False Assurance

Why is everyone so confident that they will get into Heaven?

For the past few months my youngest daughter has been studying modern history. As part of the curriculum, she has had to memorize a timeline of important events. Many of these, of course, are immense tragedies and acts of violence that resulted the death of thousands of people:

• In 1912, the Titanic hit and iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage from England to New York City. 1517 passengers and crew perished.

• On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 2335 servicemen and 68 civilians.

• On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked 4 airliners and flew them into the Pentagon, the World Trade Center Towers, and a field in Pennsylvania. The death toll was 2996.

• In August, 2005, a category five hurricane named Katrina swept ashore in the US Gulf Coast Region and submerged New Orleans. Over 1500 people died as a result.

As I helped her go over these events, I was struck by the fact that, in each case, the people who died had such major sense of false security about their situation.

The guests who partied or slept on board the Titanic as it steamed toward destruction were confident in the belief that they were sailing aboard the most impressive and safest ocean liner ever built. The American sailors who went about their business on a calm Sunday morning in the middle of the Pacific Ocean couldn’t imagine that death could reign down from those peaceful blue skies. For the men and women who went to work on September 11, 2001, it was just another day at the office. And for many who stayed behind to face Katrina, it was just another chance for a hurricane party. They believed the levees would hold, and everything would be OK.

But everything was not OK. In each case, the people were actually in grave danger. On top of that, in each case there had been warnings issued about that danger! The Titanic received several radio messages from ships ahead of them, cautioning about the ice fields. The US government has acknowledged that it had gathered intelligence warning of attacks on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, as well as warnings about a terrorist attack by Osama Bin Laden. In New Orleans, the weakness of the levees had been the subject of repeated admonitions over the years, and residents were told to evacuate ahead of the storm.

However, those warnings were ignored, either by the authorities who should have passed them on to the general public, or by the public itself. And not only were the warnings ignored, but those who proclaimed them were mocked and ridiculed, often by others in authority. In place of the warnings came messages of comfort and calm. “Everything is fine, we are in no danger,” they said, falsely.

Being Ready for the Big One 

Why do I bring this up? Because if Christianity is true, and I am convinced that it is, then all of life is ultimately about being ready. I don’t mean just being ready for whatever natural disasters or war or terrorists attacks might strike next, as important as that is. I mean being ready for most important thing: the next life.

At some point in the future, each one of us is going to die or Jesus is going to return. In either case, we are going to stand before the maker of the universe and it will be revealed how and where we will be spending eternity. There is nothing, literally nothing, more important than being ready for that moment. Everything else we do or think about pales in comparison to making sure that we spend eternity in Heaven.

Yet how many of us really spend any time on this, either in preparing ourselves for eternity or even thinking about it or talking about it with others? I hardly ever hear the subject mentioned anywhere. We just don’t seem to care about it very much. Temporal issues? We have plenty of time for those. Living our most successful life now? Making money? Fighting the culture wars? Winning elections? Getting more impact with our ministry? Yes and yes again. But making sure you don’t go to hell? Almost never.

Even when we talk about “spiritual” issues and what Jesus wants for you, it is generally in regards to something temporal: “Jesus can help you with your love life.” “Jesus can help you balance your checkbook.” “Jesus can help you with this, Jesus can help you with that…”

But do you know what Jesus’ obsession actually is, as evidenced by his ministry in the gospels? Getting people ready for eternity. “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” he asked his disciples. “Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matt 16:26) Also, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both the soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

So why don’t we focus on this? I believe it is primarily because we don’t think we have to worry about it. Deep down we are confident that, in the end, we are going to pass the test on judgment day and spend eternity in Heaven. As such, we can focus on other things here and how. Jesus is gracious and loving and will let us in, therefore we don’t have to obsess about it. How else to explain that polls over the past four decades have consistently shown that around 85% of Americans believe in Heaven and think they are going there, yet hardly any of them seem to give the subject any sustained focus at all?

False Assurance        

Are 85% of Americans going to go to Heaven if the world ended today? I don’t think so. Indeed, as I interact with people and study our current cultural moment, I think many people are just as overconfident about their future as were the passengers on the Titanic. They have false assurance of salvation. They think everything is OK but they are actually heading for a disaster.

In many ways I believe we are in a situation similar to that of the ancient Israelites during the time of the prophets. They were God’s chosen people, enjoying life in a land flowing with milk and honey. But they became idolaters and strayed from God, inviting his judgment. In his grace, God sent bold men and women to warn the Israelites about their precarious position, but the people ignored the message. Instead, they listened to the religious leaders who assured them that everything was fine. God was happy with them, those teachers claimed, and, as God’s chosen people, the Israelites would never be defeated; they would be safe from whatever trouble might be ahead. (See Jeremiah 5 - 7, for example, as well as Ezekiel 13)

That was false. And when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom in 722 BC and the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom in 586 BC, I’m sure those who had rested in their “secure” position were completely shocked by it.

Our situation is similar today. Many teachers and preachers are telling people exactly what their “itching ears want to hear.” (2 Tim 4:3) “Everything is just fine,” they say, “No matter how you live, God is happy with you! You are safe and on your way to heaven, you don’t need to worry about it.”

That couldn’t be more wrong. We are in grave danger, and if we do not get right with God we will end up in exile like the Israelites, only rather than exile from a strip of land next to the Mediterranean, we will be exiled from the presence of God for eternity.

Jesus was very clear that many believers will get to the next life fully expecting to be welcomed into Heaven, only to be denied. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, he teaches:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

We find a similar passage in Luke 13:

Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

We will discuss these passages more deeply in a later post, but for now just note that in each case we have many people who fully expected to be welcomed into Heaven, but were shut out. That is the scenario I am concerned about. If, as Jesus taught, many are currently living with a level of false assurance, then we must do everything we can to recognize that condition and fix it.

That is what this publication is about. On this site we will dig into scripture, theology, history, and current events in order to better understand our situation. For example, I have series planned on the Exodus story and the Beatitudes, as well as deep dives into cultural topics such as consumerism and the sexual revolution, among others. I hope you will join me! Please subscribe and leave your comments below.

God bless you,

Don