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TOO LATE
John, a friend to whom I’ve
been sending these Gospel messages for about 40 years, began 3 years ago to
show signs of having Alzheimer’s disease, but so slight as to be barely
noticeable.
Then 5 weeks ago he required
surgery for an intestinal problem. Complications developed requiring him to
be in intensive care for over a month. He improved slightly, but then it was
discovered that during that month of inactivity the Alzheimer’s disease had
progressed dramatically to the point where he has forgotten how to speak, eat,
walk, etc.
Special therapy was
prescribed, though the doctors weren’t optimistic, but just as he was about to
be transferred to a clinic providing that therapy, he had a relapse, and is
back in intensive care, comatose, with little prospect of recovery.
Death doesn’t always come
suddenly, but other things, e.g., a stroke, or sickness such as that suffered
by John, may suddenly render one incapable of rational thought, so that he has
passed beyond hope of salvation just as surely as if he were dead.
Because I care about your
soul I’ve been sending you these messages for many years, knowing that you
probably laugh at them and at me.
John isn’t able to laugh
today, nor is it likely he will ever laugh again, for he has never given any
indication that he has been born again, John 3:7, “You must be born
again,” so that he will weep and wail, Matthew 8:12, for ever in the torment
of the lake of fire, Revelation 20:11-15.
God warns, “My spirit shall
not always strive with man,” Genesis 6:3; “He, that being often reproved
hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy,”
Proverbs 29:1.
To be born again...
(1) Admit that you’re a
sinner without any righteousness
(2) Believe that Christ
loved you enough to die in your stead for your sins
(3) Believe that in response
to that confession and faith God will pardon all your sins, and receive you
into heaven at the end of your life.
The terrible alternative is
to first enter hell, and then the lake of fire.
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PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD
To pray for the dead is
futile; the deceased is in hell or heaven without possibility of change, each
having chosen his own eternal destination: heaven, by being born again; and
hell, by dying without having been born again. The Bible makes no mention of
Purgatory or any other intermediate state.
God has predestinated that
every born again man will be in heaven; and all others, in the lake of fire
eternally; but He has not predestinated the choice to be or not to be
born again. That is a free will choice each man makes for himself.
If you haven’t been born
again, then simply by default you have chosen hell as your eternal
destination. Nor does church membership, baptism, confirmation, moral
reformation, good living, etc., constitute that imperative new birth.
To be born again, admit that
you’re a sinner with no righteousness; believe that Christ loved you enough to
die in your stead for your sins, and that in response to that confession and
faith God pardons all your sin, and will receive you into heaven.
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BAPTISM
THE MISUNDERSTOOD
ORDINANCE
First, baptism is to be by
immersion; not sprinkling, robbing it of its spiritual meaning.
It is the symbolic
confession of having already been born again, immersion portraying the
believer’s vicarious death with Christ; emerging from the water, portraying
his spiritual resurrection with Christ, as it is written, “I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20.
Second, it is only for born
again believers. To baptize infants is an unscriptural travesty, for
Scripture knows nothing of anticipative baptism whereby a parent or anyone
else can have a baby baptized in anticipation of its becoming a born again
believer. Every biblical record of baptism is of a born again believer.
Third, it is not a means of
salvation.
To believe that faith
plus baptism is the formula for salvation is to denigrate Christ by
implying that His vicarious death alone is not sufficient for one’s
salvation. God says it is.
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THE COMING WORLD
CATASTROPHE
The terrible Tribulation
judgments that will leave the world in ruins is imminent. Every prophecy
relative to events that will culminate in the rapture of the Church, and the
beginning of the Tribulation, has already been fulfilled, the restoration of
Jewish autonomy in 1948 being the last such event, and in regard to it Christ
has warned that the generation witnessing that restoration will not have
passed from the earth until the Church is raptured, and the Tribulation
begins, Matthew 24:34. We are that generation.
The rapture is that event in
which Christ, with the speed of lightning, see 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18, will remove every believer from the earth, leaving
without hope of salvation those who had refused to believe the Gospel. The
rapture could occur as you read, and if you are left behind you are as sure of
being in the eternal torment of the lake of fire as if you were already there,
Revelation 20:11-15. You are doomed.
Save yourself while there is
time. Admit that you’re a sinner without any righteousness; believe that
Christ loved you enough to die in your stead for your sins; and that in
response to that faith God will pardon you and receive you into heaven.
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IN GOD WE TRUST? NONSENSE!
We worship MONEY, SEX, SPORTS, EDUCATION, and a host of other “gods,” and are
stupid enough to think that GOD is also stupid enough to be fooled by the
above slogan!
He isn’t!
2,500 years ago Israel made the same mistake. She also worshiped other
“gods,” and mocked GOD by maintaining the pretense of also worshiping HIM,
while her false prophets declared that His threatened judgment wouldn’t come.
But it did! She was virtually destroyed by Assyria and Babylon.
That same GOD has warned that today’s world is to be devastated by the now
imminent Tribulation judgments, and every prophecy relative to that
destruction has been fulfilled, except for the rapture of the Church, and that
could occur today.
If it does, and you haven’t been born again by admitting that you’re a sinner,
and by believing that Christ died in your stead for your sins, that split
second removal of believers from the earth will leave you doomed to exist in
the eternal torment of the lake of fire, Revelation 20:11-15.
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WALKING BLINDFOLD
INTO AN ELECTRIFIED FENCE
Would anything induce you to walk blindfold over a bridge across which was
stretched an electrified fence that would kill you the instant you touched it?
Nothing would? Well then, may I ask why you’re already doing something far
more dangerous? You’re walking over the bridge between time and eternity, not
knowing which step will be your last. What if this should be the hour you
become one of the countless multitudes who take that fateful step that carries
them instantly into heaven - or hell?
If you can’t remember how, when, and where you were born again, that step will
take you into the eternal torment of hell with no hope of escape. And don’t
make the deadly mistake of equating clean living, church membership, baptism,
confirmation, etc., with that new birth. They aren’t, in spite of assurance
to the contrary given by the hordes of false preachers who occupy pulpits, but
who are themselves on the way to hell.
To be born again, admit that you’re a sinner already condemned; believe that
Christ loved you enough to die in your stead for your sins; and that in
response to that admission and faith God will pardon you, and receive you into
heaven.
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TODAY’S IDOLATRY
The destruction of idolatrous Israel and Judah by Assyria and Babylon had been
long foretold by the prophets who were contradicted by the false prophets who
declared that there would be no judgment.
But the judgment came, and those who had ignored the warning perished,
learning too late the folly of having heeded the lying prophets while mocking
those who had told the truth.
Their folly and destruction are but a figure of the eternal destruction that
will overtake the men of this generation who also ignore God, and worship
instead today’s worthless idols: money, education, sports, pleasure, to name
but a few.
The utter worthlessness of these things, and the madness of having occupied
oneself with them while despising the precious blood of Christ, which alone
can cleanse sin and fit men for heaven, will be fully revealed only when the
doomed soul drops into hell to await consignment to the eternal torment of the
lake of fire.
Trust Christ as your Savior today. Tomorrow may be eternally too late.
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BILLY GRAHAM
GOING TO HELL!
According to the teaching of Roman Catholicism all who are not members of that
system are going to hell, and that includes Billy Graham.
Yet according to Scripture he is going to heaven, for he has faithfully and
fearlessly confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, manifesting the
reality of his conversion by faithfully preaching the Gospel, and being used
of God to point countless thousands to his Savior.
Only a fool will believe Rome’s false teaching that the only people going to
heaven are those within its pale, and all others to hell.
If membership in the Roman “church,” and adherence to its unscriptural
doctrine is your only hope of heaven you are deluded. You’re going to hell.
The only way to heaven is
1)to accept God’s indictment that you are a sinner without a shred of
righteousness;
2) believe that Christ loved you enough to die in your stead for your sins,
and
3) believe that in response to that confession and faith God pardons all your
sin, and will receive you into heaven. Any other way is the way to hell.
GETTING RID OF GOD
Rejection of God is achieved in such subtle ways as attributing all natural
phenomena to Mother Nature; banning the Bible from the classroom, while
promoting other religions, and mandating the study of their books.
How has this come about? By the machinations of our educators, education
(and money) being the gods universally worshiped today, while God is mocked,
and those who believe in Him regarded as idiots.
He is denied as Creator, while evolution - the most puerile THEORY every
propounded, and rejected by most competent scientists - is taught in our
schools as FACT, but biblical creation may not be discussed, nor the biblical
account read.
(Incidentally, God did not create the world in six days - He remade it,
some Christians aiding the evolutionist by rejecting the fact of a creation
that preceded the six days of Genesis 1).
Fulfilled prophecy is only one proof of the Divine authorship of the Bible
(there are many others). Everything points to the imminence of the foretold
Tribulation judgments with which God will punish this rebellion, hence the
need to “Prepare to meet your God,” Amos 4:12, by trusting Christ as your
Savior today.
Tomorrow may be too late.
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ADULT
ENTERTAINMENT
Adult entertainment is the euphemism for gross immorality, prurience,
immodesty, nudity, crudity, vulgarity, brutality, obscenity, coarseness,
indecency, aberrancy... It is America’s defiant affront to God - and it draws
the biggest audiences!
Who watches this filth? Many are the same people who sit piously in church
for an hour on Sunday, convinced that that ritual appeases God and absolves
them from guilt; the same people who proclaim hypocritically, In God we
trust!
That God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity,”
Habakkuk 1:13.
Only fools would trust in a God they dared to affront so brazenly. The book
of Jeremiah records His terrible destruction of Judah for similar hypocrisy,
evil, and professed trust, their judgment being but a preview of that which is
about to engulf today’s equally wicked world in the impending Great
Tribulation.
As it was too late for Judah to escape God’s wrath, so is it too late for
today’s world to escape, because there will be no national repentance, but the
few individuals who confess their guilt, repent, and trust in Christ as Savior
may yet save themselves while God is still willing to pardon.
Trust Christ as your Savior today. Tomorrow may be eternally too late.
******