing your love and concern for your mother. My heart goes out to you and her.

My suggestion is that you spend some serious time in prayer and in God's Word. Ask God to give you wisdom to speak with her and to open her heart. Jesus loves your mother more than you do! He "died for all" so "that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" 2 Corinthians 5:15. I'll be praying for both of you.

Your mother had a profession of faith in the past. It's important for you and her to not look at this profession as her salvation. I concur with "Look Up" and "rnmomof7". Your Mother needs the gospel. The gospel is faith (ongoing; 1 Corinthians 15:2), repentance (ongoing; Acts 26:20) and water baptism (one-time; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21).

Because there are probably some on this board who may not agree with water baptism, I'll offer a brief explanation. The Bible is the authority for faith and practice. According to God's Word, baptism does nothing unless there is faith and repentance first. Baptism is like a wedding ceremony where one is baptized into His death (Romans 6:3). It's a commitment to walk a new life by faith as a believer (Romans 6:4). In Acts 2:38, repentance proceeds baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Both repentance and baptism are imperatives in the Greek. This means that they were commands. If there is no repentance and faith, one only gets wet. Jesus Christ saves sinners who cannot save themselves. Baptism alone doesn't save, but faith, repentance and the obedient commitment to die with Christ by identifying with His death and resurrection in baptism.

Because of the false "faith alone" Gospel, many have have wrongly concluded that baptism is a work. If so, there were many, many saved by works in the New Testament. Secondly, baptism is not a work because it is a passive activity in the Greek. "Be baptized" because they could not baptize themselves. Someone must lower them in the water and raise them back up. This pictures our dependence on Christ who died for our sins and rose again. Thirdly, the only place where "faith alone" is found in several English translations is where real "faith alone" is dead (James 2:24).

I'll be praying

In Christ!

 

[Marvin Knox]

Hey there,

My Mother is dying on cancer. I think she have Days or Weeks to live. I'm in fear because she's not sure about if she enter into heaven. I, know she's born again. All my childhood she tells me to trust in Jesus. She loved Jesus. But then comes a time of great suffering in our Family, spezially for her and the things of the World become more important for her. until not so long ago she had a love affair with a unbeliever, for example. My parents are divorced. Now, shes dying. I try to speak with her about this issue and i feel shes in fear. She dont wanna talk about hell. I dont know what to do. If she is realy born again, but living in sin, does she got to Hell or is she saved? I dont know, please help, iam in big fear. She still belives in Jesus as her saviour. sry for my bad English, iam from Germany

Please help me, i dont know what to do

Daniel

I happen to believe that if she really did trust the Lord for her salvation in the past and was saved - she is saved eternally.

I also don't agree that baptism is necessary for salvation.

Nevertheless - it is not necessary for you to form a solid opinion on those thing IMO.

What you need to do is start from scratch with her as it were.

Tell her that there are various opinions on these things held by good men and often fine theologians.

Tell her it is beyond you and her to sort it all out right now and that God is well aware of that.

But if she is dying and there is some doubt about these things in her mind she needs to simply go from scratch with God as it were.

Confession of sins and repentance from sins are things that apply to all men when approaching God. It doesn't matter what their theology is on eternal security, baptism or any other thing.

Encourage her to confess sin and repent of sin now - because it is the right thing to do at any time for any Christian and particularly because of her urgent situation.

Secondly - she needs to receive and confess Jesus Christ as her only hope for salvation - denouncing any human merit in salvation whatsoever. God doesn't hold it against someone because it is the second time around on doing these things. He knows there can be doubt about prior acceptance of Jesus. He'll take her faith from where it happens to be now as if there were no past confession.

Thirdly - she needs to be baptized simply because God told her to be baptized. Show her where it tell her that the Lord told her to be baptized without passing judgment as to whethere it is necessary for salvation or not. If her repentance is real she will do that.

If she does those things now and really means them from the heart (regardless of past religious experience) she will be saved and we will all rejoice with her on that day we meet her in Heaven.

 

[Dom Puccio]

Her relationship with Jesus is hers, and He only knows the weight and depth of that relationship. I wouldn't want to talk about eternal security with her too much and either scare her or give her an immense amount of hope, but talking about the love that Jesus has for us and the forgiveness that He continually offers us would be very supportive and helpful. I will be sure to include you, your mother, and your family in my prayer life.