Grains of Sand

In his book Unchristian , researcher David Kinnaman writes: “ …even among people who believe they are personally being saved by faith in Jesus, they think of salvation’s a multiple-choice test, with many reasonable possibilities: while they believe their own spiritual destiny is secure through faith in Christ, they also believe that other could be saved through being a good person or because of God’s benevolence .” (page 50). Kinnaman was referring to what the majority of the Buster (born between 1965 and 1983) and Mosaic (born between 1984 and 2002) generations believe. The truth of his statement is constantly reinforced in conversations I have had with people who have lost friends or relatives who, to anyone’s knowledge, were not believers. They speak of their loved ones in heaven, in a better place, with the angels (or one of the angels), and other similar expressions. Even evangelical ministers have, in recent years, declared that hell doesn’t exist and that everyone will be save...

The Avila, Caracas, Venezuela They said it was like hell. Of course, they've never been to hell, but I imagine it was a reasonable facsimile. Yesterday I woke up to the smell of bush burning. I couldn't see anything but as the day wore on I became aware that forest fires were burning all around the town. Some 25,000 hectares (almost 62 thousand acres) out around Gogama resulted in mass evacuations of the town and the cottages in that area. Highways were closed and on the last day of a holiday weekend, life probably got complicated for those trying to get home. The cause of the fires hasn't been reported yet. There has been a fire ban on, though that doesn't mean someone wasn't careless. But we have had thunder storms so it could have easily been lightning. Regardless of the cause, yesterday rain was welcome. I remember seeing the mountains around Caracas lit up from fires. Dry weather, lightning, carelessness and arson all came into play there, much as the...

“ In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. ’” —John 3:3, NIV. Who’s the liar? Voices today (though this is not a new phenomena) tell us that everyone is going to heaven, that hell is what we make it here on earth. Neither of these statements is true. The book of John alone is full of verses that hammer away at the misguided thought that in the end love will prevail (i.e. John 1:12, 3:16, 17, 5:24). Love does prevail—for those who confess their sins and throw themselves on God’s mercy for forgiveness and restoration. Do those who so cavalierly dismiss the statements of Scripture and the clear teaching of Jesus even wonder what else might be a lie? If they can so quickly say that Jesus didn’t mean what He said about salvation, what else didn’t the Lord mean? Perhaps He also didn’t really mean to say that there is a literal heaven, since there doesn’t seem to be a literal hell. Perhaps He didn’t mean that He was l...