I could see they were heading up our street and I knew it was only a matter of time before a knock came on our door. They were dressed smartly and carried themselves with all the confidence of a high-powered executive. Complete with brief case in hand, these two ladies made their way from house to house. The ‘sale’s pitch’ was always the same; a politely worded offer of the latest issue of their magazine; a tactic designed to pique the interest of the listener.
I remained silent as they went through their opening remarks. The youngest one reached into your brief case to reveal the latest issue of ‘The Watchtower’, the magazine of the Jehovah’s Witness. Part of me wanted to dismiss this intrusion but the subject matter caught my attention, so I decided to engage these two defenders of their faith. The issue at hand…the afterlife.
Feeling adequate to defend my case, I allowed these two ladies to share with me their version of the truth. I listened carefully, strategically planning my cross examination. I asked a few well-placed questions along the way and after agreeing the subject matter was indeed worthy of our examination, I asked them one simple question: ‘What’s going to happen to you the first five minutes after you die’? ‘What does the afterlife hold for you’?
The younger one looked baffled; the older one, stumbling for words began down the same path we had just been. I interrupted and said, ‘I understand the teaching you are presenting but I want to know, what’s going to happen to you; can you tell me with certainty what the afterlife holds for you?
After several attempts to reiterate the party line and my calling her back to the question at hand, I said to her, ‘let me get this straight, you’re asking me to consider embracing a faith that teaches about the afterlife but offers its followers no real certainty about their final destination nor does it offer any certainty regarding their standing / their relationship with God.
I spend the next few minutes sharing with my friends from the Jehovah’s Witness that maybe, just maybe, Christianity offers a better kind of confidence. The Apostle John writes: I write these things (the truth about Jesus Christ)…so that you may know that you have eternal life. (I John 5:13)
John writes to clarify matters about our standing before God, about our eternal security and to provide for us a confident faith; to take any confusion out of the equation. The promise of God is simple, yet wonderfully profound: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) John writes: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10) The cross of Jesus Christ is the only way man can be reconciled to God; it is because of the cross we can receive the gift of eternal life.
My friends at Valley, have you embraced the cross of Christ? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) Christianity really does offer a better way; a better kind of confidence…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
I remained silent as they went through their opening remarks. The youngest one reached into your brief case to reveal the latest issue of ‘The Watchtower’, the magazine of the Jehovah’s Witness. Part of me wanted to dismiss this intrusion but the subject matter caught my attention, so I decided to engage these two defenders of their faith. The issue at hand…the afterlife.
Feeling adequate to defend my case, I allowed these two ladies to share with me their version of the truth. I listened carefully, strategically planning my cross examination. I asked a few well-placed questions along the way and after agreeing the subject matter was indeed worthy of our examination, I asked them one simple question: ‘What’s going to happen to you the first five minutes after you die’? ‘What does the afterlife hold for you’?
The younger one looked baffled; the older one, stumbling for words began down the same path we had just been. I interrupted and said, ‘I understand the teaching you are presenting but I want to know, what’s going to happen to you; can you tell me with certainty what the afterlife holds for you?
After several attempts to reiterate the party line and my calling her back to the question at hand, I said to her, ‘let me get this straight, you’re asking me to consider embracing a faith that teaches about the afterlife but offers its followers no real certainty about their final destination nor does it offer any certainty regarding their standing / their relationship with God.
I spend the next few minutes sharing with my friends from the Jehovah’s Witness that maybe, just maybe, Christianity offers a better kind of confidence. The Apostle John writes: I write these things (the truth about Jesus Christ)…so that you may know that you have eternal life. (I John 5:13)
John writes to clarify matters about our standing before God, about our eternal security and to provide for us a confident faith; to take any confusion out of the equation. The promise of God is simple, yet wonderfully profound: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) John writes: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10) The cross of Jesus Christ is the only way man can be reconciled to God; it is because of the cross we can receive the gift of eternal life.
My friends at Valley, have you embraced the cross of Christ? Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) Christianity really does offer a better way; a better kind of confidence…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
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