I came across this question while surfing the web on the topic of OSAS and it intrigues me :
"If a Christian is in bed with a prostitute committing adultery, and during the very act of intercourse a stray bullet from the gun of a drive-by shooter strikes him in the head and kills him instantly, will he go to heaven or hell?"
I was wondering what you guys thought .
It is not for us to say, of course. There is ALWAYS the chance of God's mercy, which is, of course, infinite. I myself have committed sin, but my heart wasn't in it. I hated it, and myself even while I was doing something, and wished I wasn't doing it, and then sought to diffuse the situation by stopping it, and praying for mercy. If I hadn't gotten around to the stopping it, and praying for mercy yet, God would still know that I was sorrowful.
When we die, we are removed from constraints of time, and we then exist outside time. What may be the split microsecond of our death to an observer on earth might be like a century when we're not quite dead, and not quite alive. Had this man with the prostitute lived "towards" perfection to the best of his ability, recognizing when he did wrong, and seeking forgiveness right away with a sincerely contrite heart? Is this is pattern in life? Or is he a routinely callous scofflaw and materialist whose modus operendi is habitual sin without remorse and repentence? How does he look to God? What has he done for others? Does he love others as himself most times? Does he usually feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, clothe the naked? etc.? Or in his daily life, outside of this one fall of sin, is he also selfish, angry, resentful, and petty?
There's not nearly enough info given in the scenario of a single sin, for us humans to make a judgement.
It is believed by Christians who have an orthodox understanding of the faith, that persons who die outside of friendship with God, even if they stood up at some meeting when they were 15 and proclaimed Jesus, and accepted his baptism, that he is not destined automatically for eternal life with God.
He must also WANT it
He must commit actions which correspond with his love of God.
When he sins, (and we all do, unless we are liars), then he recognizes it immediately....doesn't try to rationalize it with legalism, and then seeks forgiveness with a truly repentant and contrite heart.
The Lord will not lose one single lamb that was given him. That is all who HEAR is voice, and allow Him to transform their lives. Who honestly desire to do God's will.
But those who have accepted the Lord in a moment of passion, then never followed up on it. Never pray, never give alms, never perform acts of mercy, who are not forgiving of those who wrong them, aren't truly sorry, even when they do ask for forgiveness because they fear hell, and not because they love God, MAY have a problem, if we listen accurately to Jesus.
It's a tough question. Fortunately, we don't have to judge anyone else. It's not our job or our place. We are called only to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our being, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to spread the gospel (good news) to others.
I would say, that overall the question is oversimplified, and misrepresented by a couple of different factions of Christians, and, of course, by virtually all non-Christians, who don't seem to get the whole thing really.
You can lose it, but only if you don't really have it anyway, and you are just one of those who will show up and say Lord Lord, only to hear our blessed Jesus say that he never knew you.
As Mary told the servants at the wedding in Cana....."DO whatever He tells you"
