Can Your Christianity Help a Dying Man?

[miknik5]

If anyone tried that with someone I love they would soon be shown the door.

The first priority when someone is dying is to look after that person, not to salve our own conscience by vomiting our own personal gospel all over them.

That isn't vomit
And it isn't a personal GOSPEL

It is to whosoever

 

[miknik5]

How about deathcross salvation?

It is never too late to pray for that man

This post was meant for seabass

 

[miknik5]

Yes....CHRIST can help even a dying man

For ANYONE who believes in HIM will never be put to shame

 

[miknik5]

The gospel does not teach 'death bed salvation'. Was this man already a Christian or not? If not, depending on this man's mental/physical condition, it may be too late for him.

The command to "go" was not limited or selective. Anyone who decides to whom they should or shouldn't preach THE GOSPEL is already standing over GOD's MERCY and hindering the "whosoever"

 

[miknik5]

Here's the shocker, how can you prove that you believe in Jesus at the death bed??

John 14:12
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

You simply can't at the deathbed. It's far too late.

Luke 16:31
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

What "work" did the last "worker in HIS field, called in at the very last hour, do?
And who, by the way, was the one who called him in?

 

[Victory-N-Christ]

What is the essence of your theology? What can it be reduced to? What is the most important thing about what you believe that you would want to convey to anyone, especially someone with little time left on this earth?

What would you share about Christianity with a person who had only has a few hours left to live?

This depends on if that dying person wants to hear my theology. Some people are atheist and then there are Muslims and Hindus..I might be trying to talk about Jesus to a dying Wiccan or something. It's best to just comfort some one at a time like this unless you already know they're Christian and would be receptive to Christian theology,last rites whatever.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

99 years old. WOW, PTL

Many of the posts in this thread remind me of this Parable, yours (which shows us that its never too late) and others who complain that it is. The Lord will be glorified by those who come to Him at the 11th hour of their lives, and they will enjoy the same eternal blessings as those who came in the 3rd hour (because such is the grace of God, yes ).

Laborers in the Vineyard​

Matthew 20
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;
4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.
5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’
9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.
10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.
11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,
12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14 ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.
15 ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last.”​

--David

It's wonderful and tragic simultaneously.

 

[Edo2]

I've been in this situation as I've cared for a few dying folks considering my unit has a few hospice scatter beds (I'm a nurse). I cannot convince anyone of anything. By the time one is dying they are generally set in their ways. Actually- quite a few folks are not interactive when they are in the process of dying. It is up to their own convictions and God calling them to Himself at that point. I care for them. I silently pray for them. If they express a want or need for anything spiritual- I help them by calling the Chaplain (but this is something that generally occurs well before they are in their last moments). I've heard of a deathbed baptism at the hospital recently- but it was the patient's family that wanted it. I'm not certain the dying individual was concerned about this at all or even aware of what was going on.

I work in a hospital and what you described is what usually happens in the last few hours. The last few hours are usually about compassion and comfort not only for the dying but for the family as well.

From my experiences in the last few hours the person dying either isn't in a coherent state or they aren't even awake and its just a waiting game. Those instances happen more often than not.

Continue to be vessel for god to use.

 

[miknik5]

The gospel does not teach 'death bed salvation'. Was this man already a Christian or not? If not, depending on this man's mental/physical condition, it may be too late for him.

It is never to late to pray. Ever

 

[miknik5]

The whole point of "repentance" is you change, turn away from wicked ways.

It's very easy for people to obey and be a saint when death is staring them at the face. Are those the kind of people that God wants to save?

Remember Jesus on the Cross, He did not even bother/waste time to try saving the other thief.....

The whole world is mourning in Matthew 24 because they know what's coming! Judgement! And it's far too late for them!

It's never too late

 

[miknik5]

Sounds like heaping up a huge burden on somebody who has only minutes to live.

A burden? It's a burden to believe the TRUTH of THE GOSPEL?

Maybe that is why, GOD in HIS WISDOM was pleased that by the foolishness (so it seems to those whom the world deems wise and the learned ) of what is preached to save those who believe

 

[miknik5]

"God is love"

How did you know GOD is LOVE but that while we were yet sinners, CHRIST died for those sinners so as to bring us to GOD

 

[miknik5]

[

I'm not saying it's totally impossible. I'm only saying I wouldn't bet on it.

Remember on the cross there are two thieves with Jesus on the cross. One got saved. Jesus didn't even bother to try to save the other one.

The other criminal wasn't awake

 

[hedrick]

No one has mentioned what I would think would be obvious: Jesus went through this too. Because he did, we don't die alone, but God is with us.

 

[timewerx]

Tell that to the thief on the cross with Jesus. I think you can repent at any time.

There's two of them. One of them got saved. One of them did not.

The irony is that the bad thief is wanting to be saved physically (and presumably, in the afterlife too). The good thief have accepted his fate and did not asked to be saved.

 

[FireDragon76]

A burden? It's a burden to believe the TRUTH of THE GOSPEL?

Luther thought so. He saw the command to even believe as a condemnation.

 

[St_Worm2]

He saw the command to even believe as a condemnation.

How so? Reference? (of all the people who need to be read in context, Luther has got to one who is close to the top of the list )

 

[miknik5]

Luther thought so. He saw the command to even believe as a condemnation.

What?

 

[miknik5]

There's two of them. One of them got saved. One of them did not.

The irony is that the bad thief is wanting to be saved physically (and presumably, in the afterlife too). The good thief have accepted his fate and did not asked to be saved.

The "bad" thief received freely what he didn't even have to steal

The "good" thief was asleep and didn't even know it

 

[FireDragon76]

How so? Reference? (of all the people who need to be read in context, Luther has got to one who is close to the top of the list )

I believe that I cannot come to my Lord Jesus Christ by my own intelligence or power. But the Holy Spirit calls me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith. - Luther's Small Catechism

Yes, even the command to believe is potentially a burden, in light of that.

That's why we do not do "decisional theology" or "accepting Jesus into you heart" Arminian-style evangelism.