Eternal Loss

It is a serious thing to be eternally lost. Death is not the end even though some would like to think that, at the end of your life the lid is shut and it is finished forever. However, this is not the case, as we read in this Biblical warning: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.'' (John 5:28-29). We must not err! In what exactly? In that the dead do not rise and that there is no God nor a judgment. It exists. Whoever ignores it and leans towards the kingdom of fables, is eternally lost. That means, he continues living, only there where God is not present – in eternal damnation. God does not send anyone to hell, a person chooses it for himself. Only when it is too late, will he recognize it. Unbelief is cowardice! How is one saved? In that one acknowledges the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). Acknowledging, in this context means experiencing and learning. Thus accepting the godly truth of the Gospel. It is a lie of the devil to say that “good” people go to heaven and “bad” people go to hell. How quickly one assumes to be part of the “good” people, and then reinforcing it still by referring to one's church tax or yearly donations to charities. This is a grave error. In the Bible we read, in Romans 3:12-18 “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Psalm 14:1-3) “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Psalm 5:9) For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue (Psalm 140:3) “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.” (Psalm 10:7) “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.” (Isaiah 59:7-8) “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.” (Psalm 36:1) “there is no fear of God before his eyes.” This is the Godly reality: All have sinned and deserve hell. Under these conditions, to choose to remain unbelievers and atheists, is unimaginably stupid and cowardly. One can be religious and still be lost, because one hasn't accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. All that saves, redeems and justifies a person before God (this means to be at peace with and be reconciled to the Creator) is founded and revealed in the Person Jesus Christ. We read in John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.''

What is sin? It is opposing God and rejecting His offer of salvation. It is the ignorance and the pride against Him Who gave His life and humbled Himself to save mankind (John 3:16). It is looking away from one's own guilt and depravity and being self-consumed and conceited. It is to miss the purpose for one's life and to partake in the evil of the world without consulting God in faith. What does God want? In Mark 1:15 we read “repent ye, and believe the gospel.” To repent means to turn around, to acknowledge and confess one's sin, to ask for God and believe in the forgiveness of sin. We will only fully understand sin, righteousness and judgment in heaven, but to die in sin is to come unto judgment! There will be no joy for the unbeliever, when the almighty God asks you, why you refused to believe in Jesus Christ Who gave His life for your salvation? What will you answer? You didn't know? You had no time? You thought it was all a fairy tale? Christians were all crazy dreamers and the Bible implausible? Or that one can go to heaven without having faith? In John 3:16 is written very clearly: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'' Do you want to be lost through cowardice? Is this life and this evil world worth being and remaining an unbeliever? A liberal attitude towards God does not exist. Whoever is not for Him, is automatically against Him with all its consequences. In John 3:17-18 we read: ''For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.'' God has no interest in people being lost eternally, but cannot force anyone to their bliss. The Son of God revealed God and through His death (because of our sin) and His resurrection from the dead (for our righteousness before God) salvation and redemption is made possible. If we would only fathom, how incredibly huge and vital this act of love by God was and is, we would not hesitate for a second to bow our knees before the eternal God and to believe in Him.

Jörg Bauer