So, he thinks he is a good person because he feels he has lived a good life? The Bible says that "many will confess their own goodness".
No one can get to heaven by being good. There are none that are good. No, not even one. And God will judge every man and give to them what is owed and since we have broken God's law, we deserve death.
The real question is not did he go to church or was he raised in Jesus, but "did he have a relationship with Jesus". And obviously he did not have a real relationship with Jesus because if you know someone personally, then it is impossible to say, "I do not believe that He is real". If you know someone, then you know that they are real.
So, my guess is that even though he went to church when he was young, he never had a real relationship with the saviour.
If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
Charles Spurgeon
No one can get to heaven by being good. There are none that are good. No, not even one. And God will judge every man and give to them what is owed and since we have broken God's law, we deserve death.
The image you have made in your head of God is a God that is not just. Your God allows murders to get away with murder and adulaters to get away with adultery. And Jesus said that if you hate someone then you are a murderer and that if you look with lust, then you commit adultery. We have all done this and God will pay us all for what we have done. This is why we need the sacrifice of Jesus. He died in our place for our sins.
In reality, you have broken the second commandment by making an image of God that does not exist. You are in big trouble.
Just going to church does not make you a Christian. Did you know Jesus personally?
Every life is infinitely valuable and so we should share the Gospel. To not share the Gospel would be to say that he is not worth it and therefore that would be being disrespectful to him.
Respect would mean to value his life enough to share the Gospel. Disrespect would be to keep the Gospel to ourselves.
We can choose to believe, or we can choose to love our sin. The bible says that we can all see the genius of God within creation and so no one is without excuse on the day of judgement. It is silly to say that a building fell together by itself and it would be silly to say that a book or a painting made itself. Likewise, it would be silly to say that creation made itself. We can all see the evidence and we know the truth.
So, deep down, every person knows that there had to be a creator. But not all will want to acknowledge Him. If they did, then that would mean that they are also accountable to that creator. And many people love their sin a lot, adultery, porn, greed, and therefore will they choose to suppress the truth of Him.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Romans 1:20-23
I talk to many elderly people on the street and many of them change their thinking from unbelief to belief.
Only a month ago I spoke to an elderly gentleman who was a professed atheist and by the end of the conversation he said that he believed that God had brought him to me so that I could speak with him. He did not make a profession of faith, but he did say that the conversation we had is going to make him think a lot.
So, time on earth, how old a person is, is not more powerful that the Gospel. The Gospel has the power to change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
My guess is that this was not preached enough. Christians and pastors will often talk about the loving aspects of God and forget that the unbeliever is under condemnation and that one day they will be judged.
"Why fear the Lord? Once you realize the wickedness of your own heart, you'll see the necessity to hold on to the fear of the Lord.
Because my heart is like a compass, as a compass points towards north, my heart goes towards sin. And it's a daily battle. And I don't know what I would do if I didn't fear God."
Ray Comfort.
I don't think that someone has to think long and hard about it. It is simple. A book, a painting and a building all need a maker and so does creation. We can see order, design and even information within creation. These are all signs of intelligence.
The big question really is, which God is it? This is where most people struggle and think long and hard. To answer this, I simply look at how the bible can foretell the future like no other book can. It is amazing.
For instance, imagine if I wrote down over 300 prophecies about future events, and every single one of them came true with perfect accuracy in one person? You would recognise something extraordinary was happening. No human can predict the future with such precision.
That’s exactly what we see in the Bible. The Old Testament contains over 300 prophecies that were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. These include details such as His birth in Bethlehem, how He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver, His nail-pierced hands and most importantly, it foretells that He would die for the sins of the world. No other book, not even the Quran, has this level of prophetic accuracy. The Bible stands alone as the divinely inspired Word of God. So, we need to take note of what it says. And so, the God of the Bible is the one we should trust.
Because it would be disrespectful to allow someone to die without showing them the way of salvation. That would show that we think that they are not worthy of knowing eternal life; that we think little of them.
If we truly believe in Heaven, Hell, judgment, and Christ’s sacrifice, how can we stay silent? Imagine a blind person walking toward a cliff. If you saw them, you would yell and warn them. To say nothing would be unloving and a blatant disregard for the life that God has made. It would show that we did not care for this person. That would be utterly disrespectful.
I talk to a lot of people about this stuff, and many say that they don't really think about it. And I believe them. They do not want to think about it because if they did, then they would realise that there is a creator and then they would be accountable to Him. But people love their sin and so it is easier to not think about it.
