A Letter To My Unbelieving Friends

All Alone

A Letter To My Unbelieving Friends

Dear Unbelieving Friends,

I love all of you, and really like most of you a lot [it's not the same thing]. I suppose that this may be a little bit long, but I would ask you to hang in there and read it to to the end. Let me just say that it is important. Read it in 2 or 3 sittings, if you need to. Just read it, we're friends.

I will without apology say, there are many of you whose company I enjoy a great deal more (to put it mildly) than many of my Christian acquaintances. Many of you I even trust to a far greater extent as well.

I am also well aware that I am not always the best friend to all of you that I should be. I know that I have mastered the art of being a disappointment in a diverse array of variations to many people. I will likely continue managing to find even more of these as I continue my journey on this side of eternity.

It is no secret that I don’t always come across as being very pious or righteous, to say the least, and there is really a good reason for this: I'M NOT.

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:14), He also states in the Gospel of John "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). These statements are straight from Jesus, who is God; who is the truth. They are the truth. These are not my words, but God’s words. I understand that you have different ideas about this, but as with most ideas where truth is involved, there are absolutes, and there can therefore be only one truth. It deeply saddens me that you don’t have and/or accept that one truth.

Please don’t think for a moment that I look down on you or think less of you because of where you currently stand on this issue; I think it’s needless to say that if I did, I wouldn’t be taking the time to write this letter. I am no better than you, obviously. Most likely, you are someone whom I hold in great esteem and admire much about; likely wishing that I were more like you, at least in one respect, probably more. However, He who dwells within me is better than me, or anything else for that matter. He who dwells within me also wants to dwell within you. However, He will not enter without your permission. You have free will; you were intentionally created with free will; this is a part of how you are created in God’s image.

Where I fail most of you as a true friend is that I am probably not as bold/assertive and persistent with you about this eternally important issue as I should be, and I apologize for that. Part of this is because I am uncomfortable with upsetting you, and therefore I don't want to put myself in an awkward situation and perhaps even potentially risk losing your friendship. However, this is rather selfish and cowardly of me. The blunt and brutal truth is that if you go to your grave rejecting the Gospel, not trusting Christ as Savior, committing the unpardonable sin, I will not only lose your friendship, but I will lose you forever. There are no words to express how much I loathe the thought of that happening. It is sad, however, that I find it so much easier to be bold about the truth of the Gospel with strangers than I do with you.

With them, especially during a designated teaching, preaching, or counseling setting, it feels like I have nothing to lose. It is ironic; with you, however, I have so much to lose if you don't believe the Gospel (one should think that would be a major motivator), yet considering eternity, losing perhaps temporary favor with you wouldn't be much in the true scope of eternity, especially if I were, by the grace of God, able to convince you to trust Christ as Savior. I find it hard to witness to you about the Gospel because of what I perceive as your preconceived notions. It therefore [perhaps wrongly] seems rather clear to me that you will not listen to me, as the strangers will, to a full presentation of the Gospel, without interruption and objection, out of irritation and/or profound lack of interest. It seems that most of you won't even read the material that I publish on this site, or even read anything I may post on social media about this topic. Heaven forbid you might come to something at a church that I might invite you to. You don't want to hear about Hell; frankly, neither do I, however, it is real, whether we like it or not. From what I perceive from you, you will think that I am attacking you or talking down to you if I even mention, much less assert the harsh truths of the consequences of going to your grave without believing the Gospel. Perhaps you think that my ministries are more or less quaint and positive, and maybe helpful for weaker people like myself and "those people," such as inmates, other church-goers, etc., who may need "religion" in order to pacify/protect them from the harsh realities of life and death, but meaningless to more sensible and stoic people like you who have come to terms with the harsh "realities" of life and death. With all due respect, love, and sincerity, ALL of us are "those people," and everyone needs the message I preach about the Gospel; all of us, including you. The harshest reality of life and death is that those who go to their graves without trusting Christ as Savior; believing the Gospel, will be eternally lost; damned. I'm sorry, that's how it is; I don't make the rules.

I have made it clear that I do not want to push you away. I will have to rely on the Holy Spirit on how I interact with you about this and everything else; I'm sure that He'll give instructions. I'm also pretty sure I'll screw up at least some of them. Nonetheless, I can always rely on His complete perfection to be greater than my profound imperfection.

I pray for you often. I want very much for your stance on this eternally important issue to change. We all have a stubborn streak (me included, just in case you haven’t noticed 😊). Scripture is very clear that all who choose not to believe the Gospel are without excuse for this (Romans 1:20). As much as I may want to, I will not be able to advocate for you on Judgment Day; however, you can have an advocate right now who has never lost a case, nor will He ever lose one (1 John 2:1); He can’t, He’s perfect; what is perfect cannot fail (Psalm 18:30). In fact, if you let Him, this advocate will even see to it that there won't be any charges for you to face on Judgment Day.

Narrow Bridge

I cannot be everything to everyone, and I know that I have not, and as I have already mentioned, nor have I done as much as I could have or should have for many of you. However, Jesus does not have these chronic shortcomings in common with me. Once again, He is perfect; true perfection cannot fail anything or anyone. If you are His, He will never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5). He can’t; He made a promise; those who are truly perfect do not break promises; breaking promises is lying; lying is a sin/shortcoming; God is perfect and therefore not even capable of any sort of sin/shortcoming.

Please don’t use the lame excuse of judging Christ and Christianity as the equivalent of religious tyranny, or of judging the perfect Christ by very imperfect Christians; perhaps you are doing this without even consciously realizing it. We, just like you, are certainly not perfect by any stretch of the imagination; that is why we [I] so desperately need a Savior, and so do you, despite the imperfection of any Christian, so-called Christian, or human organization.

I know that some of you may ask why God allows suffering and for bad things to happen. I will share a few thoughts on the matter. Job asked the same questions thousands of years ago while he was undergoing a terrible ordeal. God answered Job’s questions with more questions that Job could not answer (neither can you or I). He then proceeded to bless Job with even more than he had before he began the ordeal that God allowed him to suffer (Job 38-42). Jesus Himself suffered the greatest injustice to ever occur. He was the only truly innocent man to ever live, and not only was He put to death, but He suffered terrible humiliation and unspeakable torture in the process. God used this incomprehensible evil to bring about incomprehensible and eternal good for you and me. Much of what God does is beyond our comprehension. He is outside of time, and He truly and fully sees the whole picture. You and I can’t even be certain of what is going to happen within the next 10 seconds. God is infinite; we most certainly are not. I also know that God loves me and everyone else far more than I could ever love anyone. God is perfect, I am not; I am not capable of comprehending true perfection, He is the essence of it. God is in the business of making universes and creating the intricacies of ecosystems, organisms, and quantum mechanics, etc.; even the brightest of the brightest people are yet to even collectively begin to comprehend these workings. The infinite God does not fit in our finite [yet fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)] brains (Isaiah 55:8-9). If somehow an understanding of His fullness was able to fit in the space between my hairy ears, He would certainly not be infinite, all-powerful, or eternal, and would certainly not be much worth worshiping; He wouldn't be God. You and I trying to fully comprehend God's methodology would be akin to something like an earthworm trying to comprehend differential calculus. Differential calculus is a reasonable and orderly endeavor that truly exists, despite the worm’s inability to even comprehend its existence, let alone learn how to apply it. I would suggest that the difference between our mental abilities and God’s thought processes would greatly exceed the difference between ours and the worm’s.

You ask such questions as above because you have a keen sense of right and wrong; of absolute and all-encompassing law. This is not something that would even be a consideration if it were possible that there were no God and it were somehow possible that our universe originated via nothing but naturalism and if life and its development within it were truly and fully governed by the principle of survival of the fittest. You know that bad things are bad, and that injustices are injustices, etc. Why? Because this absolute and orderly law has been established by a higher [the highest] authority, the one who created you, and He burned it into your very essence (Romans 2:15). Without this higher authority, our own supposed truths would be utterly meaningless and thus naturally void of any essential and foundational absolutes and therefore would be subject to endless and pointless circular or dead-end debate, at the very best. There are absolutes; you are well aware that there are, and so is everyone else, whether they want to admit it to themselves or not. These absolute principles were designed and established by a being with a much, much higher order of thinking and purity than any mortal man. They work; they are logical; they contain information as even our human [often flawed] interpretations and applications of them do. Order/information, especially such powerful and far-reaching information, has a source, as does all information; this is common sense (common sense is also based on information, thus requiring a source). Again, we were created with the knowledge of these absolutes (Romans 2:15). What each individual does with them is his or her own choice; not God’s fault. Hence, if you embrace atheism or agnosticism because of principles that I have discussed in this paragraph, your argument for it begs the question.

Another thing: When you wrong someone, is it God’s fault? No, it is your fault; again, you have free will, and you make choices. The same goes for all others who wrong you or other people. All of us imperfect people have free will, and being imperfect, we will all make at least some bad choices. Bad choices naturally come with consequences; some much worse than others. Nonetheless, God is going to use these bad choices and the results of them for the greater good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). I so much want for you to become one of the people who love Him and who are called according to His purpose, and you can be right now! God promises us that bad things are going to happen on this side of eternity. We can choose to either deal with these bad things with God and make sense of them and become better as a result, or choose to deal with them without God and become bitter as a result. This is also a matter of each person’s free will.

You are created in God's image. You want people to choose to love you, not just do so because they were programmed to do so. Like you; God's image bearer, He also wants to be chosen; thus, we had free will right from the start (Genesis 3).

Choose the Right Path

You may have come to some sort of resolution with your idea of the meaning of this life (or supposed lack thereof) and the afterlife, such as: “we’ll see when we get there,” or “when we die, it’s over,” or whatever. You will indeed find out. However, if you reject the Gospel here on this side of eternity, you will not like the news; it will be the worst news you have ever received. Back in the 1600s, Blaise Pascal, the mathematician, physicist, chemist, theologian, and philosopher, proposed what has become known as “Pascal’s Wager.” In a nutshell, he proposed and implied that believing the Gospel, taking God at His Word, was a good bet because in doing so, you would live a more fulfilled life here, and even when you got to your death and it wasn’t true, you would have lost nothing. However, if you chose not to believe the Gospel, you would live your life in the despair of believing that this was all that there is, and that you would never see loved ones again, etc., and that if you were right, you gained nothing. However, if you were wrong, you lost everything in the worst way possible. Again, we have every reason to believe the God of the Bible exists and to believe what He says. The idea that all “real scientists” are or were atheists is a lie straight from the pit of Hell*…as you can see from above, and elsewhere.

Some of you may hold to the idea that if your loved ones aren’t in Heaven, then it wouldn’t be Heaven at all without them, and you wouldn’t want to go there, even if it did exist. Two things about that. First of all, none of us, while on this side of eternity, know for certain who is in Heaven or Hell. I firmly believe that there are going to be a lot of “last-minute saves.” I also believe that a lot of “religious” people won’t be there. I doubt that any of you can be 100% sure that any of your loved ones are not in Heaven. Secondly, if they are in Heaven, they want you to come there. If they are in Hell, they DO NOT want you to come there (Luke 16:27-28).

None of us knows whether we are going to live another 5 minutes, or even another 10 seconds, for that matter. Eternity is a long time. Any of us may be only a heartbeat away from it at any time. Please give this eternally and infinitely important issue some more serious and earnest thought. Again, eternity is a long time. Mine is going to be wonderful beyond anything I can imagine with what is between my ears currently. I really want to share it with you.

Well, there it is. I cannot force you to do anything. God does indeed want to give you everlasting life (He won't force it on you though), and I really want you to accept His gift. I shall continue to love you and to pray for you.

God bless.

Jerry

P.S. If I disappear along with a lot of other people, this is why. You will not find us. We are all doing just fine. :-) You can join us later, but if you are reading this and that has already happened, you will be in for a much rougher road.

P.S.S. Nothing you have done or will do, or have failed to do, no matter how much or how bad, is too bad for God to forgive. In the same token, nothing good that you have done, or ever will do, or bad that you keep yourself from doing, no matter how much of it or how good it may be, makes you even a little bit fit or eligible for the kingdom of God. Having not committed "mortal sins" doesn't help you either. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Ephesians 2:8-9.

*If one accepts the idea of atheism or agnosticism, one must ultimately believe or accept the possibility that nothing—truly nothing (not space; space is most definitely something)—for no purpose, with no reason, with no information, with no cause, somehow became everything in our orderly universe, including our orderly biosphere, which includes our orderly bodies and minds. None of us even have enough faith to entertain that the devices we may be reading this on came about by random processes, void of a designer, void of information, void of purpose, void of intent, etc. Believing what atheists and agnostics must ultimately accept requires much more faith than believing that your device came about by randomness. I just don't have enough faith for the religion of atheism, or any other religion, for that matter. Also, atheism and most other religious systems ultimately require an infinite string of contingencies. The God of the Bible is the ultimate necessary non-contingent.

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